B. F. Skinner

Influential psychologist, B.F. Skinner developed the theory of operant conditioning. It’s the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, reinforcements or punishments which make it less likely that the behavior will occur again. A positive reinforcement is one of the best ways to encourage your kids. It allows the child to grow more confident and independent. Skinner designed an Operant Conditioning Box - also known as Skinner's Box - to prove his theory. He placed a rat that had been deprived of food into an enclosed box. The rat is moving around the cage when it accidentally presses the bar; as a result a food pellet falls. The operant is the behavior just prior to the reinforcer which is the food pellet. In a relatively short period of time…

B.F. Skinner began his famous research into the world of Psychology after being heavily influenced by John Watson and Ivan Pavlov. As stated in class, John Watson shifted from the focus of study on the mind and paid closer attention to observable behavior. Watson focused on what people might do rather than what the might experience. Watson, of course, was also influenced by someone and that someone was Ivan Pavlov. As observed in class, Pavlov used his dogs to show that a stimulus (feeding his…

B.F Skinner would agree with the quote “It’s simple. You read books—to learn facts—to get grades—to pass the course—to get a degree. It has nothing to do with thoughts.” by Lorraine Hansberry. Skinner pioneered the idea that humans could simply be reacting to life instead of actually learning as they move through time. He would support the idea that humans are conditioned to go through life in a certain way, and that little development occurs when people are forced into repetitive habits.…

Theorist Biosketch: B.F Skinner The study of human behavior is a very intriguing subject within the field of psychology that has led to the production of various theories, approaches, and studies to understand its anatomy thoroughly. In particular, Behaviorism, which was introduced within the twentieth century, revolves around the concepts that environments determine individuals’ behaviors. One of America’s very own prominent psychologist, as well as, behaviorist, was B.F Skinner. Skinner…

Author of the utopian novel, Walden Two (1948), Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20th, of 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner can also be described as the creator of the behaviorist theory of psychology. B.F. was born to a father occupied as a lawyer and a mother who did not work but stayed at home to tend to Skinner’s needs. Skinner had an early interest in building and inventing gadgets which later on in his life plays a minor role in his success. On the path of education,…

Operant learning, also known as instrumental, consequence, or response learning, is experiences where the behavior is made stronger or weaker by its consequence (Chance, 2014). This term coined by B.F. Skinner, a psychologist, after studying the behavior of a rat, within a box that contained food and a lever, was built on the foundation given by E.L. Thorndike’s Law of Effect (Chance, 2014). Skinner recognized two kinds of reinforcing events; one in which a positive stimulus is presented and the…

Some developmental theorist, such as B.F Skinner and Konrad Lorenz studied the development and behavior of animals as a means to understanding human developmental processes. B.F Skinner was a behaviorist and Konrad Lorenz was an ethnologist. Both theorists’ approaches have limitations and benefits. B.F Skinner being a behaviorist and an environmentalist was very concerned with how environments controlled behavior, and as a result he conducted many tests using operant condition (Crain, 2016).…

In my opinion, B.F. Skinner was a highly influential theorist in modern psychology. His work was hugely beneficial and has also been studied for years. Skinner was highly educated and know to be pretty straightforward about things. His theories have managed to help us in many ways. He studied the behavior patterns of many different living organisms including birds. Skinners most important work was the study of behaviorism and much of his work has been published in journals. He also wrote many…

His pioneering efforts made it possible for men such as B.F. Skinner and Albert Bandura to not only continue making forward strides in psychology, but to also continue developing more schools of thought.  Personal Reaction 1. A-ha moment – Prejudice and discrimination are not new concepts to mankind, but to a new country like the United States I have often wondered how they got their foothold so quickly. Excluding slavery, the bias questions presented in the IQ tests at Ellis Island…

Psychology is known to be the science of the mind or of mental states and processes. Many works we see based on the topic of psychology have experiments done on animals, but not all psychological experiments are made to test on animals. The author discusses some of the experiment that are tested among the individuals of society. One example would be B.F Skinner’s demonstration in the “the power of reinforcement and reward to shape behavior.” One main subject covered by B.F Skinner is Operant…