- Wikipedia

{"parse":{"title":"B. F. Skinner","pageid":4868,"text":{"*":"

\n\n

B. F. Skinner
Skinner, c. 1950
Born	Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-03-20)March 20, 1904 Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	August 18, 1990(1990-08-18) (aged 86) Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma mater	Hamilton College (AB) Harvard University (PhD)
Known for	Behavior analysis Operant conditioning Radical behaviorism Verbal Behavior (1957)
Spouse	\n Yvonne (Eve) Blue (m. 1936) ^[1]
Children	Julie and Deborah
Awards	National Medal of Science (1968)
Scientific career
Fields	Psychology, linguistics, philosophy
Institutions	University of Minnesota Indiana University Harvard University
\n
Signature

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 \u2013 August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, inventor, and social philosopher.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5] He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.^[6]\n

Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism,^[7] 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),^[8] and to measure rate he invented the cumulative recorder. Using these tools, he and Charles Ferster produced Skinner's most influential experimental work, outlined in their 1957 book Schedules of Reinforcement.^[9]^[10]\n

Skinner was a prolific author, publishing 21 books and 180 articles.^[11] He imagined the application of his ideas to the design of a human community in his 1948 utopian novel, Walden Two,^[3] while his analysis of human behavior culminated in his 1958 work, Verbal Behavior.^[12]\n

Skinner, John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov, are considered to be the pioneers of modern behaviorism. Accordingly, a June 2002 survey listed Skinner as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.^[13]\n

\n\n

v t e Psychology
\n History \n Philosophy \n Portal \n Psychologist \n
Basic psychology	\n Abnormal \n Affective neuroscience \n Affective science \n Behavioral genetics \n Behavioral neuroscience \n Behaviorism \n Cognitive/Cognitivism \n Cognitive neuroscience\n Social \n Comparative \n Cross-cultural \n Cultural \n Developmental \n Differential \n Ecological \n Evolutionary \n Experimental \n Gestalt \n Intelligence \n Mathematical \n Moral \n Neuropsychology \n Perception \n Personality \n Psycholinguistics \n Psychophysiology \n Quantitative \n Social \n Theoretical \n	$\"stylized$
Applied psychology	\n Anomalistic \n Applied behavior analysis \n Assessment \n Clinical \n Coaching \n Community \n Consumer \n Counseling \n Critical \n Educational \n Ergonomics \n Feminist \n Forensic \n Health \n Humanistic \n Industrial and organizational \n Legal \n Media \n Medical \n Military \n Music \n Occupational health \n Pastoral \n Political \n Positive \n Psychometrics \n Psychotherapy \n Religion \n School \n Sport and exercise \n Suicidology \n Systems \n Traffic \n
Methodologies	\n Animal testing \n Archival research \n Behavior epigenetics \n Case study \n Content analysis \n Experiments \n Human subject research \n Interviews \n Neuroimaging \n Observation \n Psychophysics \n Qualitative research \n Quantitative research \n Self-report inventory \n Statistical surveys \n
Concepts	\n Behavior \n Behavioral engineering \n Behavioral genetics \n Behavioral neuroscience \n Cognition \n Competence \n Consciousness \n Consumer behavior \n Emotions \n Feelings \n Human factors and ergonomics \n Intelligence \n Mind \n Psychology of religion \n Psychometrics \n Terror management theory
Psychologists	\n Wilhelm Wundt \n William James \n Ivan Pavlov \n Sigmund Freud \n Edward Thorndike \n Carl Jung \n John B. Watson \n Clark L. Hull \n Kurt Lewin \n Jean Piaget \n Gordon Allport \n J. P. Guilford \n Carl Rogers \n Erik Erikson \n B. F. Skinner \n Donald O. Hebb \n Ernest Hilgard \n Harry Harlow \n Raymond Cattell \n Abraham Maslow \n Neal E. Miller \n Jerome Bruner \n Donald T. Campbell \n Hans Eysenck \n Herbert A. Simon \n David McClelland \n Leon Festinger \n George A. Miller \n Richard Lazarus \n Stanley Schachter \n Robert Zajonc \n Albert Bandura \n Roger Brown \n Endel Tulving \n Lawrence Kohlberg \n Noam Chomsky \n Ulric Neisser \n Jerome Kagan \n Walter Mischel \n Elliot Aronson \n Daniel Kahneman \n Paul Ekman \n Michael Posner \n Amos Tversky \n Bruce McEwen \n Larry Squire \n Richard E. Nisbett \n Martin Seligman \n Ed Diener \n Shelley E. Taylor \n John Anderson \n Ronald C. Kessler \n Joseph E. LeDoux \n Richard Davidson \n Susan Fiske \n Roy Baumeister \n
Lists	\n Counseling topics \n Disciplines \n Organizations \n Outline \n Psychologists \n Psychotherapies \n Research methods \n Schools of thought \n Timeline \n Topics \n
\n Wiktionary definition \n Wiktionary category \n Wikisource \n Wikimedia Commons \n Wikiquote \n Wikinews \n Wikibooks \n

