Which of the following is a contribution of the psychologist b. f. skinner?

Burrhus Frederic Skinner—more commonly known as B.F. Skinner—was a 20th century psychologist who developed the theory of radical behaviorism. 

Professional Life

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in Pennsylvania. He initially set his academic sights on writing and moved to New York to attend Hamilton College, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in English literature. Hamilton College was not a great fit for Skinner: the school required daily chapel attendance and Skinner was an atheist. He frequently published articles critical of the school and its administration. Skinner’s criticism of popular ideology would become a lifelong occupation.

Skinner developed an interest in psychology, and he enrolled in a graduate program at Harvard University, where he earned his PhD in psychology in 1931. Skinner was a research fellow with the National Research Council for one year and conducted research at Harvard until 1936, at which point he accepted a teaching position at the University of Minnesota. From 1945–1948, Skinner taught psychology at Indiana University, and from 1948 until his retirement in 1974, he was a professor at Harvard.

Skinner was a prolific author as well as an academic. His most famous works include Beyond Freedom and Dignity and Walden II, a fictional account of a culture dominated by behaviorist ideas. The book Verbal Behavior was not widely accepted at the time of its publication, but it has achieved significant readership over the years. Skinner received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 1990, from the American Psychology Association; the Outstanding member and Distinguished Professional Achievement Award in 1991, from the Society for Performance Improvement; and most notably, the 1997 Scholar Hall of Fame Award, from the Academy of Resource and Development.

Contribution to Psychology

Over the course of his long career, Skinner developed many theories and inventions, and he remains one of the best known and most controversial figures in psychology. His behaviorist theories remain hotly contested and have influenced fields ranging from education to dog training. Skinner influenced behaviorism through his research on reinforcement; he focused heavily on the exploration of negative and positive reinforcement and the effects they had on behavior. He believed that his behaviorist theories could save humanity from itself and argued in favor of positive reinforcement to shape political and social behavior. His theory of radical behaviorism argues that internal perceptions are not based on a psychological level of consciousness, but rather on an individual's own physical body.

Among Skinner’s many inventions was a highly controversial one, known as the “Air-Crib” that he developed while teaching at Indiana University. Designed to support child rearing, the crib was a temperature-controlled, sterile, soundproof box that was meant to encourage a child’s independence, while minimizing discomfort. The most famous of Skinner’s inventions is commonly known as the “Skinner box,” a device designed to employ “operant conditioning”—the manipulation of behaviors through reinforcement. For example, an animal would receive a reward for small acts representing a desired behavior and the rewards would increase as the animal came closer to completing the desired behavior.

Skinner conducted extensive research into reinforcement as a method of teaching. Continuous reinforcement involves the constant delivery of reinforcement by reward for a desired behavior, but Skinner found the method impractical and ineffective. Interval-based reinforcements, on the other hand, are reinforcements delivered according to a specific schedule and tend to produce slow and steady change. Interval-based reinforcement might follow a fixed interval or variable interval schedule, providing reinforcement after a fixed or variable amount of time. Alternatively, interval-based reinforcement can follow a fixed-ratio schedule, in which reinforcement is given after a certain number of responses, or a variable-ratio schedule, in which reinforcement is provided based on an average number of responses. Skinner concluded that variable-ratio schedules tend to produce the most compliance, particularly when rewards occur frequently. For example, a person training a dog might reward the dog, on average, every five times it obeys, but vary the number of obedience tasks between each reward.

Considering free will to be an illusion, he described human action as dependent on the results of previous actions, and he proposed a theory and named it the principle of reinforcement. Through his theory, he stated that if the consequences of an action are adverse or bad, there is a high chance the same action will not be repeated; on the other hand, if the consequences are favorable and pleasant, the chances of the action being repeated increase. Yes, I am talking about none other than B. F. Skinner, an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. Skinner was a professor of psychology at Harvard University.

B. F. Skinner Biography

Grace and William Skinner, both lawyers, gave birth to Skinner in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. Despite having his concerns about damnation dispelled by a Christian instructor, Skinner eventually drifted away from faith altogether and settled on agnosticism. When his younger brother Edward died of a brain bleed at 16, it was devastating to the family. When Skinner decided to fulfill his dream of becoming a writer, he enrolled in Hamilton College in New York. His serious, bookish demeanor made it hard for him to initiate conversations with other students.

