B.F. Skinner
One of the most influential psychologist ever
The Beginning
B.F. or Burrhus Fredrick Skinner was born on March 20th of 1904 in the town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. B.F. Skinner enjoyed working with his hands, when he was young he spent his days building steerable wagons and sleds.
Background information
B.F. had a wife named Yvonne Blue , and two daughters ,Julie ,and Deborah. B.F won many awards including the Human of the Year award in 1972, and the a Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology in the year 1990. B.f. was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.
Inventions
Operant Conditioning Chamber
The Operant conditioning chamber is a device designed to gauge how different animals reacted and interacted with their surrounding environments.
The Air Crib
The air crib was a temperature controlled crib that was developed to encourage a child’s independence while minimizing discomfort and decreasing child care related tasks.
Cumulative Recorder
The device a tool to measure and document behavior geographically.
Contribution to to psychology
Where he made his mark
He influenced behaviorism through his research on reinforcement, and focused heavily on the exploration of negative and positive reinforcement and the effects they had on behavior. His theory of Radical Behaviorism states that internal perceptions are not based on a psychological level of consciousness, but rather on an individuals’ own physical body. He theorized that everybody experiences a lifetime of genetic and external histories that result in behaviors. The book Verbal Behaviorism is the sum of his work, and although not widely accepted at the time of its publication, has gained broad interest in recent years.
The Ending
B.F. Skinner died August 18 in1990 of leukemia. Skinner died in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Burrhuss Fredrick Skinner has not just left his mark on psychology he left his mark on the world.