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Detail of Biography - B. F. Skinner
Name :
B. F. Skinner
Date :
Views :
529
Category :
Birth Date :
20/03/2004
Birth Place :
a Pennsylvania town of Susquehanna
Death Date :
August 18, 1990.
Biography - B. F. Skinner
Not Available
[b]EARLY YEARS[/b][br /]
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[b]1904[/b]
He was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania of Susquehanna. His father’s name was William Skinner. He was a lawyer. His mother’s name was Grace Burrhus. She was a good housewife.[br /]
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[b]1918-19[/b] He read biographies of Francis Bacon, and summaries of his philosophical position. Later on, he was inspired by his thoughts.[br /]
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[b]1926[/b] He graduated from Hamilton College with a degree in English. He tried his hand at writing, but eventually gave it up, because he felt he had nothing important to say.[br /]
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[b]1930[/b] He began to write a book called ‘Something to Think About’. It was never completed.[br /]
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[b]1931[/b] He received a Ph.D. in Psychology from Harvard University.[br /]
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[b]AS A RESEARCHER[/b][br /]
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[b]1936[/b]

He continued his research with the so called ‘Skinner Box’. He developed it to test the effects of behavior modification on laboratory animals. He joined the University of Minnesota. He taught there till 1945. He married Yvonye Blue. She had majored in English at the University of Chicago.[br /]
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[b]1938[/b]

He wrote the book ‘The Behavior of Organisms’. [br /]
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[b]1941[/b]

On a Guggenheim fellowship he wrote a final draft of ‘Verbal Behavior’.[br /]
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[b]1944-45[/b]

The Second World War intervened his research. He picked up the fellowship again and completed the book ‘Verbal Behavior’.
He became Chairman of the Department of Psychology at Indiana.[br /]
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[b]1945-48[/b]

He worked as a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University in Bloomington.[br /]
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[b]SETTLED IN LONDON[/b][br /]
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[b]1948[/b]

He moved to Cambridge where he resided for the rest of his life. He wrote an article ‘Air Crib’. He attracted considerable attention from other psychologists. In this study, his daughter had spent much of her two years.He wrote his controversial novel ‘Walden Two’. It is a novel on life in an Utopian community. It is based on his principles of social engineering.[br /]
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[b]1950[/b]

Dr. Harry Soleman helped him set up a laboratory in Waltham. It was set up for the study of the operant behavior of psychotics. Dr. Soleman was the chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. [br /]
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[b]1953[/b] He wrote ‘Science and Human Behavior’.[br /]
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[b]1954[/b] At the conference on current trends in psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, he demonstrated a machine to teach spelling and arithmetic.[br /]
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[b]1955[/b]

In the summer of that year on the island of Monhegan, Maine, he wrote ‘Freedom and the Control of Men’. He was bitterly attacked especially by people in the humanities. He was called a communist, a Fascist and many other names.[br /]
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[b]1957[/b]

He wrote ‘Verbal Behavior’.[br /]
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[b]AWARDED BEHAVIORIST[/b][br /]
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[b]1958[/b]

He was awarded by the American Psychological Association for his remarkable scientific contribution.[br /]
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[b]1964[/b]

He wrote ‘Behaviorism of Fifty’, he received a Career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.[br /]
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[b]1968[/b]

He was given "National Medal of Science".[br /]
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[b]1969[/b]

He published the book "Contingency of Reinforcement. A Theoretical Analysis’.[br /]
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[b]1971[/b]

He wrote ‘Beyond Freedom and Dignity’. In this book, he made strong implications for changes in our social system, suggesting that the very survival of our society may depend on the adoption of behavior modification approach. He received ‘International Award for study on Mental Retardation’.[br /]
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[b]1972[/b] He was honored with the ‘Humanist Yearly Award’.[br /]
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[b]IN LAST YEARS[/b][br /]
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[b]1974[/b]

He retired himself, but continued to work in the same vein.[br /]
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[b]1976[/b]

He wrote his autobiography ‘Particulars of My Life’.[br /]
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[b]1978[/b]

He was awarded by the American Educational Research Association for his remarkable contribution in the field of educational research and development.[br /]
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[b]1979[/b]

