Burrhus frederic skinner, an American psychologist, is the founder of new behaviorism learning theory and the main representative of new behaviorism. 1904 was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, USA on March 20th, and 1990 died in Cambridge, Massachusetts on August 8th. Skinner introduced conditioned stimulus. He is the author of Walden II, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Speech Act, etc.
He created the Skinner Box, a tool for studying animal learning activities. 1950 was elected as an academician of the National Academy of Sciences, 1958 was awarded the Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award by the American Psychological Association, and 1968 was awarded the highest scientific honor National Science Award by the President of the United States.
Main works:
Utopian society:
Skinner returned to Harvard in 1948 and stayed there until he retired in 1974. In the same year, he published Walden II. In this novel, he describes the life in the society formed by manipulating conditional stimuli. Today, this novel is still of great significance.
This novel, which is still worth reading, is also Skinner's most famous work. The novel expresses his vision for an ideal and scientifically controlled society, and he shows a picture of a small society in the novel. From birth, children are trained under strict conditions through rewards (positive reinforcement) to make them have cooperative spirit and social skills.
All behaviors are controlled, but it is for the benefit and happiness of all. Because of the social and behavioral techniques described in the book, it is regarded as a negative utopian society, which is just the opposite of Skinner's original intention. Besides, this book doesn't answer a very important question: Who has the right to control every detail of everyone's life and who has the right to make social norms?
Psychological research:
Skinner has made outstanding achievements in psychological research. He developed the research of Pavlov and Thorndike, and revealed the law of operant conditioning. Skinner box, an experimental device designed by him to study operant conditioned reflex, has been widely used by psychologists and biologists all over the world. He is famous in the pigeon laboratory of Harvard University.
Based on his research on operant conditioning and reinforcement, he invented the "teaching machine" and designed the "program teaching" scheme, which had a far-reaching impact on American education and was known as the "father of teaching machine". In recognition of Skinner's great contribution to psychological science, the American Psychological Association awarded him the "Outstanding Scientific Contribution Award" on 1958, and he won the national medal of science award on 1968, which is the highest scientific award in the United States. 197 1 year, the American Psychological Foundation awarded him a gold medal.
On August 1990, the American Psychological Association awarded him the honorary certificate of "Lifelong Contribution Award in Psychology". Eight days later, on August 18, 2008, Skinner died.
Skinner wrote many books in his life. 1930 has published more than 100 papers and monographs 12. His main works are: Behavior of Organism, Experimental Analysis, Science and Human Behavior, Speech Act, Science of Learning and Art of Teaching, Teaching Machine and Strengthening Timetable.
These works comprehensively expounded the theory of operational behaviorism and its application in the field of teaching. He also expounded social life problems with the theory of operational behaviorism, and published the novels Walden II, Freedom and Human Control, Beyond Freedom and Dignity. These works have caused great repercussions and heated debates in American society.