Surely there is more to this tale. He is a full-fledged brother of Lambda Chi Alpha now that he has accepted the pledge. After finishing his undergraduate degree at Harvard in 1931, Skinner remained there for graduate work. Starting in 1936, he taught at the Chicago campus of the University of Minnesota. Before returning to Harvard as a tenured professor in 1948, he worked at Indiana University (where he would have relocated in 1945) as program director for psychiatry in 1946 and 1947. He continued his education at Harvard for the remainder of his life. After agreeing with its principles, Skinner 1973 signed the Humanism Manifesto II.

Contribution to the Society

Skinner has contributed a lot to the present-day psychological field. One of these contributions is the theory related to behavior. Against the backdrop of psychoanalytic theory and other previous schools of psychology's inability to establish forecasts that could be verified empirically, Skinner claims that his approach to studying behavior, which he calls "radical behaviorism," evolved in the early twentieth century. This philosophical viewpoint in behavioral science asserts that individuals' predictable behaviors can be attributed to the reinforcement they have received in the past. Skinner's early writing, including his seminal essay The Conduct of Organisms, established the framework for his cognitivist philosophy. Here he presents a systematic analysis of how the natural world might shape human behavior. Skinner spent much time thinking about this issue, even though most human behavior cannot be reduced to a series of real answers reinforced in isolation.

Using "chaining," Skinner demonstrated how seemingly complicated behaviors might be broken down into a series of simple responses. Scientific studies back up the "chaining" theory, which proposes that one behavior can lead to another by providing the necessary context for it to occur. A discriminative stimulus may also serve as a "conditioned reinforcer" in the context of a classroom setting. There is also the option of using the alarm's "turn around" light to emphasize the timing of your lever press. We can design more complex chains, such as "noise - turn around - light - press lever - food," by introducing more stimuli and responses.

Skinner's Theory on Human Behavior

As Skinner observed, a large deal of activity, especially human behavior, cannot be described by progressive molding and the development of reaction sequences. Complex behavior, such as a guest following the directions posted at the front desk to the elevator, often occurs in two stages: initially and finally. Skinner proposed the idea of rule-governed behavior to explain these kinds of actions. Babies can be taught to "jump," "open the book," etc., and will do so if the instructions are repeated. When a large enough number of responses are subject to such verbal control, a series of verbal stimuli can elicit an infinite variety of complex reactions. The second contribution of B. F. Skinner was in terms of tossing the term reinforcement. Fundamental to behaviorism is the idea of reinforcement, either positive or negative.

In Skinner's The Behavior of Organisms, punishment and negative reinforcement are used interchangeably. Over the following years, advances in scientific and behavioral scholarship would force a reappraisal of this understanding. Positive reinforcement, which occurs when something is good, and negative punishment, which occurs when something undesirable does not, are the two most well-known types of reinforcement. Both positive and negative reinforcement reinforce or increase the likelihood of behavior, yet the rewarding event is different.

Inventions

B. F. Skinner's interest in the scientific study of human behavior was inspired by his time at Harvard. His behavior modification device, a Skinner box, got widely used. The Skinner box was used to train animals to press a bar or key in exchange for food, water, or other reinforcements. Typically, pigeons and rats were utilized as test subjects with this equipment.

B. F. Skinner developed the cumulative recorder while a student at Harvard kept track of reactions in the form of a sloping line. Specifically, Skinner observed that engagement increased after participants got a reward but decreased when no reward was offered and that the outcome significantly impacted how fast the animal responded (as depicted by the slope of the line).

As a result of the cumulative video recorder, Skinner could see how reinforcement time affected response rate. B. F. Skinner utilized this equipment to debunk the ideas of John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov, which claimed that the stimulus's proximity conditions an organism's reaction to a stimulus. Instead, actions are based on how well the response is received. The term "operant behavior" was used by Skinner to describe a certain behavior. B. F. Skinner created this "baby opener" in 1943. The infant tender was an acrylic-fronted cradle that kept the infant warm and cozy. In response to a demand from his spouse for a more secure crib option, Skinner created this device.

Conclusion

"Radical behaviorism" is a term that B. F. Skinner coined to describe his theory. He argued that people's actions were conditioned and that free will was an illusion. Among Skinner's most important discoveries and contributions to psychology is the method of operant conditioning (Skinner's approach to education), reinforcement scheduling as a concept, research frames as a new dependent variable, and the development of a cumulative recorder for keeping tabs on participation rates. Additionally, B. F. Skinner theorized that a person's emotional state could be interpreted as a propensity to act in a certain fashion. For instance, someone feeling angry toward another person is more likely to act aggressively toward that person, such as by shouting at or physically harming them.

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