BF Skinner
On August 10, 1990 Burrhus Frederick Skinner received a citation for lifetime contribution to psychology from the American Psychological Association. It reads inpart: �With great sensitivity to the human condition combined with rigorous standards and a broad outlook, you laid the foundation for innovative applications of your work in clinical psychology, education, behavioral medicine, mental retardation, brain injury, and countless other areas.
As a citizen of the world, you provide thoughtful, often provocative, and always compassionate insights into such uniquely human endeavors as ethics, freedom, dignity, governance, and peace. You fundamentally and forever changed our view of the ...
Want to read the rest of this paper?
Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay
and over 50,000 other term papers
|
be his behavioral work with the theory of operant conditioning. Skinner himself says that, �When I am asked what I regard as my most important contribution, I always say the original experimental analysis of operant behavior and its subsequent extension to more complex cases.� (Bigge, Shermis. 95)
According to Skinner operant conditioning, like all psychological processes, is a product of natural selection and deals with stimuli or consequences that act as reinforcers to behavior. Milhollan and Forisha say that, �The stimuli that happen to act as reinforcers fall into two classes, positive and negative reinforces. A positive reinforcer is a stimulus which when presented, acts to strengthen the behavior it follows...there are negative reinforcers that may be used to condition operant behavior. Some stimuli by their nature strengthen responses through their removal.� (Milhollan and Forisha 52) Skinner illustrates this in his book �About Behaviorism� by saying, �When a bit of ...
Get instant access to over 50,000 essays.
Write better papers. Get better grades.
Already a member? Login
|
CITE THIS PAGE:
BF Skinner. (2004, May 24). Retrieved June 21, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/BF-Skinner/8331
"BF Skinner." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 24 May. 2004. Web. 21 Jun. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/BF-Skinner/8331>
"BF Skinner." Essayworld.com. May 24, 2004. Accessed June 21, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/BF-Skinner/8331.
"BF Skinner." Essayworld.com. May 24, 2004. Accessed June 21, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/BF-Skinner/8331.
|
Save
Report