Power point-
http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cD1Xo2iDFj
Caitlin
Higgins
ED
5410
Theorist
in Educational Psychology
Summer
I 2016
B.F. Skinner and Theories
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in
Susquehanna Depot, Pennsylvania and died on August 18, 1990 in Cambridge,
Massachusetts of Leukemia. As
a child B.F. Skinner enjoyed school and learning and had a relatively uneventful
childhood until his brother died at the age of 16. Skinner attended Hamilton
College in New York and received his Bachelors in English Literature in 1926.
He then attended Harvard University for graduate studies, where he would
perform very important research and later become a professor at. He went to graduate school to study
psychology and behaviorism after meeting John B. Watson and getting inspired by
him and his work in Behaviorism. In 1937, Skinner married Yvonne Blue and they had two daughters Julie and
Deborah. Throughout his life B.F.
Skinner was an author, psychologist, philosopher and an inventor; he made large
discoveries and added to advancements in the field of psychology
B.F. Skinner was influenced by the works and theories
of Watson, Pavlov and Thorndike, and he used their theories to shape his own
based off aspects of their theories he did or did not agree with. Skinner was influenced by Ivan Pavlov and his
theory of classical conditioning (later developed by John Watson) which
involved learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus that
already brings about a particular response (i.e. a reflex) with a new
(conditioned) stimulus, so that the new stimulus brings about the same
response. John B. Watson was a huge influence to Skinner, he invented the study
of behaviorism and his experiments such as Little Albert and Animal Education
were very influential to many psychologist, especially B.F. Skinner, “In 1913, Watson published the article "Psychology as the
Behaviorist Views It”, which is sometimes called "The Behaviorist
Manifesto". In this article, Watson outlined the major features of his new
philosophy of psychology, called "Behaviorism” (Day, 2016). And Edward
Thorndike and his learning theory that lead to the development of operant
conditioning within behaviorism. In his theory classical conditioning depends
on developing associations between events, operant conditioning involves
learning from the consequences of our behavior. Skinner even modeled his
Skinner Box after Thorndike’s Puzzle Box (McLeod, 2007). In the 1920’s, Watson had left the field of
academic psychology, and Skinner saw his opportunity to get in the field by
working off of and building off of Pavlov’s and Watson’s idea of classical
conditioning, “Skinner's views were slightly less extreme than those of Watson.
Skinner believed that we do have such a thing as a mind, but that it is simply
more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental
events. The work of Skinner was rooted in a view that classical conditioning
was far too simplistic to be a complete explanation of complex human behavior.
He believed that the best way to understand behavior is to look at the causes
of an action and its consequences. He called this approach Operant Conditioning”
(McLeod, 2007). Skinner built upon research that was previously done and used
their findings and his thoughts on their findings to shape and create his ideas
of Operant Conditioning.
In 1938 B.F. Skinner created the term Operant Conditioning,
which is defined as the changing of behavior by the use of reinforcement, which
is given after the desired response (McLeod, 2007). Skinner created an operant
conditioning chamber known as the Skinner Box to measure the operant
conditioning effects on animals including rats and pigeons, “A Skinner box,
also known an operant conditioning chamber, is an enclosed apparatus that
contains a bar or key that an animal can press or manipulate in order to obtain
food or water as a type of reinforcement” (Debell, 1992). The reinforcements must be given
after the desired response to increase or decrease the desired behavior. Skinner
identified three types of responses that can follow behavior, these are
neutral, reinforcements and punishments.
Neutral operant is a response from the environment that neither increases
nor decreases the probability of a behavior being repeated. A reinforcement, is a response from the
environment that increases the probability of a behavior happening again.
Reinforcements can be either positive or negative, but both increase a desired
behavior. And punishers are the last
kind of response, and are a response from the environment that decreases the
likelihood of a behavior being repeated. Skinner’s theory of Operant
Conditioning has had lasting effecting in both psychology and academic
psychology (Woolfolk, 2013).
Operant
conditioning can be used in the classroom to shape performance and can be used
in classroom management techniques. Providing feedback can be instrumental in
shaping of behaviors or performance in the classroom. This can be done by the use of affirmation and
compliments to give positive reinforcement of good behaviors. Positive reinforcement strengthens
a behavior by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. Negative
reinforcement is the removal of an unpleasant reinforcements can also
strengthen behavior. In the classroom negative reinforcements can include: a
student being ignored for inappropriate behaviors. Punishments in the classroom
to decrease an undesired behavior can include phone calls home for tardiness or
being unprepared (McLeod, 2007). Applied Behavior Analysis formed from the
operant conditioning theory it refers to Antecedent, Behavior and Consequence,
the three building blocks of analyzing and changing challenging or difficult
behaviors. Antecedent is the environment the events or behavior that precedes
the Behavior of Interest. Behavior has to do with the behavior that you are
focusing on, it may lead to other undesirable behavior, or contributes to other
undesirable behavior. Consequence is the outcome a child's behavior of choice
with the related outcome. Skinner made huge
discoveries in the field of psychology, but made advancements in the way
learning is considered to happen and how to best aid this. He believed education had two purposes: to
teach verbal and nonverbal behavior and two aid student’s interest in
learning. He thought teachers must know
effective ways of teaching based off student’s behaviors. Skinner believed that for students to learn
they must be engaged and motivated to learn not just passively accepting new
information, they must be interested. The motivation to learn is different for
everyone so you must figure out the best way to motivate and reinforce them to
learn (Friedrichs, 1974).
Skinner’s work made vast developments in the field of
psychology and academic psychology, and influenced many other psychologist and
philosophers after him. Some of the psychologist
that came after Skinner that were inspired by his work in behaviorism and
operant conditioning include: Kohler, Premack and Bandura. In 1924, Kohler
found that primates often seem to solve problems in a flash of insight rather
than be trial and error learning. Also social learning theory by Bandura in
1977, suggests that humans can learn automatically through observation rather
than through personal experience. Both of these psychologist were influenced
and inspired by Skinner’s work and build off of and improved his theories just
as Skinner had done with his influences.
References
Day, R. K. (2016). B.F. Skinner, Ph.D. and Susan M.
Markle, Ph.D.: The Beginnings. Performance Improvement, 55(1), 39-47.
doi:10.1002/pfi.21549
DeBell, C. S. (1992). B.F. Skinner: Myth and
Misperception. Teaching Of
Psychology, 19(2), 68.
Friedrichs, R. W. (1974). THE POTENTIAL IMPACT OF B. F.
SKINNER UPON AMERICAN SOCIOLOGY. American Sociologist, 9(1), 3.
Watson, J. B. (1913).
Psychology as the Behaviorist views it. Psychological
Review, 20, 158–177.
Woolfolk, Anita (2013) Educational Psychology (13th ed.) Needham Heights
Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon
