Skinner’s radical behaviorism lead him to believe that we do not have any freedom of choice, that our behavior is controlled by the process of reinforcement, and that our ability to act is determined by genetic factors.
In the 1930s Konrad Lorenz noted that newborn animals were attracted to the first moving object they encountered. Lorenz named this phenomenon imprinting, and he found that the newly hatched chick would cling to his hand if placed on the ground. Lorenz also discovered that baby birds would follow a similar pattern of behavior if raised by a human caregiver rather than a hen. Lorenz reasoned that these behaviors or ‘fixed-action patterns’ must be inherited genetically because no previous experience can alter them. Although he did not understand why certain instincts seemed to develop so early in life, Lorenz eventually made important discoveries about how learning works and how these behaviors have evolved through natural selection.
