Bf 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.

In behavioral theory, the founder of psychological behaviorism, John Watson believed that internal thinking process could not be observed; therefore, psychologists should not focus on it. An American psychologist, Burrhus Fredric Skinner social philosopher behaviorist, inventor, and author, developed the theory of Operant conditioning believed we learn new behavior through traditional or operant conditioning and all behavior is learnt from the environment.

Skinner illustrated positive reinforcement by placing a hungry rat in his Skinner box (Appendix 2). The box contained a lever in the side and as the rat moved about the box it would accidentally knock the lever. As the lever move, a food pellet would drop into a container next to the lever. The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the lever ensured that they would repeat the action again and again.

I remember learning about B.F. Skinner as an undergrad. There was something about the Behaviorism that got my attention. As an aspiring teacher, the sheer idea that anyone could make an impact on a person’s life for good or bad was captivating to me. I wanted intervene in education in someway because I had been pretty successful with children and I wanted to continue in a scholarly way.

B.F. Skinner tested all his theories with an abundance of different gadgets and tests. A few were more harsh than others, others were supported while a handful were disappointed in, and others were overlooked. He went through with everything to understand and prove why humans and animals acted the way they did when exposed to a certain stimuli. The Skinner Box is the most commonly known and that test included rats and pigeons to examine if they could and would adapt to their new environment. It also made it easier to keep track of variables that were being tested. This machine has helped with medicine and helped improve testing. Eventually there was the Teaching Machine which was adapted later on computers and that was to help students other

He used the example that (Skinner 1972 as cited in Robins, G (2012)) if a person moves into the shade because it is hot, he is more likely to repeat this behavior the next time the sun is hot. He described this phenomenon as ‘operant conditioning’. The cooling down reinforces the behavior. He argued that if the students are consistently praised, rewarded and acknowledge for learning or having in a certain way, they would behave in the same way again, this creating ‘conditions which are optimal for producing the changes called ‘learning’ (Skinner 1969: 10 as cited in Robins, G (2012)) and allowing the teacher to influence the behavior of pupils at will without resorting to

B. F. Skinner's theory on behaviorism is what I chose because I think would be most helpful for introducing new ways of thinking to children and adults because when using the operant conditioning theory, the individual will respond to negative or positive stimuli. Meaning that if the adult has issues in a relationship and needed help with communication. The first thing to do would be to utilize the ABC's of behavior which begins with “A” antecedent, the event that would cause the individual to be stimulated. “B”, is when the behavior is affected by the stimulus, such as if the individual is able to communicate without yelling and the reward would be a hug from the person who is in the conversation with them or some other kind of reward for

Renowned American psychologist B.F. Skinner, well known for his theory on behaviorism and operant conditioning. He was the most influential 20th - century psychologist. His works includes “The Behavior of Organisms” (1938) which was about the results in his experiment with operant conditioning, and a novel based on his theories “Walden” (1948). He was not only a psychologist he was a behaviorist, teacher, author, inventor, and a social philosopher as well.

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist who was a leading proponent of behaviorism, which had significant influences on philosophy. He was an advocate of his own school of thought called radical behaviorism, and conducted experimental analysis of behavior.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in 1904 “Pennsylvania. After graduating Hamilton College, he wanted to become an author, but without any avail. Pavlov and Watson’s work encouraged him to attend Harvard graduate school where he studied behavior. “He made changes in the rate of behavior a standard measure of learning: made the individual, rather that the group, the object of experimental study; and suggested ways that a natural science of behavior could be applied to medicine, work, child rearing, education and other fields” (Learning and Behavior pg#136-137). Skinner worked with rats by placing them in boxes and providing them with different reinforcements. He would teach them a different behavior by providing obstacles in order to shape those behaviors. “Positive reinforcement strengthens a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding” (simplypsychology.org). The reinforcement was the food “The rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times of being put in the box. The consequence of receiving food if they pressed the lever ensured that they would repeat the action again and again (simplypsychology.org).

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F Skinner was born on 1904 in Pennsylvania. He was an American ancient psychologist who known for his work on development of behavior and the theory of reinforcements, also known as operant conditioning. Along with being the most influential psychologist he was also a professor of psychology at Harvard University. During his course of study at Harvard, he conducted a study of behavior which led him to develop the prototype of the famous Skinner Box. His encounter with John B. Watson 's Behaviorism led him to study psychology in graduate program and to the development of his own version of behaviorism. He gave this world the most needed scientific approach to human behavior.

Before psychology consolidated it self as the school of thought we have come to know today, it went through a number of theoretical adjustments. Freud and Watson became pioneers of two different approaches. Psychodynamics and Behaviorism could be argued to be two of the most pivotal influences on psychology. To really grasp their value we have to understand their individual philosophical influences, founders and their theories. Both have expanded the growth of psychology as a science, but with comparable views of what that science should represent.

Skinner’s methods for operant conditioning relied on reinforcement and punishment, with an emphasis on positive reinforcement. As pointed by Peters(2013) “ Of course, Skinner didn’t invent the ideas of punishment and reward, but he conceptualized them scientifically and conducted experiments to determine how to use them most effectively, based on various schedules of frequency (Behavioral Conditioning, para. 4).”

While at Harvard, Skinner developed an operant conditioning apparatus to study behavior in a more objective and measured way (Kaiga, 2012, para. 6). The apparatus could be used to observe animals and how they interact with their environment (Kaiga, 2012, para. 6). Skinner experimented with rats that had to pull a lever in the box to dispense food at different intervals (Kaiga, 2012, para. 6).

B. F. Skinner is famous for his Behaviorism Theory and has invented new ideology in thinking and learning. While creating his behaviorism theory, Skinner has explained his ideology in different part using few experimental method. He grouped his founding in 7 different category such as doing things, sensing things, changing things (learning), staying changed (remembering), wanting, thinking and using mind.