B. F. Skinner

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

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