The Life of F. Skinner – One of the Most Influential Psychologists

Introduction

Psychology is both an applied and academic field which is concerned with the study of human and animal mental functions and behaviors scientifically. Psychology is an old discipline that was founded by Wilkhelm Wundt in 1879 as an independent field of study in Germany.Wundt set up the first laboratory that did research in psychology and today he is referred to as the father of psychology. Psychology dates back to the early civilizations of Greece, Egypt, China, India, and Persia when considered in a philosophical context. The writings of Thales, Plato and Aristotle who were Greek philosophers are believed to be the first works that were rich in psychology (Green &Gross, 2003, p.1). In psychology, the researchers are referred to as psychologists who are either social or behavioral scientists.

This essay will entail a discussion of the life of Burrhus Fredrick Skinner who is one of the most influential psychologists. This will be achieved through assessing his life, how his personal experience influenced his work and how he influenced and continue to influence the field of psychology.

Burrhus Fredric Skinner Life

Pennsylvania town of Susquehanna is the home town of B. F. Skinner. Skinner was born in March 20, 1904 to his father who was a lawyer and a hard working and intelligent mother. Burrhus Skinner was a hard working boy with an active and inventive mind. In 1926, Skinner graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Literature from Hamilton College. While in college, he wrote papers criticizing the school, faculty. He was also an Atheist. After graduating, Skinner continued with writing, but later decided to go back to school where he joined Harvard University and pursued a masters degree in psychology and graduated in 1930. He furthered his studies and managed to secure his doctorate in 1931. He stayed there up to 1936 doing research before moving to Minneapolis where he started lecturing in Minnesota University. He then got engaged with Yvonne Blue while at Minnesota University and they got married. They were blessed with two daughters. He was later to move to Bloomington in 1945 and become the chairperson of the University of Indiana. Later in 1948, he was invited to join the psychology department in Harvard University where he stayed for the rest of his life until his death due to Leukemia on 18^th August 1990.He left a legacy as the best psychologist since Sigmund Freud (Julie, 2003, P.1-5).

How B.F Skinner’s experiences influenced his work

The experiences that people go through are reflected both in their life history and in their professional work and B.F Skinner was not an exception. To start with, B.F Skinner was an active boy, while he was young and enjoyed building things like wagons and airplanes and inventing things and this later made him to invent many things. When he married his wife Yvonne and got two daughters, in his effort to help his wife take care of the baby and honor her request for better cribs, he tried to improve the standard crib. In an effort to do this, Skinner invented air-crib which was a controlled box Skinner that assisted in raising babies. The air crib enabled early child care to be simpler as it reduced laundry and encouraged the child to be more comfortable, healthy and therefore cry less. Today, some of those air cribs he invented are still fashionable and in use. B.F Skinner had a great passion discovering things. Thus, he used most of his time reading books on animals. Moreover, he collected some of those animals he was reading about and studied them. For example, he collected pigeons and trained them. This is where he delivered the idea of operant conditioning.

Skinner’s experience as a lecturer in Minnesota University gave him an opportunity to invent a teaching machine that assisted in administering a curriculum of programmed instructions. The machine contained a set of questions and an answering mechanism that helped the students in answering the questions. The machine was able to reward the student for every correct answer (Skinner, 1958). In addition, while he was in Harvard working in the department of psychology, he experimented on how organisms responded to different phenomenon and also their interactions with the environment. It is through this process that he was successful in developing an operant conditioning chamber that assisted in his work. This demonstrated his ability to invent useful devices. This ability continued even in his old age where he was capable of inventing a Thinking Aid that enhanced writing (Skinner, 1987, p.379). Lastly, B.F Skinner interacted so much with Freud who really influenced how he thought especially in terms of behavior of people.Additionaly, he read books about the experiments that Watson and Pavlov carried out and this motivated him to carry out these experiments especially on behaviors of animals.

