Burrhus Frederic Skinner

Abstract

B. F. Skinner was undoubtedly, one of the most controversial, and yet most influential psychologists of the last century and he is one of the most famous American psychologists. This paper is going to begin by looking at who B. F. Skinner was. His educational background, along with how he became interested in the field of psychology. This paper is going to examine what B. F. Skinner is known best in the world of psychology, operant conditioning and schedules of reinforcement. This paper is also going to explain what operant conditioning (along with how the Skinner box works) and schedules of reinforcement are. This paper will also explore some of Skinner's other projects, inventions, and publications he did during his lifetime.

B. F. (Burrhus Frederic) Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in a small town in Pennsylvania and passed away on August 18, 1990 in Massachusetts. His father was a lawyer; and his mother was a very educated woman. Skinner had a younger brother that, unfortunately, died when he was sixteen from a cerebral aneurysm. He was brought up old-fashioned and hard –working. As a boy, Skinner loved to be outside and enjoyed building things. He was a very active boy and even enjoyed going to school.

Skinner obtained a B.A. in English literature in 1926 from Hamilton College and decided he wanted to become a writer. He moves back home, however, he does not do much writing. In a year's time, he only wrote a dozen small articles for the newspaper. Even though times were difficult, Skinner had vowed to himself that he was going to have two years to make it as a writer. If his dream did not come true, by the end of those two years, would then choose a career. During this time, Skinner had several different jobs; making ship models in a workshop in the family garage, landscape gardener, and a bookstore clerk. All the while, Skinner was dreaming of becoming a writer.

While Skinner was working as a bookstore clerk, he came across some books by Pavlov and Watson. Skinner found the books so interesting and exciting that from that moment on, he was very interested and eager to learn more about the field of psychology. He was so eager to learn to more about the field of psychology that on May 21, 1928, he applied for enrollment in the psychology graduate program at Harvard University and accepted on May 24, 1928. Skinner began classes the following September and earned his master's degree in 1930 and earned his doctorate in 1931. After earning his doctorate's degree, he stayed at Harvard doing research until 1936.

Upon leaving Harvard in 1936, Skinner moved so he could teach at the University of Minnesota, where he met and married Ms. Yvonne Blue. In 1945, Skinner became chairman of the psychology department at Indiana University. Then in 1947,