B. F. Skinner Essay, Research Paper
Burrhus Frederic Skinner, psychologist and behaviourist, was born in Susquhanna, Pennsylvania in 1904 to William Skinner and Grace Burrhus. His male parent was a lawywer and his female parent was a of course bright adult female. Skinner had merely one sibling ; his brother died at the age of 16. Skinner lived most of his life in Susquhanna. He did non go forth the house he was born in until he left to travel to college. He was raised really near to his grandparents, who had a major impact on his early life. He was besides near to his parents. He and his female parent and male parent wholly graduated from the same high school. This was the same school that he had attended for all twelve old ages of his instruction.
Skinner attended Hamilton College at the reccomadation of a household friend. He took many different types of classs before make up one’s minding to major in English and minor in Romance Languages. Skinner felt that he did non suit in at college. He disliked the fraterninty that he had joined and he did non understand why the college required the classs that it did. He felt that he was made to take excessively much physical instruction and non adequate accent was topographic point on existent faculty members. The summer before his senior twelvemonth he attended the Middlebury School of English at Breadloaf, Vermont. During this summer he had tiffin with Robert Frost. Frost asked to see his work and gave Skinner a batch of enfouragemant. This led him to the determination to go a author.
Skinner & # 8217 ; s male parent was non happy with this determination. He has hoped that his boy would go a lawywer, like himself. His male parent finally agreed to his determination, and Skinner moved back place to get down his new calling. He built himself an office in his parents & # 8217 ; house where he could compose. He was to seek to be a author for two old ages, and if this did non work out he would acquire a existent occupation. It did non work out. Skinner played around alternatively of composing. He finally wrote a second-rate book for the oil companies merely to salvage his dignity. After composing the book, Skinner spent six months in New York.
In the Fall, Skinner went off to Harvard to get down his survey of Psychology. Animal behaviour had ever interested Skinner, but Human behaviour was his chief involvement. He had ever taken notice of the manner that people rea
cted to certain state of affairss. This involvement had become obvious when he was in grade school and had continued throughout the remainder of his life. Skinner worked difficult for the first clip in his life at Harvard. He realized that he was far behind in his surveies. For two old ages he did nil but survey pshchology and travel to his categories. He graduated in 1931.
In the spring of 1936 the terminal of Skinner & # 8217 ; s junior Fellowship was nearing and he had no occupation. The best occupation offer that the Department of Psychology could go through along to him was from a YMCA college. Skinner had a friend who was learning that summer at Minnesota, and he mentioned Skinner to R.M. Elliott, who was looking for person to learn little subdivisions of a large introductory class. This was the first clip that Skinner had taught anything. It was besides the first clip that he had truly learned college pshchology, so he had to analyze difficult to remain in front of his pupils.
Skinner experienced a renewed involvement in Literature when he realized that the written word could besides be analyzed for human behaviour. He stopped seeking to compose for a piece so that he could analyze the work of other people. Skinner & # 8217 ; s intersest in literature was encouraged by his matrimony in 1936 to Yvonne Blue. She had majored in English at the University of Chicago. She was an devouring reader and she attended Skinner & # 8217 ; s summer school categories where he gave a talk on the psychological science of literature. She listened to him and gave him advice on his talks. In the following 10 old ages, he wrote three books all holding to make with the psychological science of literature. Yvonne and Skinner had two girls, Julie and Deborah.
It was the birth of their 2nd kid taht inspired one of Skinner & # 8217 ; s innovations. He invented the & # 8220 ; babe box & # 8221 ; to ease the loads of chilcare for his married woman. The box is still used today, but is non so widespread because alterations in childacare are difficult to do. Another of his most celebrated enterprises was & # 8220 ; undertaking pigion. & # 8221 ; This was an experiment designed to learn pigions to steer missles in the 1930 & # 8217 ; s.
B. F. Skinner died in 1990. He is stilled looked upon today as one of the most influential behaviorailists. His work is still studied and revered for it & # 8217 ; s mastermind. Skinner was an independent mind who studied everyone, including himself.
