How Did B. F. Skinner Influence Behaviorism

Burrhus Frederic Skinner, more commonly known as B.F. Skinner, is perhaps one of the most important and influential behaviorist. Born on March 20th, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, Skinner was the son of Grace and William Skinner, older brother of Edward Skinner, who died at the young age of 16 due to a cerebral hemorrhage. Skinner began his studies at Hamilton College, where he began his pursuit of becoming a writer. Attending a religious schooled proved to be difficult for Skinner, due to his atheism. After completing his B.A. in literature, Skinner began attending Harvard, where he would eventually earn his PhD, become a teacher, and begin his research. B.F. Skinner is most commonly known for his work on radical behaviorism and operant

The person or animal begins life with a fresh start, and throughout time behavior is framed using techniques like positive and negative reinforcement. Using techniques such as positive and negative reinforcements increase the likelihood of the preceding behavior to be repeated. B.F. Skinner himself said “The consequence of behavior determines the probability that the behavior will occur again.” In comparison to those techniques used to aid the conditioning process, there are also techniques used to decrease the probability of the preceding behavior to be repeated. One technique like this for example is using punishment. There are both positive and negative punishments; a positive punishment will show he function of a stimulus, where a negative punishment will show the confining of stimulus. B.F. Skinner’s idea of radical behaviorism was entirely different from any there behaviorist or behaviorism school at the time. The entirety of his system was based on operant conditioning, which is the approach that a behavior is followed by a consequence, and the nature of the consequence adjusts the person or animals impulse to repeat the