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Jan 1, 1904 — Jan 1, 1990· 86 yrs

UNITED STATES AUTHOR · PSYCHOLOGY · BEHAVIORISM

B. F. Skinner

Also known as: B.F. Skinner, B. F. (Burrhus Frederic) Skinner

22
BOOKS
4.4
AVG RATING (12)
5
READERS

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1948 until his retirement in 1974. Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. To study operant conditioning, he invented the operant conditioning chamber (aka the Skinner box), and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder.

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Wikipedia

By the middle of the seventeenth century it had come to be understood that the world was enclosed in a sea of air, much as the greater part of it was covered by water.

— from Science And Human Behavior, 1965

Most acclaimed

#1

B.F. Skinner's Walden 2

1984

4.0 (3)

This fictional outline of a modern utopia has been a center of controversy ever since its publication in 1948. Set in the United States, it pictures a society in which human problems are solved by a scientific technology of human conduct. It is now widely recognized that great changes must be made in the American way of life. Not only can we not face the rest of the world while consuming and polluting as we do, we cannot for long face ourselves while acknowledging the violence and chaos in which we live. The choice is clear: either we do nothing and allow a miserable and probably catastrophic future to overtake us, or we use our knowledge about human behavior to create a social environment in which we shall live productive and creative lives and do so without jeopardizing the chances that those who follow us will be able to do the same.-Back cover.

#2

The technology of teaching

1968

5.0 (1)
#3

A matter of consequences

1983

0.0 (0)

The first two volumes of Dr. Skinner's autobiography (Particulars of My Life and The Shaping of a Behaviorist) revealed his small-town boyhood and youth, and mapped out the development and implementation of his psychological theories, his experimental studies, and his writing, bringing us up to the time of the publication of Walden Two, perhaps the most successful modern utopian novel. In the present volume, he applies himself to a further explanation of his methods and philosophy, and delineates the ways in which his ideas have changed, grown, and been reinforced. This is the third and final volume of his autobiography.

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