B.F. Skinner: His Life, Operant Conditioning, and Applications

This essay presents a biography of Burrhus Frederic Skinner, highlighting his early life, education, and the development of his influential theory of operant conditioning. The essay delves into the core concepts of operant conditioning, including positive and negative reinforcement, as well as positive...Read More

Running head: BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINER
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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Burrhus Frederic Skinner
B. F. Skinner on 20th March 1904 (Duchesne and McMaugh, 2018). He was born in
Susquehanna which is a small town located in Pennsylvania. This is also the place where he
grew up. His father was a lawyer while his mother mainly stayed at home taking care of
Skinner and his younger brother. During his childhood, he liked building different forms of
structures. He later joined Hamilton College to study English and Literature. While at
college, his interests shifted from that of making structures to writing. After completion of
college, Skinner went to stay at Greenwich village. Here he tried to continue with writing. It
was during this time that he realized that he did not like writing as much as he liked human
behaviour. Due to this, he decided to quit writing and study human behaviour. After this
decision, he started reading biology and psychology.
Skinner was greatly influenced by the writings of John Watson on behaviourism. This
led him to further his studies and to develop his own version of behaviourism. In 1931, he
graduated with a PhD from Harvard (Richelle, 2016). After that he remained at Harvard
doing research. He later went to other universities to teach psychology and later returned to
Harvard in 1948 where he served as a professor. Skinner married Yvonne Blue in 1936 and
they had two daughters. Skinner continued his career of teaching and research. In 1989,
Skinner was diagnosed with blood cancer. He died the following year (1989) on 18th August.
Operant Conditioning
Skinner is greatly remembered for his theory of operant conditioning. The theory
emphasizes on the role of rewards and punishments in forming behaviours. In a nutshell, the
theory stipulates a behaviour that is rewarded is likely to reoccur in future while a punished
behaviour is likely to cease. There are four main concepts of operant conditioning. These are

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positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment and negative
punishment. These are going to be discussed next.
Positive reinforcement refers to providing a reward or some other benefit when an
individual or even an animal portrays a behaviour that is desirable. The aim of the reward is
to motivate the individual to repeat the behaviour in future. The individual is likely to repeat
the behaviour in future hoping that the reward will be provided again. For instance, a parent
may give a child some candy bar for cleaning the house. With the reward, the child is likely
to repeat the behaviour in future with the hope that they will receive another candy or some
other form of appreciation.
Negative reinforcement refers to a situation where an undesirable stimulus is
eliminated as a result of a desirable behaviour. Unlike, positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement aims at reducing undesirable effect of negative behaviours so that positive ones
can be formed (Skinner, 2014). Here is an example. Suppose that a child often fights her
sister and the parent pinches the child several times. Pinching is associated with pain. On the
days that the child does not fight with the sister, pinching is not done. The child may learn to
avoid fighting with her sister so that they are not pinched. This way, negative reinforcement
promotes positive behaviour.
Positive punishment refers is imposing an undesirable effect to an individual to
discourage their behaviour (Blackman, 2017). The punishment is applied when the individual
behaves in a way that is not desired. This is likely to motivate them avoid such behaviours in
future so that they may not suffer the punishment. Here is an example. A child wants to play
with his toys down stairs. However, the parent sends the child to their room after using
impolite language. The child is likely to avoid impolite language in future. This is because
they will learn to associate impoliteness with negative consequences.

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Negative reinforcement refers to withdrawing some benefit experienced by a person
when the person behaves in a way that is not desirable (Skinner and Ferster, 2015). The aim
is to make the person understand that their behaviour is not appreciated. The person is likely
to avoid such behaviour in future so that their reward or benefit is not withdrawn. Let us look
at an example. A child who loves football so much is prevented form attending a foot ball
game for failure to clean their room. Such a child is likely to always do their chores in future
so that they are not denied the right to do what they love.
.
Application of Operant Conditioning
As observed from the discussion above, the theory is mainly interested wit modifying
behaviours through either rewarding positive behaviours or punishing the negative ones. This
theory has become very important in the field of psychology. In the contemporary society, the
theory is still valid and applied in various ways and contexts. The theory has significantly
contributed to practical aspects of behaviour change even in the modern days. This section
will discuss the application of the theory.
The theory is used for the purpose of behaviour modification. This implies using the
techniques of operant conditioning to change behaviours from undesirable to desirable ones.
It is being applied to help people with various conditions recover through learning new
behaviours. Such conditions include obesity, alcoholism and smoking. The theory has been
greatly successful in achieving behaviour change. For instance, it has been used to help
individuals with anorexia nervosa gain weight in a healthy way. It has also been applied in
training some animals to assist the physically disables persons with such aspects such as
feeding. The animals mainly trained are the primates for they demonstrate social behaviour.

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Behaviour therapist are employing the theory to help persons with mental conditions
learn valuable set of behaviours that significantly improves their life (Strauss, 2017). For
instance, such people may be taught on some important job skills which increases their
employability. The theory has also been used by counselling professional to help alleviate
sexual disorders and marital difficulties. The theory has proven very useful and many people
have benefited from the application of the theory.

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References
Blackman, D. E. (2017). Operant conditioning: an experimental analysis of behaviour.
Routledge.
Duchesne, S., & McMaugh, A. (2018). Educational psychology for learning and teaching.
Cengage AU.
Richelle, M. N. (2016). BF Skinner-a Reappraisal. Routledge.
Skinner, B. F. (2014). Contingencies of reinforcement: A theoretical analysis (Vol. 3). BF
Skinner Foundation.
Skinner, B. F., & Ferster, C. B. (2015). Schedules of reinforcement. BF Skinner Foundation.
Strauss, A. L. (2017). Psychological modelling: Conflicting theories. Routledge.