Burrhus Frederick Skinner as one of the most influential American Psychologist Essay

He was the first psychologist who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from American Psychology Association (APA) and introduced practical psychology theory to the modern world. He was crowned with the name of father of modern behaviourism. Burrhus Frederick Skinner or commonly known as B.F Skinner (19041990) is one of the most influential American Psychologist. He was born and grown up in the small rural town of Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Skinner was very fond with handcraft or handmade toys where he made himself roller coaster, steerable wagon and sleds. He developed great interest in literature and art through drawing in his younger grade followed by the reading of William Shakespeares work art.

Skinner attended Hamilton College, a small liberal art institution which recommended by his friend. This is the time when Skinner shows his rebellious by not attending to physical classes and made a mockery of the institution during the graduation ceremony. After graduated, Skinner entered Middlebury School of English in Vermont, where he met Robert Frost and produced his first book, Digest of Decisions of the Antharcite Board of Conciliation which is about a 1904 coal strike.

However, Skinner felt he can only contribute as little in his writing and develop greater interest in psychology. His earliest interest was in philosophy where can be proven with his writing of Treatise Nova Principia Orbis Terrarum. Although he had minimal college psychology background but he do his study based on selfobservation of memory and perception.

He did not have any psychology degree background until he graduated from Harvard in 1931. He involved into psychology study after read the experiment of John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov. Followed by then, he obtained his doctoral degree in three years and taught the University of Minnesota and University of Indiana and returned his alumni university which is Harvard in 1948. After Edward Thorndike published the principles of operant conditioning and the law of effect, Skinner extended to his theory that all behaviours are in the same way as the result of operant conditioning. He worked very closely with the physiology department as he is more interested in animal behaviours than the mental process.

As a radical behaviourist, Skinner developed the theory of operant conditioning which is the behaviour is determined by its consequences. It can be done by either reinforcement of punishment or rewards which make it less or more likely that the behaviour will occur again. Take an instance slot machines at casinos are using the same theories to attracted people keep on trying on the gamble. The programmed system as similar to the lever in the Skinner Box which provide reinforcement with a set of ratio schedule say in every fifth, tenth or fifteenth response, the gambler will got a chance to win. This will leads to a high addictive of trying although reinforcement of punishment (losing) is been imposed. However, slot machines was invented 9 years before Skinner was born, which indicates that behavioural principle are been used before they were theorized.