B F Skinner Operant Learning Theory

Biography of B F Skinner

Early Life

B F Skinner Operant Learning Theory psychologist was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania on 20th March, 1904. His father was a lawyer by profession. After his early education, he joined Hamilton College of New York because he wanted to be a write in his future and wanted to establish a career as an author. He graduated from Hamilton College in 1926 and received his B.A degree in English literature. After that, he was enrolled in Harvard University where he earned his PhD in 1931 in the age of 27 years.

Achievements

First he was interested in English literature but once he studied a book of J. B. Watson about behaviorism which is a school of thought in psychology. This book influenced him very much and he started to study psychology and later on he got a degree in psychology. After his early education of psychology, he started to teach psychology in different universities. First of all, he joined Harvard University and taught there till 1936. He accepted jobs of different universities after that, which include University of Minnesota and Indiana University but he again joined Harvard University in 1948 due to some bad experiences in other universities.

Contributions

B. F. Skinner worked for psychology in a very wide variety. He set up his own operant conditioning chamber in which he performed many experiences to view the behaviors of different animals to different conditions. He proposed his own school of thought which is known as radical behaviorism and it was very much similar to that of J. B. Watson’s Behaviorism. He worked for experimental psychology in variety of ways and his work in this field is still considered as authentic and important.

Inventor of Operant Learning Theory

Skinner’s work about verbal behavior of different person proved to be the base of a school of thought in psychology. He worked a lot for child psychology and educational psychology. He proposed a theory which tells about the problems faced by the students in details. He was a prolific psychologist who wrote more than 21 books and 170 articles. He proposed a reinforcement and operant conditioning theory which tells about the reward and expectations system and learning about any specific work.

Death

This man, B. F. Skinner worked a lot for psychology and he can truly be said as the one of the greatest psychologists of all times. Due to hard work in old age, he was facing Leukemia and he died of it in year of 1190 on 18th August. He was almost 86 years of age at the time of his death. He gave a lot to the world of psychology in his life too and even after his death.