Birth And Death By Frederic Skinner Essay

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.

Chapter 1 of Opening Skinners Box portrays the life and experiments of one B.F. Skinner. The way this one man researched and spent so many years of his life dedicated to his findings is not only crazy and committed, but encouraging, motivational, and stimulating. Skinner was a neo-behaviorist well-known and notorious for his findings about the behavior animals have when using positive reinforcement and what you can teach them to do with these findings.

In the first chapter of Opening Skinner’s Box, Lauren Slater mentioned about B. F. Skinner, an American leading neo-behaviorist, who is known for skinner’s box. Lauren tries to explore about Skinner’s life and his accomplishments through this chapter like the title of this chapter, “‘Opening’ Skinner’s Box.” Skinner discovered that we can teach even small animals by using “operant conditioning” and their particular reactions against the conditionings; with this technique, he could even control the animals as he likes. However, for his unique experiments, there was a rumor that Skinner brought up his daughter in a skinner’s box as if she was an experimental animal and she was taken very young because of this experiences. Of course, this is not truth and she is still alive, but people believe this rumor and they have an image “evil” or “mad scientist” for Skinner. Now, Lauren figures out the truth of his stories and how his experiments and the achievements are excellent. Through her investigation, she decided to apply a kind of “skinner’s box” to her daughter for discipline.

B.F. Skinner, the man who set the gold standard for shaping in behavioral anyalisis, known for his animal experiments using boxes built his way into becoming America’s leading neo-behaviorist. Skinner entered into the experimental world almost unintentionally, starting out life to become a novelist then completely switching gears on a whim of curiosity. Skinner didn’t start with a plan, he just had a question, he wanted to understand the behavior of living things. Thus, forming his infamous boxes, not knowing where it would lead him, but wanting to see it something was going to come from it.

Skinner’s real world use of his invention and the choice to included it in Walden Two as the experimentally sound and effective process in rearing a healthy human child in its first years of life only confirms the great possibility that Skinner, as a Walden Two manager, himself, would apply the same system and allow it to be altered as and when

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.

Just as Freud is known as the father of Psychoanalysis, B.F. Skinner is often referred to ask the “the father of operant conditioning.” B.F. Skinner is also known for major contributions to the field of psychology (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner was a prolific author, publishing nearly 200 articles and more than 20 books. Skinner was most known for his work in behavior psychology. Behavioral psychology is the psychological practice that focuses on learning new behaviors and how to modify our existing behavior and how that takes place (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). One of his major contributions was his theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning means roughly, the changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement, either positive or negative, and which these reinforcements are given after the desired response (About B.F. Skinner, Sept, 2012). Skinner identified three types of responses or operant that can follow behavior.

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

We can predict and control behavior without knowing anything about what is happening inside [although] a complete account will nevertheless require the joint action of both sciences, each with its own instruments and methods." Behaviorism has made an impact on disciplines inside and outside of psychology. Skinner's version of behaviorism continues to play a vital role and significant influence on psychology today. Reviewers who have conducted assessments agree that Skinner's psychology is alive and well. The American Psychological Association believed that it is an understatement to conclude that Skinner has been, and is, influential and well-known.

This led him to develop an operant conditioning apparatus which would later come to be known as the “Skinner Box”. It was through his experiments with the Skinner Box that he was able to make detailed observations of how animals interacted in their own respective environments. “He first studied rats in his experiments, seeing how the rodents discovered and used to a level in the box, which dispensed food at varying intervals” (“B.F. Skinner Biography, 2016). Following his study of rats, he used the box to study the development of behavioral patterns in pigeons. The pigeons were conditioned to peck at a small round disc to obtain access to food. From these observations, Skinner gathered that reinforcement was a key component in the process of learning and shaping new behaviors. Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning became the foundation of his career. “He expressed no interest in understanding the human psyche and was as strict a behaviorist as John Watson” (“A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: B.F. Skinner”, 1998). His sole focus was to determine how external forces shape behavior. “Unlike the reflexes that Pavlov had studied, this kind of behavior operated on the environment and was controlled by its effects, and for this reason, Skinner referred to it as operant behavior” (B.F. Skinner Foundation,

     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.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and a social philosopher. Skinner is known for his discovery of the theory of operant conditioning (Wikipedia). Skinner was a graduate from Harvard University. Although he understood the importance of classical conditioning, he noted that, “principles of classical conditioning account for only a small portion of learned behaviors” (Woolfolk 250). Skinner expressed that through operant conditioning, behavior is strengthened or weakened by antecedents or consequences. Both theorists’ work have a major influence on learning/behavioral concepts.

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’. Within this box he discovered that a rat or a bird could be trained to obtain food by pressing a button. This he called ‘Operant Conditioning’ and ‘Negative Reinforcement’. According to Martin Fiebert, Professor of clinical