B F Skinner Research Paper

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania. His dad was a lawyer and his mother was a housewife Most of his childhood he spent building things. Often times he would build gadgets for example a cart with steering that worked backwards by mistake. He then went to Hamilton College, where he developed a passion for writing. He tried to make writing a profession after graduating but he had no success in it. When Skinner was the age of 24 he enrolled in Harvard University to study Psychology. In his time there he constructed the cumulative recorder, a mechanical device that recorded every response as an upward movement of a horizontally moving line.

Skinner created the theory of Operant Conditioning as he believed that all behaviour can be controlled by rewards or reinforcement. This is very different from Pavlovs theory of Classical Conditioning as Skinner is trying to control voluntary behaviour. This is done by giving the subject a positive or negative reaction to an action with the theory that a negative response will discourage the subject to repeat the action. A good example of this is house training a dog, as the dogs natural reaction is to relieve itself, however it must be taught to wait until it is outside. The more the dog waits until he is outside, the more praise he receives therefore it is less likely to wish to instigate a negative reaction by relieving himself inside the house.

B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around the world, doing what it does. During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant - which is the behavior occurring just before the reinforcer. This is operant

“The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone,” stated B. F. Skinner (Brainy, 2014). This is a quote that is very popular and was a prime description of those Skinners experiments were meant to prove along with it being a saying that many people in the psychology world followed. Burrhus Fredrick Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in the small town Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinners father was a lawyer while his mother was a stay at home mom to take care of him and his younger brother. As a boy, he enjoyed creating a variety of gadgets and coming up with convincing ideas that was his step in stone later on when he go into psychological studies. After graduating from Hamilton College in 1926, Skinner was very undecided on what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Skinner tried to begin a career as a writer and author, but soon realized he was not making any progress; he decided to pursue psychology at Harvard University. After graduating from Harvard, he continued to work there for the rest of his career. After a year of fighting leukemia, Skinner died on August 18,1990. Skinner left a remarkable imprint on the psychology world; by the time he died Skinner was named to be the utmost influential psychologist in the 29th century, along with publishing a considerable amount of books and articles (Zorn, 2014).

The example Skinner uses with the rat and the consequence of it getting food each time it accidently hit the lever, meant it would repeat the action, known as positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement reinforces the behavior by having a consequence that is rewarding, which is very effective. Another way to reinforce a behavior is by negative reinforcement which ends or eliminates an unpleasant experience. Skinner placed a rat in the Skinner Box and would cause it discomfort by an electric current. If the rat would hit the lever, the current would turn off. The rat soon learned to go straight to the lever after just a few times of being in the box (Mcleod, 2007). These concepts were what Skinner believed to be taking place and what lead to his approach of behaviorism. Behaviorism is a theory that human or animal psychology can be studied through examination of observable behavioral events. Behavior is a subject matter in its own right, it is also the functioning of an organism that entails communication or exchanges with its environmental settings (Moore, 2011). Skinner believes that to discover behavior, we should watch actions rather than study mind and emotion. See how beings act in their natural environment and how their behaviors can be changed was Skinners theory which researchers still study

B.F. Skinner is an American Psychologist from Pennsylvania who developed the idea of Behaviorism after studying at Harvard University (Biography.com Editors, n.d.). He is also known for his works such as, The Behavior of Organisms (1938), the novel Walden Two (1948), and later Beyond Freedom and Human Dignity (1971) which examines behaviorism in society (Biography.com Editors, n.d.).

Skinner was an American psychologist who mostly worked with pigeons and rats to discover some of the key principles of learning new behaviour. Skinner used a very famous device which is called a skinner box. The box contains a lever which when pressed released a food pallet into the box so reinforcing lever presser behaviour. When the rat is placed into the box it will run around, sniff the different items and will then press the lever which will release a food pallet. After a bit when the rat has performed the action repeatedly, it will learn that this behaviour (pressing the lever) is automatically followed by the food pallet being released. There are two types of reinforcement and they are negative and positive reinforcement.

In the middle of the 20th century, B.F. Skinner dominated the field of psychology with his theory of behaviorism and it has an extension; the Radical Behaviorism. His theory of behaviorism is the science of human behavior. B.F. Skinner wasn’t the founder of Behaviorism; it was originally founded by John B. Watson in 1913. Skinner just did the extension of Behaviorism; the Radical Behaviorism. Early 20th-century psychologist John Watson developed behaviorism as a psychological theory. John B. Watson wanted to eliminate the internal mental states of human such as the consciousness. He proposed to replace the "science of the mind" with the "science of human behavior."

B. F. Skinner was another influential psychologist who developed the theory of operant conditioning. Unlike Pavlov, Skinner thought that behaviour was determined by the consequences or rewards generated after the response, he called this operant conditioning, (Cherry, K 2005). Skinner invented a device which contained a button which an animal could press in order to gain food, water or some other form of reinforcement. Using this box he discovered two forms of reinforcement, positive (which resulted in a favourable outcome), and negative (which resulted in removal of unfavourable outcomes).

B.F. Skinner: He was one of the prominent propionates of a theory called behaviourism. He also constructed what became known as the ‘Skinner Box’.

Skinners is one of the very first manufactures of complete dry dog food, so through decades of experience they have formulated a wide range of knowledge and products to accommodate all types of dogs varying needs and requirements. Available for both working dogs and family pets all food is hypoallergenic and provides controlled levels of nutrients so the right amount of energy is digested.

the people in control use their power it in a negative way. For instance, In

   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

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.

Skinner was a behaviorist who wanted to provide a method for understanding human behavior, thoughts, and emotions. Skinner believed that classical conditioning was to simplistic to be a complete explanation of the complex human behavior. Skinner believed the best way to understand any behavior is to look directly at the causes of an action and its consequences. He defined this approach as operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is defined as “ the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again” (B. F. Skinner, 2011). The behavioral model observes human behavior as a practical and useful response. This model acknowledges that every behavior has a purpose and has advanced from the earlier stages of a person's understanding. Skinner created a way to allow individuals the ability to avoid negative behaviors. His theory uses positive and negative reinforcements while covering affective punishments to make sure a student's bad behavior does not turn into a pattern. According to our textbook, “one defining characteristic of the behavioral model is that it views behavior from a functional perspective in terms that are both measurable and observable (Wheeler, 2014,p.17).”