How B.F Skinner influenced psychology

B.F Skinner was one of the most influential theorists in psychology and he dominated in psychology due to his staunch behaviorism. He was said to be the most influential psychologist among the 99 eminent psychologists of the 20^th century during a study that was done in 2002.This was due to his idea of behaviorism. He also influenced education as well as psychology. For example, he postulated that people learn better when they are reinforced than when they are punished. In psychology, Skinner studied the behaviors of many animals by carrying out experiments that made him come to a conclusion on how people behave. For instance, he studied rats and postulated theories and used these theories to describe how human beings behave despite the fact that these are very different creatures. In addition, he invented the operant conditioning chamber, innovated Radical behaviorism and started his school where he carried out his psychology research. Moreover, he advanced the rate of response

Using Cumulative device that he invented, Skinner was able to show that the behavior that people portrayed was as a result of response to the behavior (operant behavior) and not a result of preceding stimulus as Watson and Pavlov had shown. With this, he described the three consequences of behavior. These are reinforcement that increases the tendency of the behavior to be repeated, punishment that decrease the tendency of the behavior and lack of both punishment and reinforcement that also reduces the tendency of the behavior to be repeated. He concluded that all human behavior is as a result of the above consequences. However, he claimed that reinforcement can be learned and may not be effective in every behavior.

Learning through the above discussed means is called conditioning and the whole system of Skinner is called behaviorism. Behaviorism is a theory that states that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning and is based on observable behavior. There are two main types of conditioning invented by B.F Skinner; Classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning refers to the situation whereby a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response followed by pairing it with a neutral stimulus. As a result, the neutral stimulus is able to evoke a response of its own without involving the use of a natural stimulus. In contrast, Operant conditioning is a form of learning that occurs as a result of punishing or rewarding certain behaviors. This theory was able to explain the behaviors related to many cognitive phenomena. For instance, Skinner was able to explain motivation relative to reinforcement schedules (Todd & Morris, 1995, para.7).

Influences of B.F Skinner Work to psychology today

Many books have been published concerning Skinner’s work and life even after his death in 1990.Some of these work contain his criticism, while others are about his appreciation. For instance, his principles on radical behaviorism have continued to be used even up to date. For example his brief that behavior are a result of many consequences has made psychologist today to continue reinforcing the best response so as to build the desired behavior as they do away with unwanted behavior by withdrawing reinforcement or punishment.

In school situation his theories are very significance. For example, understanding his work on five obstacles of learning which include people fearing to fail, lack of breaking the task down to small steps, lack of direction, clarity and positive reinforcement has made teachers to improve their learning. In addition teachers have applied Skinner’s principles as a remedy to the above obstacles of learning. These principles include giving learners immediate feedback, breaking down the tasks into small steps, repeating the directions many times, working from simple to complex tasks and giving positive reinforcement. Applying these principles in learning institutions has produced good results. Moreover his theories are still used today in management of classrooms and in marriage counseling. Lastly but not the least, his principles have been used in treatment of phobias and addictive behaviors.

Conclusion

B.F Skinner is one of the eminent psychologists of 20^th century and is ranked second to Sigmund Freud. His main work involved behaviorism and operant conditioning where he which states that all human behaviors are influenced by introducing or withdrawing reinforcement and punishment. His work has influenced psychology in the past and continues to influence it up to day.

Reference List

1. Green, C. &Gross.P. (2003).Early Psychological thought: Ancient accounts of mind and soul.Westport:B.F Skinner Foundation.
2. Julie, S. (2005).A brief Biography of B.F Skinner. Massachusetts: Cambridge.B.F Skinner foundation.
3. Skinner, B. F. (1958). “Teaching Machines.” Science 129: 969 – 977.
4. Skinner, B.F.1987.”A thinking Aid.’’ Applied Behavior Analysis 20:379-380.
5. Todd, J.T&Morris, E.K. (1995).Modern perspectives on B.F Skinner Contemporary Behaviorism. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

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