B.F. Skinner

1904- 1990

Scientist

 

 

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna Pennsylvania. He attended Hamilton College where he received a BA in English Literature. He then went to study at Harvard, where he began to study behaviorism. After briefly returning home to attempt to write a novel he returned to Harvard where he received a Phd in psychology in 1931. After teaching at University of Minnesota and Indiana University he returned to Harvard in 1948 as a tenured professor and their he remained for the rest of his life.

B.F. Skinner believed that behavior of any complexity could be explained by genetic predisposition to conditioned responses. His famed "Skinner box" was used experimentally with animals to demonstrate Skinner's theories of behavior and reinforcement.

Books

B.f. Skinner: A Life