B.F. Skinner And His Influence In Psychology

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used to describe mental states. Skinner was responsible for some famous experiments such as the “Skinner box”. Skinner also wrote some very famous books. One of them was “The Behavior of Organisms”. This book describes the basic points of his system. Another was Walden Two. This book describes a utopian society that functions on positive reinforcement. Skinner was a very productive person until his death in 1990 at the age of 86.
Behaviorism is a school of thought in psychology that is interested in observable behavior. Skinner said, “Behaviorism is not the science of human behavior; it is the philosophy of that science”(Skinner, 1974). There are various types of behavior, such as innate behavior. Innate behaviors are certain behaviors that we are born with, such as eating when we are hungry and sleeping when we are tired.

Early Life

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania on March 20, 1904 to William Arthur and Grace Madge Skinner. Skinner’s home ...

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collection of applied psychology journals that his father had bought. Those books could have been the starting point in his psychology career. Skinner grew up in a very religious family. His grandmother often reminded him of the concept of hell. His mother once washed his mouth out with soap literally for saying a bad word. His father never punished him, but he told him of the punishments that awaited him if he ever turned out to be a criminal. Overall Skinner had a good and happy childhood.

College Life

After graduating high school, Skinner went to Hamilton College where he majored in English Literature and minored in Romance Languages. He was drawn toward English when he was in ...

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