BF Skinner - The Man and His Life - Research Paper Example

? BF Skinner: The Man and His Life of B.F. Skinner: The Man and His Life B.F. Skinner was considered one of the most influential psychologists of the 21st Century. He was born and raised in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. As a young boy, he enjoyed working with his hands. He built many toys that included steerable wagons, sleds, and roller scooters (Swenson, 1999). In high school, Skinner was interested in art and literature, and he particularly liked Shakespeare. He eventually met the poet, Robert Frost when he attended Middlebury School of English in Vermont, and this inspired him to study writing as a career. He would write his first book at Middlebury, entitled Digest of Decisions of the Anthracite Board of Conciliation, which was about a coal strike that happened in 1904. After this first book, Skinner decided that writing may not be what he wanted to do for a living, and he changed his work to psychology. His interest in psychology was already cultivated because of his early work in college, and he was particularly interested in philosophy. He had done minimal research on “self observation of memory and perception” (Swenson, 1999, para. 3). He also had learned about Pavlov’s work and other Behaviorists through his first courses in psychology. Skinner won a Harvard Scholarship to study his thesis topic which was about eating rates and how they were motivated by drive and reflex strength. These early experiments would lead him to the study of behavior. This early information brought him to a simple idea of the scientific method: “control the environment and you will see order in behavior” (Swenson, 1999, para. 5). By 1936, Skinner’s scholarship was coming to an end and the Depression had hit America. Skinner quickly found a job, teaching at The University of Minnesota. He taught small courses at first, but through the work at the university, he found his wife, Yvonne Blue, who was an English teacher. His interest in literature helped him find a way to blend psychology and literature, so he taught a psychology of literature class (Swenson, 1999). Skinner moved to Indiana in 1945 and took a job at the University of Indiana, as the Chair of the Psychology department. In 1948, Skinner began teaching at Harvard, where he remained until his death in 1990 (Cherry, 2012). Skinner’s Theory Driscoll (2005) categorizes Skinner as a radical behaviorist. The reason he was considered radical is because he broke away from what other behavior theorists were doing at that time. The other behaviorists believed that if there was an environmental stimulus (S), a response (R) would be created by the stimulus. Other researchers tested this theory and found that behavior was more guided by purpose than by a stimulus response (Driscoll, 2005). These theorists found that there were many different ways to learn, and Skinner found that motivation had a lot to do with how people learned. Skinner’s work was an offshoot of these theories but in a very radical way. Skinner looked for relationships between what he called “environmental barriers” and behavior (Driscoll, 2005, p. 33). Skinner saw that there were environmental cues that stimulated behavior and that these cues, set in motion the conditions for behavior to occur (Driscoll, 2005). The Concept of the Black Box Skinner believed that the person learning is like a black box and no one really knows what is going on inside this black box. He was famous for this black box analogy. The person teaching the learner does not need to know what is going on inside the box to understand the individual’s behavior. Skinner believed that paying attention to learning theories was not necessary to gather “empirical data” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 33) to gain more information about behavioral change. Skinner did not want to call his theory radical behavioral theory because he saw it more as an “experimental analysis of behavior” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 33). Experimental Analysis of Behavior Skinner was more interested in finding ways that the environment could be manipulated in such a way that behavior change could take place. Skinner’s main focus was to “discover the laws of learning” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 34). He saw that permanent behavior change indicated that learning had occurred, and he thought that this change could be seen if people were observed over time. In making this observation, Skinner found two types of behavior that he called respondent and operant behavior (Driscoll, 2005). Respondent and Operant Behavior Skinner stated that respondent behavior happened as a reaction to a particular stimulus. An example that Driscoll (2005) used was a loud noise that startles a child. Operant behavior is “emitted by an organism” (Driscoll, 2005, p. 34). The way that Skinner explained this was that all organisms emit something, and this is what he focused on. In this student’s opinion, some of this emission seems to happen because of instruction by something (someone) outside the organism, and is more a learned behavior. Skinner said that a bird pecking food was operant behavior and a child raising their hand in a class was the same. However, it seems that in the first case, it was instinct and in the second, it was conditioned over time. Skinner also said that in order to understand why some of the operants were expressed by an individual, the individual had to look at the environment of the individual. Skinner believed