Skinner Biography And Contributions

Brought up with an old fashioned nature, Skinner was a celebrated American psychologist. He was born to a family wherein he has a lawyer for a father and a rather intelligent and strong willed mother. He was born on the 20th of March in the year 1904. He was a very active child who loved school a lot. One of his interests was to build things outdoors. However, there were depressing instances in his childhood as well. One of these instances involved the death of his brother at the age of 16. B. F. Skinner was born in Pennsylvania, Susquehana.

He was raised to be an American, but sources say he has a trace of English in his ancestral line. He studied in New York at the Hamilton College, and attained his degree in English. He participated in a lot of extra curricular activities in school. But what could be remembered about him in that academic instituion is to have been required to attend church every day as an Atheist. One of his dreams was to become a good writer, and he tried to achieve that by sending copies of his stories and poetry. He tried to focus on building his craft, but in the end, he finally realized that writing would no be the career for him.

With this in mind, he instead hesitated with his writing lifestyle and took his masters and doctorate degrees on pschology in Harvard. He led the Psychology Department of Indiana University as the chairperson in the year 1945. He was invited to be at Harvard, where he stayed until he passed. He achieved a lot of research and application about his theories and studiies. But one remained highly significant. When he failed to become the writer he hoped himself to be, he became the scholar that will forever be remembered for his contributions to the society and to the acedeme.

He was considered as the most celebrated psychologist, after Freud. He remains to be remembered to today because his passing was not yet that long ago. With that said, the impact he had on the country was well remembered and creditted for. Some of his significant sttudies was on the theory of Operant Condition. As the basis of the theories that followed this one, his theory became of the most memorable theories. This theory involves how people are merely bouncing in their own world, doing what it was doing when he was seen.

He also called this operating due to the nature that it involves reaction, brought about a certain stimulus. In other terms, a person does one thing and experiences consequences. The next time he experiences a similar stimulus, he would try to evade the consequences that follows it—either by rejecting the possibility or changing certain elements. This theory began the line of other theories established under his name and study. By this, he was made famous. A lot of people got curious about his discoveries, and these in turn, were shared to a lot of other people.

His knowledge is perhaps his greatest asset, without it, he would not have been able to establish himself in the manner that his theories are well taken in academic institutions. His life was not only introduced to a wide array of possibilities when he began to study psychology, but he was able to establish his mark in the history of man. He began by dreaming of . However, in the end, he got himself into psychology, and discovered that this would be much preferable. Reference Boeree, C. G. (2006). B. F. Skinner. Retrieved April 11, 2008 from http://webspace. ship. edu/cgboer/skinner. html.