Skinner argues that the decisions we make, and the values upon which we base those decisions, are products of our long-term interaction with our environment. This interaction includes physical experiences of pleasure and pain. Ice cream tastes good. Whoever has a taste of ice cream will tend to seek to taste it again. This interaction also includes the effect of other people on us.
Parents give ice cream for what the parents call good behavior.
In general, the best way to understand the behavior of any adult is as the product of a life-time of conditioning, not as the result of free and responsible individual decisions. So says Skinner. Sartre, on the other hand, places full responsibility for every person's life and behavior in the free choices of each individual. . . . . Neither of the two positions seems adequate. An obvious reason is that each is extreme.