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BFSkinner
Interview with B.F. Skinner
Describe your life and work in the field of psychology.
Please call me Fred. As a boy, I loved building things, especially if they solved problems. I'm still that way. I have a lot of interests, which I guess you could figure out by looking around my study. I do most of my reading in that chair and because my eyesight is poor, a bought a large magnifying glass with a strong light. To keep it from jiggling, I attached the lens with these hooks, pulleys and fishing line to a counterweight. I can put the lens wherever I want and it will stay in place.
If you're wondering about the cardboard over the clock face, I put that up because I found I was getting distracted by checking it all the time. I write my ideas in longhand on large blank sheets of paper so I can record them in different positions but still see them all at once. I tend to do a lot of revision, and I keep old drafts in a cardboard box. I keep everything in cardboard boxes -- notecards, pencils,...
I keep a notebook with me all the time so I can write down ideas. That Japanese sleeping capsule next to the television was a gift from the manufacturer. I sleep her sometimes, so if I wake in the middle of the night, I can get right to my desk without disturbing my wife. I'm a behaviorist, so I modified my environment to work for me (Vargas and Chance, 2002). I am an example of what I believe, that human nature can be viewed in terms of responses to environmental stimuli.
What were your major contributions to the field?
After I received my Ph.D. from Harvard, I spent five years there doing research before accepting a faculty position at the University of Minnesota. I spent three years as a professor at Indiana University and then went back to Harvard, where I was a professor for thirty-six years. I wrote a number of books, including The Behavior of Organisms, Science and Human Behavior, Verbal Behavior, The Analysis of Behavior, the Technology of Teaching, and Recent…
References
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Retrieved April 2, 2008, at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14125483.html The Columbia World of Quotations. (1996). New York: Columbia University Press. Retrieved April 2, 2008, from: www.bartleby.com/66/. David, Daniel. "Quo Vadis Cbt? Trans-Cultural Perspectives on the Past, Present, and Future of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies: Interviews With the Current Leadership in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies." Journal of Cognitive and Behavioral Psychotherapies; one 9/1/2007. Retrieved April 2, 2008, at http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-1364057551.html www.questiaschool.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=95724398 Debell, C.S. (1992) B.F. Skinner: Myth and Misperception. Teaching of
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B.F. Skinner's Motivation of Behavior Skinner remains one of the most important contributors to the field of behaviorism. According to Skinner, individuals are often free to engage in some kind of behavior. However, most times, there are consequences associated with specific deeds or actions. Pleasant consequences are likely to motivate the kind of behavior that brought about the said consequences. This is what Skinner referred to as reinforcement learning. This text
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