B. F. Skinner

**Burrhus Frederic Skinner** (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was a leading American psychologist and author.

Skinner was the leading behaviorist in psychology; he built on the work of John B. Watson, and added the idea of operant conditioning. These two American psychologists paid no attention to mental states and "thinking" (terms that they thought  were unscientific) but dealt only with visible behaviors. Skinner's work had effects on education (programmed learning) and on behavior therapy for various psychological problems. He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974, and then Emeritus Professor until 1990.

Skinner was also a social philosopher who wanted to change society, and wrote a eutopian novel, in which the science of human behavior is used to eliminate poverty, sexual oppression, government as we know it, and create a lifestyle without war. He wrote poetry, and three volumes of autobiography.

## Life

Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to Grace and William Skinner.
His father was a lawyer. Skinner became an atheist after a liberal Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the Hell that his grandmother described.
- "Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it".

Skinner attended Harvard University after receiving his B.A. in English literature in 1926. After graduation, he spent a year at his parents' home in Scranton and attempted to become a writer of fiction. He tried to become a writer in Greenwich Village. He soon became disillusioned with his literary skills and concluded that he had little world experience and no strong personal perspective from which to write. His encounter with John B. Watson's _Behaviorism_ led him into graduate study in psychology and to the development of his own operant behaviorism.

Skinner received a PhD from Harvard in 1931 and remained there as a researcher until 1936. He then taught at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and later at Indiana University, where he was chair of the psychology department from 1946 to 1947. He returned to Harvard in 1948 and stayed there for the rest of his career.

In 1936, Skinner married Yvonne Blue. The couple had two daughters, Julie (m. Vargas) and Deborah (m. Buzan). He died of leukemia on August 18, 1990, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

## Awards

- 1968 National Medal of Science from President Lyndon B. Johnson
- 1971 Gold Medal of the American Psychological Foundation.
- 1972 Humanist of the Year Award.
- 1990 Citation for Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Psychology

## Written Works

- 1938. _The behavior of organisms: an experimental analysis_. <small>, </small>
- 1948. _Walden Two_. <small></small>
- 1953. _Science and human behavior_. <small></small>
- 1957. _Schedules of reinforcement_, with C.B. Ferster. <small></small>
- 1957. _Verbal behavior_. <small></small>
- 1961. _The analysis of behavior: a program for self instruction_, with James G. Holland. This self-instruction book is no longer in print, but the B.F. Skinner Foundation web site has an interactive version. <small></small>
- 1968. _The technology of teaching_. New York: Appleton-Century-Croft.
- 1969. _Contingencies of reinforcement: a theoretical analysis_. <small></small>
- 1971. _Beyond freedom and dignity_. <small></small>
- 1974. _About behaviorism_. <small>; </small>
- 1978. _Reflections on behaviorism and society_. <small></small>
- 1980. _Notebooks_, edited by Robert Epstein. <small></small>
- 1982. _Skinner for the Classroom_, edited by R. Epstein. <small></small>
- 1983. _Enjoy old age: a program of self-management_. (with M.E. Vaughan)
- 1987. _Upon further reflection_. <small></small>
- 1989. _Recent issues in the analysis of behavior_. <small></small>
- 1959, 1961, 1972 and 1999. _Cumulative Record: a selection of papers_, as _Cumulative Record: definitive edition_. This book includes a reprint of Skinner's October 1945 Ladies' Home Journal article, _Baby in a Box_, Skinner's original, personal account of the much-misrepresented 'Baby in a box' device. <small> (paperback)</small>

### Autobiography

- Skinner B.F. 1976. _Particulars of my life: Part 1 of an autobiography_. <small></small>
- Skinner B.F. 1979. _The shaping of a behaviorist: Part 2 of an autobiography_. <small></small>
- Skinner B.F. 1983. _A matter of consequences: Part 3 of an autobiography_. <small>, </small>

### Articles by B.F. Skinner

- Two types of conditioned reflex and a pseudo type (1935) _Journal of General Psychology_, **12**, 66-77.
- "Superstition" in the pigeon (1947) _Journal of Experimental Psychology_, **38**, 168-172.
- Are theories of learning necessary?  _Psychological Review_,**57**, 193-216, 1950.

## Other websites

- National Academy of Sciences biography.
- The B. F. Skinner Foundation.
- B.F. Skinner profile, NNDB.

## Infobox (scientist)

- **name**: Burrhus Frederic Skinner
- **image**: B.F._Skinner_at_Harvard_circa_1950.jpg
- **birth place**: Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
- **death place**: Cambridge, Massachusetts
- **nationality**: United States, American
- **field**: Psychologist
- **work institutions**: University of Minnesota
Indiana University
Harvard University
- **alma mater**: Hamilton College
Harvard University
- **known for**: Behavior analysis
Operant conditioning
Radical behaviorism
Verbal Behavior
Operant conditioning chamber
- **influences**: Charles Darwin
Ivan Pavlov
Ernst Mach
Jacques Loeb