Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER
    Ebook82 pages57 minutes

    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER

    By Gale and Cengage

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Perfect for research assignments in psychology, science, and history, this concise study guide is a one-stop source for in-depth coverage of major psychological theories and the people who developed them. Consistently formatted entries typically cover the following: biographical sketch and personal data, theory outline, analysis of psychologist's place in history, summary of critical response to the theory, the theory in action, and more.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateJan 27, 2015
    ISBN9781535831529
    A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students: BURRHUS FREDERIC (B.F.) SKINNER

    Read more from Gale

    Related to A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students

    Related ebooks

    Teaching Methods & Materials For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      What Pop Psychology Gets Wrong

      Jul 16, 2020

      What Pop Psychology Gets Wrong
      8 min read

    • Article

      Poor Social Skills May Harm Your Physical Health

      Nov 6, 2017

      New research links struggling in social situations with poor physical health. “We’ve known for a long time that social skills are associated with mental health problems like depression and anxiety,” says Chris Segrin, head of the communication depart

      2 min read

    • Article

      How Women Came to Dominate Neuroendocrinology

      Aug 16, 2018

      When Kathleen Morrison stepped onto the stage to present her research on the effects of stress on the brains of mothers and infants, she was nearly seven and a half months pregnant. The convergence was not lost on Morrison, a postdoctoral researcher

      9 min read

    • Article

      What Makes Us Better

      Jun 3, 2019

      Norton, 226 pp., $27.95 Crown, 261 pp., $27 THESE TWO NEW books give lucid, stimulating accounts of recent discoveries in neuroscience and psychology. Both authors aim to challenge antiquated views of the brain and human behavior. In so doing, they

      3 min read

    • Article

      When Destructive Behavior Makes Biological Sense: For people raised in chaos, risk-taking is hardwired.

      Dec 3, 2015

      Robin Marvel was never supposed to succeed. By the time she was a teenager she’d watched her mother be violently beaten by her father and a number of boyfriends, been sexually assaulted herself, moved haphazardly around the country, become an alcohol

      11 min read

    • Article

      The New Demonology

      Nov 30, 2023

      The controversy caused by allegations of Satanic child abuse (SCA) provides a good example of how a powerful fantasy can disturb whole sections of society. To make sense of the most bizarre rationalisations, we must look at the imaginative processes

      16 min read

    • Article

      Interesting Slices Of Life

      Feb 6, 2019

      Researchers explored how the degree of messiness in your workspace affects perceptions of your personality. Subjects were randomly assigned to sit in either a researcher’s office that was clean and uncluttered, or in another office that was either “s

      3 min read

    • Article

      Lust for Science

      Nov 1, 2019

      Lust for Science
      14 min read

    • Article

      Best Of The Best: Here Are The Finalists In The NPR Student Podcast Challenge

      May 27, 2020

      Despite the coronavirus pandemic that closed schools nationwide, students from 46 states and the District of Columbia submitted entries. We've narrowed those down to 25 finalists.

      4 min read

    • Article

      The Story Of Your Life

      Mar 6, 2019

      The Story Of Your Life
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Mother of Conspiracies

      Dec 17, 2020

      The Mother of Conspiracies
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Kids Are Alright

      Aug 27, 2021

      The Kids Are Alright
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Kids Are Alright

      Aug 27, 2021

      The Kids Are Alright
      13 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Psychologists and Their Theories for Students - Gale

      problems.

      BIOGRAPHY

      The early years

      B.F. Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, a small railroad town located in northeastern Pennsylvania. Skinner wrote three volumes of autobiography during his later years, and much of what we know of his earliest years comes from his own recollection.

      Skinner was the older of two children and was brought up in a home with rigid standards enforced by his mother Grace Burrhus. Like most children in the early 20th century, Skinner and his younger brother Edward (called Ebbie) grew up in an atmosphere where a strict code of conduct was followed. Grace clearly attempted to pass this strong social code to Skinner (called Fred), by expressing disapproval when he wavered from the expected norm. Skinner seemed to be especially receptive to praise from his parents, though it was apparently not given in great quantity. It is an interesting parallel that later his theory of operant conditioning would emphasize the crucial effect of positive reinforcement on behavior.

      Skinner's father, William, was an only child and lived most of his life in Susquehanna. After finishing high school, William worked for a short period as a draftsman in the Erie Railroad Engineering Department. Because he showed little mechanical aptitude, he decided in 1895 to enroll in law school in New York. After passing the bar examination in 1896, he opened a law practice and was interested in making his mark amid the opportunities that were present in the ever-changing cultural landscape of the early twentieth century. He was successful as an attorney, political orator, and town booster, but was also notoriously boastful about his accomplishments to peers and underlings.

      Skinner recalled his father as a gentle parent who never physically punished him, preferring verbal disappointment or good-natured ridicule as the preferred form of discipline. His father never missed an opportunity, however, to inform him of the punishments which were waiting for him if he turned out to have a criminal mind. His father once took his eldest son through the county jail to show what life would be like inside a prison.

      Despite William's verbosity in the community, at home he seemed to live under the control of his wife's domineering personality. She acted in a condescending way toward her husband, and according to Skinner's account, the two were never very close emotionally.

      Grace, Skinner's mother, was the oldest of four children and three years younger than her husband. She apparently was quite attractive and had a gifted singing voice, which she regularly used in her performances at the Susquehanna Hogan Opera. She attended Susquehanna High School and had ambitions to become a secretary, which she eventually realized when she was hired by the Erie Railroad in 1901. It was during this time that she met William and was impressed by his rising reputation as a lawyer and political speaker. They were married in 1902 and had a much more promising future since the economic depression and widespread labor unrest of the 1890s had abated. American women of that era were expected to sacrifice their careers when they married, and Grace was no exception. Even though she still cared a great deal about her standing in the community, her status would be associated with William's professional position.

      Skinner's brother Ebbie was two and a half years younger than he and appeared to be the favored child of his parents. Ebbie was an affable child who raised pigeons and played the clarinet. Ebbie was more outgoing than Fred and seemed to have a social grace that Fred lacked. Yet Fred was apparently not jealous of his brother and even appeared to like him. As Ebbie grew older, he proved to be much better at sports and more socially popular than his older brother. Ebbie often would tease Fred about his literary and artistic interests. Tragically, Ebbie died when he was 16 years old due to a massive brain aneurysm. The loss of Ebbie was devastating to the Skinners, especially William, who seemed thereafter to lose a part of himself he was never quite able to recover. Perhaps this was related to William's secret favoritism of his younger son over Fred. Years later, while reflecting on this tumultuous period, Frederic Skinner admitted that he was not much moved by his brother's death and subsequently felt guilty for his lack of emotion.

      PRINCIPAL PUBLICATIONS

      About Behaviorism. 1974.

      The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self-Instruction. 1961.

      The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. 1938.

      Beyond Freedom and Dignity. 1971.

      The Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis. 1969.

      Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition. 1959, 1961, and 1972.

      Enjoy Old Age: A Program of Self-Management. 1983.

      A Matter of Consequence. 1983.

      Notebooks. 1980.

      Particulars of My Life: Part One of an Autobiography. 1976.

      Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior. 1989.

      Reflections on Behaviorism and Society. 1978.

      Schedules of Reinforcement. 1957.

      Science and Human Behavior. 1953.

      The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part Two of an Autobiography. 1979.

      Skinner for the Classroom.

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1