Skinner's Experimental Analysis Of Behavior example essay topic

The Early Years Burr hus Frederick Skinner was born in 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania during the progressive era. He grew up during the progressive era when optimism was high in America. Skinner's father was moderately successful lawyer and his mother stayed at home and instilled in Skinner hard work and a concern for what others might think. Skinner did not worry about what others thought of his behavior, but he did believe in hard work. Skinner only accepted the wisdom of others if there was hard evidence to accompany. His high school principle wrote him a recommendation to New York's Hamilton College where he attended college from 1922 to 1926.

During his stay at Hamilton College Skinner developed a passion for creative writing. He sent some of his writings to poet Robert Frost hoping for recognition. After he graduated from Hamilton he informed his parents that he wanted to take a year off to write. This created problems for Skinner's parents because he was living at home with a degree and no actual job.

His parents were concerned with what people would think. Skinner eventually realized he was not meant to be a writer, and refereed to the year as his dark year. Some of the material that he read eventually led to his graduate studies in psychology at Harvard University in 1927. During his studies he read several articles on behaviorism, and in 1928 was off to Cambridge, Massachusetts to begin working in the Harvard laboratory on behavioral psychology studies. While at Harvard Skinner developed his system of behaviorism known as operant conditioning. Skinner's first important book The Behavior of Organisms in 1938 summarizes Skinner's first eight years at Harvard.

Skinner spent nine years at the University of Minnesota teaching and conducting research. He then spent three years as head chair of the psychology department at the University of Minnesota. In 1948 Skinner returned to Harvard University as a professor where he remained until his retirement in 1974. Skinner's Experimental Analysis of Behavior Skinner's form of behaviorism became known as operant conditioning.

Skinner is responsible for making the distinction between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. He named classical conditioning type S conditioning and operant conditioning type R conditioning. Type S conditioning refers to the Pavlovian model of conditioning in which the stimulus elicits an identifiable response through procedure of pairing stimuli, one that initiates i a response and one that does not. Skinner referred to this technique as respondent conditioning because the behavior is a response to a specific stimulus. Skinner's operant conditioning or type R conditioning occurs and is followed by a consequence when its chances of reoccurring are determined by those consequences. He called it type R conditioning because the rein forcer is associated with a response.

Example of operant conditioning: If a rat presses a lever and receives food, then the lever pressing has therefore been reinforced, and is likely to occur again. If lever pressing results in a rat being shocked then a negative consequence occurs for that behavior and the chances for behavior occurring again declines. Skinner believed that behavior could be controlled and did not need a study of the brain and nervous system to explain behavior. Skinner's first full-scale attempt at behavioral psychology Skinner's hero was Sir Francis Bacon because Bacon was a scientist who did not want to understand nature, but control it.

Skinner's first full-scale attempt at operant conditioning in behavioral technology was referred to as Project Pigeon. During World War II Skinner obtained funding from the government and private sources to pursue the development of a guidance system using pigeons to direct missiles to targets. Skinner gathered together a group of students from the University of Minnesota and with hard work was able to train pigeons to key peck at a target screen. Skinner built a sophisticated prototype to demonstrate the effectiveness of project pigeon, but the military killed the project. After the ending of project pigeon Skinner was more determined than ever to show operant conditioning through technology.

In the following decades after Project Pigeon Skinner delved into the areas of child development and parenting. Skinner also challenged educational practices and created a "teaching machine" to facilitate learning. The Skinner box Skinner preferred to more informal inductive approach to research, which led to the invention to his famous Skinner box. The box was developed through a trial and error fashion simply as a result of experiments trying to discover organized behavior.

The box, or apparatus was changed in each experiment until it brought to light Skinner's applicability of operant conditioning. Events leading to First Skinner box: Skinner first created a "silent release box", which was designed to introduce rats to mazes. However, Skinner was interested in how rats adapted to sound and their response to stimuli rather than how they performed in a maze. Skinner eventually constructed an eight-foot runway, so that he could monitor the rat's responses from many postural positions. Prototype for Skinner box: The rat presses down a bar, food is delivered, the animal eats the food, and presses the bar again. The Skinner box used controlled conditions.

Overview of B.F. Skinner: Skinner's operant conditioning ideas influenced the areas of psychotherapy and business. Skinner's operant conditioning eventually found its way into the mis ille program. On two early NASA space program flights chimpanzees spent time in space performing operant tasks. Skinner was never elected president of the American Psychological Association, nor research often cited in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

He attracted many graduate students, but few remained operand researchers. Skinner was concerned about the longevity of his brand of behaviorism after his death. Skinner's impact on psychology surpasses that of many psychologists. Skinner has been ranked number one on the all-time list of psychologist by many temporary psychologist and historians. Skinner died in 1990 from Leukemia at age 86, but eight days before his death he delivered his "Can Psychology be a Science of the Mind?" speech at the annual meeting of the APA.

Skinner's quote: "Experimental analysis of behavior is the only hope for the future welfare of human species.".