B. F. Skinner

B.F. Skinner

B.F. Skinner was one of the most influential theorists in modern psychology. His work was very important and has been studied by many for years. Skinner was a very straightforward man and a very educated man. His theories have helped mankind in many ways. He has studied the behavior patterns of many living organisms. Skinner was a well-published writer. His work has been published in many journals. He also has written many books on behaviorism. His most important work was the study of behaviorism. First began by John B. Watson, behaviorism is one of the most widely studied theories today. B.F. Skinner and His Influence in Psychology B.F. Skinner was one of the most famous of the American psychologists. He was born in Pennsylvania in 1904. Skinner was the father of modern behaviorism. Skinner did not get into psychology until he was in graduate school at Harvard. He was driven to Psychology after reading about the experiments of Watson and Pavlov. He received his doctoral degree in three years and taught at the University of Minnesota and the University of Indiana and finally returned to his alma mater at Harvard. Skinner contributed to psychological behaviorism by performing experiments that linked behaviors with terms commonly used to describe mental states. Skinner was responsible for some famous experiments such as the “Skinner box”. Skinner also wrote some very famous books. One of them was “The Behavior of Organisms”. This book describes the basic points of his system. Another was Walden Two. This book describes a utopian society that functions on positive reinforcement. Skinner was a very productive person until his death in 1990 at the age of 86. Behaviorism is a school of thought in psychology that is interested in observable behavior. Skinner said, “Behaviorism is not the science of human behavior; it is the philosophy of that science.“ There are various types of behavior, such as innate behavior. Innate behaviors are certain behaviors that we are born with, such as eating when we are hungry and sleeping when we are tired. Early Life Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1904 to William Arthur and Grace Madge Skinner. Skinner also had a younger brother named Edmond James Skinner, born November 6, 1906. At the young age of sixteen, Edmond died of a cerebral aneurysm. . Skinner was very involved in inventing new things. He also attempted to invent a perpetual motion machine, but it failed. He also read about animals. He collected toads, lizards, and snakes. He trained pigeons to do tricks after he saw them performing one year at a fair. Training the pigeons probably was where he got his ideas of operant conditioning. He attended Susquehanna High School just like his mother and father. In his graduating class there were only eight people including him. He was a very intellectual person. He reported that he really enjoyed school. Over the four years in high school Skinner became good at math and reading Latin, but was no good at science. He was always performing physical and chemical experiments while he was at home. His father was a book collector. Skinner always had a good library of books around his house. Skinner recalled the little collection of applied psychology journals that his father had bought. Those books could have been the starting point in his psychology career. Skinner grew up in a very religious family.

After high school Skinner went to Hamilton College where he majored in English Literature and minored in Romance Languages. Skinner’s freshman year did not turn out to be what he expected. He felt that the college was pushing him around with unnecessary requirements, such as daily chapel and physical education. Skinner’s college life became better as the years went on. He was very comfortable with college life by his senior year. He and a friend once printed up a poster that said that Charles Chaplin was coming to speak about being in the silent movies. They printed up some copies and distributed them throughout the campus. The effect of their actions was more than they expected. A large amount of people showed up to see the famous star that was not coming. The kicker was that Skinner said that the presentation was under the direct supervision of Skinner’s English composition teacher and all of the blame was on him when Mr. Chaplin did not show up. Skinner graduated soon after that, and it was the start of a new life. Psychological Beginning After graduating Skinner started writing. Skinner started classes at Harvard University studying for his Masters Degree in Psychology. Skinner always had been interested in animal behavior after seeing the performing pigeons when he was younger. He also was interested in human behavior as well. This began when the man that taught him how to play the saxophone when he was younger told him how he would entertain