Term Papers on B. F. Skinner

Term Paper Title	B. F. Skinner
# of Words	1031
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.12

B. F. Skinner

      Burris Frederic Skinner was born on March 20th, 1904 in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania. His mother, Grace M. Burrhus, was a stenographer and a secretary,
in a law office and later in a railroad chief executive's office. His father,
William A. Skinner, was an attorney, who studied law with another local attorney
at a New York Law School. Skinner's parents were both good students. His father
had bought several sets of books, so there was a lot of reading material their
children. Skinner said that his parents never used physical punishment, except
for the time they washed his mouth out with soap for bad language. (Ulrich,
1997) B. F. Skinner was very adventurous child. He lead a 300 mile canoe trip
down the Susquehanna River when he was only 13 years old. He was a natural
inventor and he loved build things. One of his inventions included a device that
automatically reminded him to hang up his pajamas in the morning. He played the
saxophone in a jazz band during high school and played piano until his failing
eyesight made it hard for him to read the music.  In college, he was very
independent, and sometimes even a prankster. He graduated from Hamilton College
in 1926 and later received his P.h.D. in psychology at Harvard University.
(Ulrich, 1997)

John B. Watson

     John Broadus Watson was born in Greenville, South Carolina on January
9th 1878. He went to college at Furman University and the University of Chicago.
Watson created "Psychological behaviorism" in 1912. He told the world about his
theory of behaviorism in a 1913 paper entitled ``Psychology as the Behaviorist
Views It.'' In the paper he described Behaviorism as the part of psychology that
shows behavior as "a series of observable movements in time and space". (Turner,
1997)  He rejected both conscious and unconscious mental activities and defined
behavior as a response to a stimulus. A few of John B. Watson's literary works
include the following books and papers: Animal Education, Behavior, Psychology
from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist, Behaviorism, and Psychological Care of
Infant and Child. (Turner, 1997)
     Along with his own theories of behaviorism, Skinner developed the theory
of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is based on the idea that "we
behave the way we do because this kind of behavior has had certain consequences
in the past." (Demar, 1996) For example, if your parents give you a present when
you do what your told, you will be likely to behave when you want to get a
present. This means that basically- you do something to get a reward. Like
Watson, Skinner denied that feelings play any part in determining behavior.
Instead, he claimed that the drive to be rewarded determines our behavior.
(Demar, 1996)
     Some critics feel that operant conditioning was a dangerous technique
because Skinner was controlling people and could have manipulated them. In reply
to their criticism, Skinner argued that control is not wrong. Control is very
important and sometimes unavoidable in education, government, and therapy.
(Bijou, 1994) What Skinner objects to is the fact that control is usually used
in negative ways which include the use of threat, punishment or to use other
people. Skinner argues that because of this, people are against control, because
the people in control use their ...

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