Burrhus Frederic Skinner Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner (1904–1990) received notoriety for his work in behavioral psychology. In Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), he claimed that human beings are shaped by their environmental conditions. The soul, free will, or “autonomous man,” he insisted, does not exist except in outdated theories of philosophy, politics, and religion, and if freedom or democratic principles require the support of such theories, so much the worse for them. To reject a scientifically “designed culture” meant surrendering society’s future to political leaders who use crude, unscientific methods of behavioral control for their own selfish purposes. Although critics charged that his “science of social engineering” robbed human beings of both their dignity and rationality, Skinner never abandoned his belief in the saving powers of a behavioral science.

Skinner was born in the small Pennsylvania railroad town of Susquehanna on March 20, 1904. He attended Hamilton College, a small liberal arts school in New York. The poet Robert Frost read Skinner’s unpublished work and encouraged him to become a writer. However, Skinner decided to abandon a literary career, having been drawn to modern philosophy and psychology through the writings of Bertrand Russell, John B. Watson, and H. G. Wells. Skinner enrolled in the psychology department at Harvard University, completing his master’s degree in 1930 and his doctorate a year later.

Skinner spent most of his academic career at Harvard. There he conducted laboratory experiments using rats and pigeons to test his theories on behavioral control. He developed the Skinner Box that taught pigeons to play ping-pong by rewarding them with food. He thought that the same principles of environmental conditioning could be applied to human beings. His Skinner Box later became confused with his invention in the 1940s of the “baby box”—or, as he called it, the “baby tender”—designed to provide a safe, airregulated sleeping box for infants. Some viewed his baby box as cold and inhuman, while others thought it was ingenious. It provided the kind of environmental control that Skinner envisioned for improving society in general, although the techniques when applied to adult behavior would be more subtle and complex.

To create a world free of overpopulation, pollution, the threat of nuclear war, and social strife, Skinner continued defending the development and use of behavioral technology. In his utopian novel, Walden Two (1948), he described a tightly organized, peaceful community where envy, jealousy, laziness, and other human vices had ceased to exist because the social environment no longer rewarded such behavior. As Frazier, the fictional designer explains, “a constant experimental attitude towards everything,” whether it’s child rearing, work, or the creative use of leisure, ensures that everyone is industrious, content, and cooperative. Many psychologists and nonpsychologists considered Skinner’s utopian vision naïve, if not dangerous. Although he recognized the dangers of science being misused, Skinner never doubted the social benefits of behavioral control undertaken by scientifically trained men of good will.

Skinner retired from Harvard University in 1974 and was honored for his work by the American Psychological Association just prior to his death on August 18, 1990.

Bibliography:

Krutch, Joseph Wood. The Measure of Man. New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1953.
O’Donohue,William, and Kyle E. Ferguson. The Psychology of B. F. Skinner. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, 2001.
Skinner, B. F. “Freedom and the Control of Men.” The American Scholar 25 (Winter 1955–1956): 47–65.
About Behaviorism. New York: Knopf, 1974.

This example Burrhus Frederic Skinner Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.