Starting around 1965, the favored explanations began to change radically. A person’s environment was considered less and less important in causing his behavior.Just as with Freudianism, behaviorism’s main idea was counterintuitive (that is, it ran against common sense). The behaviorists insisted that all of a person’s behavior was determined only by his lifelong history of rewards and punishments. Actions that had been rewarded (a smile, for example, that had brought a caress) were likely to be repeated, and actions that had been punished were likely to be suppressed. And that was it.
Free will or not, B.F. Skinner showed us that negative reinforcement produced the strongest learning response, behavior will be adjusted accordingly.