Operant Conditioning Theory

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Running head: CONTRIBUTIONS OF B.F. SKINNER Contributions of B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory SS124 Psychology November 18, 2013 Contribution of B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904. He initially had a desire to write and he had moved to New York to attend Hamilton College. He obtained a bachelor’s degree in English literature but college was not a good fit for Skinner. The school required daily chapel attendance and Skinner was an atheist. He frequently published articles about the school and its administration. His criticism of popular ideology would become a lifelong occupation. 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. Burrhus Frederic Skinner also commonly known as B.F. Skinner was an influential behaviorists proposing new forms of learning other than classical conditioning. His views were slightly less extreme then some of his fellow psychologists. Skinner believed that we have a mind, but it is more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events. Skinner believed the best way to understand
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