He published a book titled, ‘The Shaping of Behaviorist’.[br /]
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[b]1987[/b]

In his book, ‘Upon Further Reflections’, he narrated his views on the subjects such as World Peace, Evaluation of Education, Old Age and Allied Humanities.[br /]
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[b]1990[/b] He died of leukemia at the age of 86 years, on August 18, 1990.[br /]
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• Education is what survives when what has been forgotten.[br /]
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• Behavior is what an organism can do, or, more accurately, what it is observed by another organism to be doing It is more to the point to say that behavior is that
part of the functioning of an organism which is engaged in action upon or having
commerce with the outside world.[br /]
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• Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.[br /]
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• Physics does not change the nature of the world it studies, and no science of behavior
can change the essential nature of man, even though both sciences yield technologies
with a vast power to manipulate the subject matters.[br /]
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• A behavior followed by a reinforcing stimulus results in an increased probability of
that behavior occurring in the future.[br /]
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• A behavior no longer followed by the reinforcing stimulus results in a decreased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.[br /]
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• The behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequenc modifiestheorganismstendency to repeat the behavior in the future.[br /]
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• With the right behavioral technology, we can design culture.[br /]
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• You may not win very often, but you never know whether and when you’ll win again[br /]
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• Behavior followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus results in an increased probability of that behavior occurring in the future.[br /]
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• A behavior followed by an aversive stimulus results in a decreased probability of the behavior occurring in the future.[br /]
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• If new forms of behavior are created by selection, the faults in variations and selection are a source of fascinating problems. We must adapt to new situations, resolve conflicts, and find quick solutions. A lawful biochemical structure does nothing of the sort.[br /]
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• Important consequences of behavior which could not play a role in evolution because they were not sufficiently stable features of the environment are made effective through operant conditioning during the life time of the individual, whose power in dealing with his world is vastly increased.[br /]
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• The real problem is not whether machines think, but whether men do.[br /]
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• I do not direct my life. I did not design it. I never made decisions. Things always come up and made them for me. That’s what life is.[br /]
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• If you’re old, don’t try to change yourself, change your environment.[br /]
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• The way positive reinforcement is carried out is more important than the amount.[br /]
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• A self is a repertoire of behavior appropriate to a given set of contingencies.[br /]
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• To say that man is sinful because he sins is to give an operational definition of sin.To say tha hesinsbecause he is sinful is to trace his behavior to a supposed inner trait. But whether or not a person engages in the kind of behavior called sinful depends upon circumstances, which are not mentioned in either question. The sin assigned as an inner possession [the sin a person "knows"] is to be found in a history of reinforcement.[br /]
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[b]HIS ACHIEVEMENT[/b][br /]
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B. F. Skinner was an American psychologist, educator and author. For psychologists and people interested in psychology, his contribution is controversial. Although he was honored by many colleges and universities.[br /]
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Skinner received his Ph.D. in 1931. He stayed at Harvard to do research until 1936.[br /]
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Hamilton College gave him an honorary doctorate degree. Moreover, Chicago University, Texas University, Western Washington University honored him with a doctorate degree.[br /]
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[b]1945[/b]

He became chairman of the Psychology department at Indiana university.He was a very active man, doing research and guiding hundreds of doctoral candidates. He wrote many books.[br /]
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He was not successful as a writer of fiction and poems. He is one of our best psychology writers. His book ‘Walden Two’, though it is a fictional account of a community, is based on his behaviorist principles.[br /]
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[b]1958[/b] He was awarded by American Psychological Association for his remarkable contribution in the field of psychology.[br /]
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[b]1964[/b] He received a career Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.[br /]
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[b]1968[/b] He was given the ‘National Medal of Science.’[br /]
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[b]1971[/b]

He achieved the ‘International Award for study on Mental Retardation.’[br /]
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[b]1972[/b]

He was given the Humanist Yearly Award.[br /]
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[b]1978[/b]

He was awarded by American Educational Research association for his remarkable contribution in the field of educational research and development.[br /]
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Skinner was a behaviorist. From 1930 to 1990, he worked continuously on psychological study. He was known as humanist psychologist. His contribution in developing the modern behaviorism is precious.[br /]
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