B. F. Skinner

Lauren Slater is the author of the 2004 book called “Opening Skinner’s Box”. In this book, Slater writes about ten important psychological studies of the 20th century and she describes the personalities of the famous researchers who conducted the experiments. The book is written in story form with the author recreating the experiments in her own way. Slater uses the experiments to get the reader thinking about important concepts such as free will, authoritarianism, conformity, and morality. She writes about controversies that surround the researchers and she also tries to track down the actual researcher or other people who can help provide more information. In the first chapter of the book, Slater writes about the work of B.F. Skinner, who is known for his contribution to behavioral psychology, specifically the concept of operant conditioning. In this paper, I will summarize some of the major points from this chapter, titled “Opening Skinner’s Box” and I will also offer a critical analysis of the chapter.

In chapter 1, Opening Skinner’s Box, Slater talks about a psychologist named B. F. Skinner. Skinner shows us how easily operant conditioning can be done. He believed that you have a better outcome if you study observable behavior instead of studying mental events. Skinner’s work focused on operant conditioning. People and animals were the subjects of his studies.

Skinner discounted the view that man was free to choose his or her path. He believed man was merely reactionary in their behaviors. Rogers, on the other hand, believed that man strives to be the best he can be and he will make decisions based on that desire. An example of this can be seen in our educational system. Skinner would state that children are in a controlled environment and their behavior is based on the external events they encounter. If the teacher tells the students to line up for recess, the children will line up in accordance with the teacher’s wishes because they have received positive feedback in the past from doing what the teacher asks. They are merely reacting. Rogers would say that the children are choosing to do as the teacher says as it will help them in their pursuit of self. In this situation, Skinner fails to explain those children who have chosen a different path. One may choose to disregard the teacher and continue with his work. This child has made a choice. This can be further explained in the example of my father’s family. Raised in a poor family, with little education, four of the five brothers failed to graduate from high school; failed at their marriages; failed at maintaining employment and several even went to jail. This was a part of

Skinner, a behaviorist, viewed man as an organism that is complex and works in an orderly way, but could only be studied through observation. He did not believe in the concept of free will. Skinner believed that men were always controlled by outside forces even if they were unaware of them. He believed that all behavior was in response to external stimuli from the environment. His idea was that manipulation of this stimuli could encourage a person to work towards a preset goal. This helped Skinner to develop the idea of operant conditioning. For Skinner, the ideal society is one where experts are in charge of everyone else. These experts dictate what is right and set the standards for how people should live and learn.

First, technology is making the society smarter due to new machines; furthermore, technology has impacted in the America culture which is great. The influenced that technology has in America culture is good because it will change the way people think and develop new ideas in the future, so it can affect the American culture in good ways. For example, people will get educated due to new advanced technology because machines or programs will always be there to help human beings. Actually, computer and machines have the ability to think faster than humans being, so according to Thompson, “The computer would bring the lightning fast” because computers or machines have a database ready to think really fast (344). Every time human beings develop new innovations people worry about that the life is not going to be the same because technology will change their people’s lives because according to Thompson, the machine’s way of “thinking” is fundamentally unhuman” (243). In addition, when machines get better than the human beings, there will be great help from computers or machines. The America culture can be affect by the technology because new machines, but it will never have some negative influences. Technology will improve American culture in good ways because technology will help people in so many ways as thinking, developing new ideas, and new creations.

With the development of society, people's values are changing quite a lot. People tend to focus more time and energy on pursuing economic benefits and material satisfaction while ignoring the importance of morality. Here, my point is that no matter what technology we develop, no matter how much contribution and improvement this technology will bring to people. When we develop this technology, we have to obey ethical and moral rules. For instance, in “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks”, Rebecca Skloot recounts that doctors and scientists

Skinner’s theory observes individuals from the point of view of the behavior that they demonstrate. The key weakness of this theory is its attempt to explain the behaviors of an individual solely through visible phenomena. Critics sometimes accuse behaviorists of denying that ideas and thoughts exist (Jensen & Burgess, 1997). The major opposition that behaviorists face is that behavior of a person cannot be understood without including the mental activity of the individual. Critics have accused behaviorists of focusing only on behavior and ignoring the role of physiology, neuroscience, and genetics (Weiss & Rosales-Ruiz, 2014). Sometimes the reactions that people demonstrate have are not related their experience and therefore they have another

“It’s simple. You read books—to learn facts—to get grades—to pass the course—to get a degree. It has nothing to do with thoughts.”

