How Did B F Skinner Study Behavior

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was an American Psychologist born on March 20, 1904, in the small town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. His father was a lawyer and his mother stayed home to care for him and his younger brother. At an early age, Skinner showed an interest in building different gadgets and contraptions. As a student at Hamilton College, B.F. Skinner developed a passion for writing. He tried to become a professional writer after graduating in 1926, but had little success. Two years later, Skinner decided to pursue a new direction for his life. He enrolled at Harvard University to study psychology.

At Harvard, B.F. Skinner looked for a more objective and measured way to study behavior. He developed what he called an operant conditioning apparatus to do this, which became better known as the Skinner box. With this device, Skinner could study an animal interacting with its environment. He first studied rats in his experiments, seeing how the rodents discovered and used to a level in the box, which dispensed food at varying intervals. Later, Skinner examined what behavior patterns developed in pigeons using the box. The pigeons pecked at a disc to gain access to food. From these studies, Skinner came to the conclusion that some form of reinforcement was crucial in learning new behaviors. After finishing his doctorate degree and working as a researcher at …show more content…
Skinner took to chronicling his life and research in a series of autobiographies. He also continued to be active in the field of behavioral psychology, a field he helped popularize and develop. In 1989, Skinner was diagnosed with leukemia. He succumbed to the disease the following year, dying at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on August 18, 1990. While many of his behavioral theories have fallen out of favor, Skinner's identification of the importance of reinforcement remains a critical discovery. He believed that positive reinforcement was a great tool for shaping