Burrhus Frederic Skinner by Jose Radin L. Garduque

Burrhus Frederic Skinnerby: Jose Radin L. Garduque

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:o Personal

Background, Education, Career, Studies, Family, Teaching Career, Other Works, Death

o Inventionso Legacies

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Personal Background

BF Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to William and Grace Skinner. He became an atheist when his Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of hell described by his grandmother.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Education

He attended the Hamilton College in New York where he became a member of Lambda Chi Alpha and a writer for the school paper.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Career

After finishing his B.A. in English Literature, he attended the Harvard University where he made an invention called the Skinner Box.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Studies

His encounter with John B. Watson’s Behaviourism led him to a graduate study in psychology. In 1931, he received a Ph.D. from Harvard and remained there as a researcher until 1936.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Family

In the same year, Skinner married Yvonne Blue and had two daughters, Julie and Deborah.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Teaching Career

He then taught at the University of Minnesota and later at Indiana University where he became the chair of psychology department from 1946-47.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Teaching Career

The following year, Skinner returned to Harvard as a professor and remained there for the rest of his life.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Other Works

In 1973, he became one of the signers of Humanist Manifesto II. During his lifetime, he wrote 21 books and made 6 inventions.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Death

BF Skinner died of leukemia on August 18, 1990 and is buried in Massachusetts.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Air Crib – an easily cleaned, temperature and humidity-controlled crib designed to assist in raising babies

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Operant Conditioning Chamber/Skinner Box – designed to measure responses of organisms and their orderly interactions with the environment

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Cumulative Recorder – an instrument used to automatically record behaviour graphically

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Verbal Summator – a device for discovering latent speech

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Pigeon-guided Missile – a missile with three compartments encasing a pigeon in each

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Inventions

Teaching Machine - a mechanical device used to administer a curriculum of programmed instruction

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Radical Behaviorism – the philosophy of the science of behaviour which seeks to understand behaviour as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Schedules of Reinforcement – it can be interval (fixed or variable) and ratio (fixed or variable)

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Behaviorism in Education – brings students’ behaviour under the control of the environment

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Walden Two – a book that discourages war, competition and social strife

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Verbal Behavior - an attempt to extend a new, functional, inductive approach to the complexity of human behaviour

Burrhus Frederic Skinner:Legacies

Beyond Freedom and Dignity – a book that suggests that technology of behaviour could help make a better society

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

A Report in Soc. Sci. 412(Understanding HumanBehavior) under Dr. VimaOlivares in FilamerChristian University, Roxas City, Philippines (Summer 2014)