that there was a way to look at behavior, which is explained below: S R S Discriminative Operant Contingent response response stimulus Skinner believed that all learning could be explained through this simple diagram, and that learning was either retained or lost. In order for learning to be retained, it had to be reinforced. Skinner believed that some type of reward was necessary in order for someone to change their behavior. His theory also states that if an individual received a negative consequence after a certain response, they were more likely not to repeat their response (Driscoll, 2005). An example of both types of reinforcements can be seen in observing small children. When a child learns to go to the bathroom without being told, parents may clap for their child (positive reward and reinforcement), which makes the child want to perform this task again. If a child puts their hand on a hot stove, they will take their hand away quickly, and realize that this was not a good thing to do (negative reinforcement). Each time they go past the stove, they may think about what happened, and move away from the stove (according to Skinner’s theory). Skinner believed that the researcher must look to understand why a certain behavior occurred and what stimulus (consequence) made the behavior change. Once Skinner understood this concept for himself, he created learning principles to explain why behavior was strengthened or weakened (Driscoll, 2005). Weakening and Strengthening Behavior Skinner’s theory suggests that the behaviors that are reinforced will be the ones that should be strengthened, and those behaviors that are not desired, should be weakened. However, Skinner also found that the contingent stimulus, if it was presented after a specific response, could influence whether the behavior would reoccur or not. Skinner showed that using positive reinforcement was important to strengthening a response. This idea of positive reinforcement is seen on a daily basis. As an example, the student in a class, works on course requirements, and is rewarded with a grade. People, who work in a job, may receive bonuses or other incentives to do produce high performance. Skinner saw that there were many rein forcers that could be used. The chart below shows examples of positive reinforcers: Figure 1: Types of Reinforcers Primary Reinforce Conditional Reinforcer …a stimulus whose reinforcement value is biologically determined. …a stimulus that acquires reinforcement value through association with a primary reinforcer. Examples: Food, sleep Examples: Money, gold stars 1.1 This chart shows the types of reinforcers that Skinner found in his research (Driscoll, 2005, p. 38) The primary reinforcers are based on a biological need. As an example, food and shelter are considered basic needs for people. Hunger is one that is important because when a person is hungry, they will do something immediately to stop their hunger. In Skinner’s examples, he was able to train mice to push a lever in order to obtain food. However, this type of reinforcement does not always work for humans (Driscoll, 2005). The conditioned reinforcers have already been conditioned because of their interaction with a primary reinforcer. An example of this is when a parent provides gold stars on a chart in a child’s room for cleaning up their room. Also, praise is a reinforcer for some people. Skinner called praise a social reinforcer because it was not tangible, but it still had a strong effect on humans and their behavior. Skinner also showed that punishment did not work as a reinforcer. He suggested that punishment was a short term solution to unwanted behavior. A point that Driscoll (2005) makes is that he person administering the punishment expects the undesired behavior to stop and never be shown again. But punishment, by its nature, is not effective. A parent who spanks their child often finds that a child continues to do the unwanted behavior regardless of the spankings after awhile. In other words, sometimes the behavior is more strongly conditioned than the punishment. In some cases, the act of punishment provides pain, and conditions emotional trauma in the child, instead of stopping the behavior. Also, if punishment creates fear, an avoidant or escape behavior can be conditioned instead of stopping the behavior (Driscoll, 2005). Skinner gives an understanding of behavior that is used in many programs that works with children and adults today. Conclusion B.F. Skinner was a man before his time and he created an opportunity for people to study behavior in a way that was not done before his work. Skinner understood that when working with humans, a positive response to behavior was more important and long lasting than using punishment. Skinner also understood that behavior change could occur once an individual found the motivation to change the behavior. Often this motivation was found through manipulating an environment until the behavior change occurred. Skinner understood that if someone wanted to decrease a behavior, positive reinforcement to strength the wanted behavior was better than attempting to punish the unwanted behavior. References Cherry, C. (2012). B. F. Skinner Biography (1904-1990). About.com. Retrieved from http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_skinner.htm Driscoll, C. (2005). Psychology of learning for instruction, 3rd edition, Boston: Pearson. Swenson, C. (1999). Burrhus Frederick Skinner 1904-1990. Muskingum College. Retrieved from http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/skinner.htm Read More