Life Span Development and Personality on B.F. SKINNER - Essay Example

Life Span Development and Personality on B.F. SKINNER Skinner was a psychologist from America, behaviorist, philosopher and inventor. He lived between the years 1904 and 1990. He was the pierce of Edgar, Harvard university philosophy professor from the year 1958 until when he retired in the year 1974. He was born to William and Grace in a town called Pennsylvania. (Gross 1972).His dad was a solicitor while the mother was a housewife. He later in life becomes a heathen after a teacher who was a Christian was trying to appease his hell fear that was described by his grandma. Edward his brother who was younger than skinner by two and a half years passed on at 16 years after suffering from cerebral outflow. He attended in the New York a college of Hamilton with intensions of becoming a writer. This dream was changed later in life. He attended, after receiving his B.A in literature, Harvard University in the year 1926 where he researched, taught and finally became the member of the board. He invented his prototype for the Skinner box while at Harvard University. His friend convinced him that he could make a tentative science from the learning of behavior. This made him join his friend and in this, they made different tools for small experiments. He successfully tried to note down a great novel, after his graduation, while he lived with the parents whom later he named it “dark ages” (carpenter, 1974). He in a little while became dissatisfied with his literary skills despite the encouragement from genius who were widely renowned, known as Robert. He resolved that he had minimal world experience and no strong personal perspective from which to transcribe. His meeting with Watson’s behaviorism directed him into graduate study in psychology and later to his own operant behaviorism development. 1n 1931, from Harvard University, he received a Ph.D. and remained there as a researcher till the year 1936, (Gross 1972). As a contentious figure, this man Skinner has been depicted in several ways. Much of his censure derived from his proclivity for attempting to apply science verified and proven in the laboratory environments at the universal level. F. Skinner describes his childhood in Pennsylvania as warm and stable (Leibert & Spiegler 1973). As a boy, he enjoyed building and things invention, a skill which he would later in life use in his own psychological experiments. There were some forces that influenced Skinner in his developmental psychology. They include Watson, and also his behavior as he was a child of building things which later in life it helped him in his psychology life. (Gross 1972). Moral development The moral development emphasizes on the understanding, emergence and change of behavior from an infant age through adulthood. Decency is defined as principles of how people ought to treat other people with respect to fairness, rights and other people’s welfare. To examine how people get to understand ethics, it is indispensable to quantify their beliefs, feelings, behaviors and attitudes that subsidize to the decency understanding, (Leibert & Spiegler, 1973). Relation between the decency actions and decency (moral) emotions has been researched on extensively. Infants express feelings of care towards fellows showing concern for others’ well-being. Research shows that when compassion is included in an individual, he or she is more likely to be involved in successive pro-social conduct. Additionally, some other research has also examined emotions of disgrace and culpability in relation to juveniles’ emphatic and pro-social conducts, (Carpenter, 1974). Heredity influences are the ones which are inherited from the parent to the children while the environmental influences are experienced in a surrounding that one is. As we can see, B.F. Skinner was influenced so much in the environment as listed above on the surrounding he was in. He used to make gadgets not knowing that he will once be a scholar in the philosophy and psychology world.as his family referred to him, skinner enjoyed education at his high school level. He accredited his teacher with motivating in him a sense of intelligent individuality and inquisition. After Shakespeare’s “as you like it” authorship debate, he developed a concern in the inductive method in science, which was to frame his later trials. Despite the interests, the limitations of Susquehanna community in the small town presented obstacles to the future motivations. Being eager to run away from then town, where he had spent much of his lifetime, \skinner applied to a college in Clinton, New York. His family later relocated and he took the three hour training ride to Clinton. (Carpenter 1974). Theories Trait personality theory Few things that spring to one’s mind when he/she is asked to describe personality of a close friend are descriptive terminologies such as outgoing, even tempered and kind. These are the character traits and exactly, what do they mean? A trait can be a relatively stable characteristic that causes people to behave in some ways. The approach of character traits to personality is one of the key theoretical areas in the personality study. The trait theory suggests that different personalities are composed of broad natures. Unlike many other personality theories, such as humanistic or psychoanalytic theories, the approach of trait theory to personality is concentrated on differences between the individuals or persons. Interaction and the combination of various traits form a personality that is exclusive to each person. The theory of trait is focused on classifying and quantifying these individual personality characteristics, (Gross, 1972). Social theory If individuals were to depend on the effects of their own deeds to inform them what to do, learning would be extremely arduous, leave alone perilous. Good enough, maximum human behavior is learned observationally through molding. From seeing others, a person forms an idea of how new behaviors are being performed and later this oblique information serves as a guide for deed, (Carpenter, 1974). Theory of social learning which was proposed by a psychologist who was known as Albert has become the most influential theory of learning and development. Being rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, he believed that direct fortification could not account for every learning category. The theory added a social section, which was arguing that individuals can learn new info and behaviors by watching other persons. Known as learning or modeling which is observational, this learning kind can be used in explaining a wide variety of behaviors, (Leibert & Spiegler 1973). B.F. Skinner held a strict behaviorist viewpoint and he argued that if human beings were to be transformed, then also the surrounding must be transformed and not the inner self as other psychologists may advocate. According to him, beings will act in ways that are likely to produce fortification. According to hi, all behaviors are a consequence of fortification which in turn increases the probability of that behavior be it negatively or positively. Hence, the certain behavior chosen in specific situation will depend on the outcome that is expected, (Gross, 1972). A person learns to discriminate and this is when generality takes place ensuring that behavior is the unavoidable result of fortification has come from experience with animals in environments that are restricted. Social theory explains much about B.F. Skinner since he advocates for the environment to change then lifestyle of an individual. Since his childhood, we have seen how the environment and the things that surrounded him impacted his life. He was a boy who uses to build things and also interact with people like the friend who made the Skinner box. He was influenced by her high school teacher socially together with his parents at large. B.F. Skinner is influenced so much by this social theory compared to the other theories such as the trait theory, humanistic theory and many more theories which are not mentioned. In conclusion, his life from infancy to old age has been influenced by the environment and then social life, (Leibert & Spiegler 1973). Works Cited Carpenter F. The Skinner Primer - Behind Freedom and Dignity. The Free Press (Macmillan Publishing Company).1974. Gross, D. R. Psychology, the Science of Mind and Behaviour. Stoughton & Hodder, London. 1972. Spiegler, M. & Leibert R M. Personality Strategies and Issues. Brooks Publishing Company. 1973. Read More