One of the most prominent and influential psychologists of the twentieth century, B.F. Skinner was known as a behavioral psychologist, philosopher of science, and an educational innovator. Throughout his life he did experimental work with animals to discover how patterns of behavior are learned. His initial work was primarily conducted with animals, and later in life he started to work with humans and apply his learning from his pigeon studies to human behavior. He focused on the individual and wrote about how to restructure social systems to improve the quality of life.

Culture and Ethics" - this problem has become in our time more urgent, for the development of civilization in the XX century has come to such a milestone. When deprived of the ethical culture of the beginning of the bourgeois society more threatens the well-being and existence of man on earth. It should be full assess the extent of the danger posed to the future of mankind so called "mass culture" of bourgeois society, with no solid the moral foundations of impregnated ideas of violence, robbery, sex and cult continuous and long-term corrupt many human dignity generations. On the other hand, in the moral development of mankind is made a step of the greatest importance: lost faith in capitalism humanity turns away from the ethics of individualism, degenerate into a cult of selfishness and greed, and draws their attention to the ethics of collectivism, born in new time the proletariat and the development of socialism. Culture and ethical implications are intermingle together.

According to Gewirtz and Peláez-Nogueras (1992), “B. F. Skinner contributed a great deal to advancing an understanding of basic psychological processes and to the applications of science-based interventions to problems of individual and social importance.” He contributed to “human and nonhuman behavior, including human behavioral development, and to various segments of the life span, including human infancy” (p. 1411). One of Skinner's greatest scientific discoveries was “single reinforcement” which became sufficient for “operant conditioning, the role of extinction in the discovery of intermittent schedules, the development of the method of shaping by successive approximation, and Skinner's break with and rejection of stimulus-response

Skinner believed that all human behavior is caused by outside influences and there is no evidence of free will; we are a product of our environment and to cite any other reason is simply a distraction from the true cause of the behavior (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Despite the fact that he acknowledges we all have emotions, thoughts, and internal processes, he claims these do not cause behavior but are caused by the environment and are irrelevant. Skinner's theory leaves no room for personality because, according to his theory, personality is made up of behavior which is supported by the environment and therefore could be obtained by any living creature (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). His theory fails to recognize cognitive or hereditary influences as potential factors in learning; placing deficiencies or increased skills directly on learned behavior through reinforcement (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Bandura's cognitive social learning theory shows how behaviors can be learned without the use of reinforcement via observation which is not easily explained utilizing other behavioral theories and does not support Skinners theories as they require active cognition (Friedman & Schustack, 2012). Further, he believed the principles of learning could

     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.

According to Boeree, C, George (2006), B. F. Skinner’s “entire system is based on ‘operant conditioning’”. Behaviourism is determined by the environment and is “concerning with the effect of external events such as reward or punishment for behaviour” (Duschesne,

In the field of child development, many psychologists, sociologists, and behaviorists contributed and came up with different theories that helped to form our current education system. One of those is B.F. Skinner’s theory of behaviorism, which had a great impact on many strategies we use today for teaching and training. In his theory, operant conditioning is the most famous and influential idea that helped people to understand the behaviors of children and even adults. Skinner focused on how the environments, in the form of reinforcement and punishments, influence behaviors. Thus, his theory cannot explain the higher cognitive functions such as problem solving and critical thinking. Despite his theory’s critiques, Skinner stood strong on his ideas and theories.