What is missing from this account of behaviorism is the context of childhood development. Skinner claimed he could produce any sort of individual through controlling the environment of the child, thus the term "Skinner Box." As a matter of reference in the linguistic sense, the biggest problem is that the claim eliminates any method to check if the claim is true or not.

The natural antagonist to Skinner is Vygotsky. Vygotsky takes an environmental approach in noting that psychology has to go beyond the sphere of what any individual reports about their experience. But that experience is what an individual must be. In developing his idea of "zones of proximal development", Vygotsky says:

"Our analysis alters the traditional view that at the moment a child assimilates the meaning of a word, or masters an operation such as addition or written language, her developmental processes are basically completed. In fact, they have only just begun at that moment" — Vygotsky, Interaction between Learning and Development