BF Skinner Biography

BF Skinner biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Burrhus Frederic Skinner
OCCUPATION: Academic, Academic Author
BIRTH DATE: March 20, 1904
DEATH DATE: August 18, 1990
EDUCATION: Harvard University

PLACE OF BIRTH: Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
PLACE OF DEATH: Cambridge, Massachusetts

more about BF

Best Known For

BF Skinner, American psychologist, is best known for developing the theory of behaviourism and his book Walden Two.

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BF Skinner

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Synopsis

BF Skinner, a psychologist born in Pennsylvania, earned his doctorate from Harvard and began working on ideas of human behavior. Skinner's best known work, Walden Two, defined his theory of behaviorism and the influence of nurture over nature.

Quotes

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.

– BF Skinner

Give me a child and I'll shape him into anything.

– BF Skinner

Profile

(born March 20, 1904, Susquehanna, Pa., U.S.—died Aug. 18, 1990, Cambridge, Mass.) U.S. psychologist and influential theorist of behaviourism. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University and first achieved notice with The Behavior of Organisms (1938). In the mid-1940s he presented his “Air-Crib,” a soundproof, germ-free, air-conditioned box meant to serve as an optimal environment for the first two years of childhood. In Walden Two (1948), a controversial but popular work, he described a utopia based on behavioral engineering. He spent most of his teaching career at Harvard (1948–74). His other works include Science and Human Behavior (1953), Verbal Behavior (1957), Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971), and an autobiography (3 vol., 1976–83). He received the National Medal of Science in 1968.