v t e E. L. Thorndike Award recipients
1960s	\n 1964: Sidney L. Pressey \n 1965: William Brownell \n 1966: B. F. Skinner \n 1967: Lee Cronbach \n 1968: Cyril Burt \n 1969: Robert J. Havighurst \n
1970s	\n 1970: John Bissell Carroll \n 1971: Robert L. Thorndike \n 1972: John C. Flanagan \n 1973: Benjamin Bloom \n 1974: Robert M. Gagn\u00e9 \n 1975: J. P. Guilford \n 1976: Jean Piaget \n 1977: David Ausubel \n 1978: Julian Stanley \n 1979: Patrick Suppes \n
1980s	\n 1980: Richard C. Atkinson \n 1981: Jerome Bruner \n 1982: Robert Glaser \n 1983: Jeanne Chall \n 1984: Anne Anastasi \n 1985: Ernst Rothkopf \n 1986: Nathaniel Gage \n 1987: Merlin Wittrock \n 1988: Wilbert J. McKeachie \n 1989: Frank H. Farley \n
1990s	\n 1990: Richard E. Snow \n 1991: Herbert Klausmeier \n 1992: Robert L. Linn \n 1993: Samuel Messick \n 1994: James Greeno \n 1995: Lee Shulman \n 1996: David Berliner \n 1997: Richard C. Anderson \n 1998: Lauren Resnick \n 1999: Albert Bandura \n
2000s	\n 2000: Richard E. Mayer \n 2001: John D. Bransford \n 2002: Joel Levin \n 2003: Robert Sternberg \n 2004: G. Michael Pressley \n 2005: Jacquelynne Eccles \n 2006: Patricia Alexander \n 2007: Jere Brophy \n 2008: Bernard Weiner \n 2009: Carol Dweck \n
2010s	\n 2010: Richard Shavelson \n 2011: Barry Zimmerman \n 2012: Keith Stanovich \n 2013: Sandra Graham \n 2014: Stephen J. Ceci \n 2015: Michelene Chi \n 2016: Edward Haertel \n 2017: Robert Slavin \n 2018: Joanna P. Williams \n 2019: Steve Graham \n
2020s	\n 2020: Thomas L. Good \n 2021: Daniel L. Schwartz \n

v t e Parenting
Kinship terminology	\n Parent \n Mother \n Father \n Adoptive \n Alloparenting \n Coparenting \n Extended family \n Foster care \n Noncustodial \n Nuclear family \n Orphaned \n Shared parenting \n Single parent \n Blended family \n Surrogacy \n In loco parentis \n
Theories \u00b7 Areas	\n Attachment theory \n Applied behavior analysis \n Behaviorism \n Child development \n Cognitive development \n Developmental psychology \n Human development \n Identity formation \n Introjection \n Love \n Maternal bond \n Nature versus nurture \n Parental investment \n Paternal bond \n Pediatrics \n Social emotional development \n Socialization \n Social psychology \n
Styles	\n Achievement ideology \n Atlas personality \n Attachment parenting \n Baby talk \n Buddha-like parenting \n Concerted cultivation \n Enmeshment \n Free-range parenting \n Gatekeeper parent \n Helicopter parent \n Nurturant parenting \n Reflective parenting \n Slow parenting \n Soccer mom \n Strict father model \n Taking Children Seriously \n Theybie \n Tiger parenting \n Work at home parent \n
Techniques	\n After-school activity \n Allowance \n Bedtime \n Child care \n Co-sleeping \n Dishabituation \n Education \n Habituation \n Homeschooling \n Identification (psychology) \n Introjection \n Kommune 1 \n Latchkey kid \n Moral development \n Normative social influence \n Parent management training \n Play (date) \n Role model \n Social integration \n Television \n The talk (race) \n The talk (sex education) \n Toy (educational) \n Positive Parenting Program \n
Child discipline	\n Blanket training \n Corporal punishment in the home \n Curfew \n Grounding \n Positive discipline \n Tactical ignoring \n Time-out \n
Abuse	\n Adverse childhood experiences \n Child abandonment \n Child abuse \n Child labour \n Child neglect \n Cinderella effect \n Codependency \n Dysfunctional family \n Effects of domestic violence \n Incest \n Narcissistic parent \n Parental abuse by children \n Stress in early childhood \n
Legal and social aspects	\n Child custody \n Child support \n Cost of raising a child \n Deadbeat parent \n Disownment \n Family disruption \n Right to family life \n Management of domestic violence \n Marriage \n Parental alienation \n Parental responsibility \n Parents' rights \n Paternity \n Shared parenting \n
Experts	\n Mary Ainsworth \n John Bowlby \n T. Berry Brazelton \n Rudolf Dreikurs \n David Elkind \n Jo Frost \n Haim Ginott \n Thomas Gordon \n Alan E. Kazdin \n Truby King \n Annette Lareau \n Penelope Leach \n Matthew Sanders \n William Sears \n B. F. Skinner \n Benjamin Spock \n
Organizations	\n Families Need Fathers \n Mothers Apart from Their Children \n Mothers' Union \n National Childbirth Trust \n National Fatherhood Initiative \n National Parents Organization \n Parent\u2013teacher association \n Parents Against Child Exploitation \n

Authority control databases $\"Edit$
International	ISNI VIAF FAST WorldCat
National	Germany United States France BnF data Japan Italy Australia Czech Republic Spain Portugal Netherlands Norway Latvia Croatia Greece Korea Sweden Poland Vatican Israel Catalonia Belgium
Academics	CiNii Mathematics Genealogy Project
Artists	MusicBrainz
People	Trove Deutsche Biographie DDB
Other	IdRef SNAC

Biography

Education

Later life

Contributions to psychology

Behaviorism

Foundations of Skinner's behaviorism

1. Origin of operant behavior

2. Control of operant behavior

3. Explaining complex behavior

Reinforcement

Schedules of reinforcement

Token economy

Verbal Behavior

Scientific inventions

Operant conditioning chamber

Cumulative recorder

Air crib

Teaching machine

Pigeon-guided missile

Verbal summator

Influence on teaching

Contributions to social theory

Political views

\"'Superstition' in the Pigeon\" experiment

Criticism

Noam Chomsky

Psychodynamic psychology

J. E. R. Staddon

Professional career

Roles

Awards

Honorary degrees

Honorary societies

Bibliography

See also

References

Notes

Citations

Further reading

External links

B. F. Skinner

Media collections