Behaviourist Theory(Skinner Box )

B. F. SKINNER

1904 - 1990

Dr. C. George Boeree

Biography

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born March 20,

1904, in the small Pennsylvania town of

Susquehanna.   His father was a lawyer, and his

mother a strong and intelligent housewife.

His upbringing was old-fashioned and hard-

working.

Burrhus was an active, out-going boy who

loved the outdoors and building things, and

actually enjoyed school.   His life was not

without its tragedies, however.   In particular,

his brother died at the age of 16 of a

cerebral aneurysm.

Burrhus received his BA in English from

Hamilton College in upstate New York.   He

didn’t fit in very well, not enjoying the

fraternity parties or the football games.   He

wrote for school paper, including articles

critical of the school, the faculty, and even

Phi Beta Kappa!   To top it off, he was an

atheist -- in a school that required daily

chapel attendance.

He wanted to be a writer and did try, sending

off poetry and short stories.   When he

graduated, he built a study in his parents’

attic to concentrate, but it just wasn’t

working for him.

Ultimately, he resigned himself to writing

newspaper articles on labor problems, and lived

for a while in Greenwich Village in New York

City as a “bohemian.”   After some traveling,

he decided to go back to school, this time at

Harvard.   He got his masters in psychology in

1930 and his doctorate in 1931, and stayed

there to do research until 1936.

Also in that year, he moved to Minneapolis to

teach at the University of Minnesota.   There

he met and soon married Yvonne Blue.   They

had two daughters, the second of which

became famous as the first infant to be

raised in one of Skinner’s inventions, the air

crib.   Although it was nothing more than a

combination crib and

playpen with glass sides

and air conditioning, it

looked too much like

keeping a baby in an

aquarium to catch...