B.F. Skinner Essay -- Biographies Biography Psychologist Essays

B.F. SkinnerB.F. Skinner was born on frame in 20, 1904 in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He grew up in a happy and stable home environment. Skinner spent a lot of time as a child building and inventing things. After Skinner attended Hamilton College, he worked as a newspaper writer. Then, he went to New York City for a few months and worked as a bookstore clerk. It was here that Skinner sound out books about the famous behavior theorists, Pavlov and Watson (B.F. Skinner Foundation, 2002).When Skinner turned 24, he attended graduate school at Harvard University. As a psychological science student, he teamed up with Physiology Professor, William Crozier. To tuckerher, they began to study the relationship between behavior and experimental conditions. During his time at Harvard, Skinner conducted many experiments using rats (B.F.Skinner Foundation, 2002). Skinners findings made him the most influential psychologist of the 20th century (Roblyer,2003, p.57).B. F. Skinner reason that peop le could ment completelyy have control over all of their responses. He believed that a reinforcement and/or consequence given after a behavior would influence future behavior (Roblyer,2003, p.57). In other haggling, reinforcements and/or punishments can shape human behavior. For example, if a child eats all of his ve compactables at dinner and his parents reward him with positive words and a cookie, then the child will probably eat his vegetables at the next dinner.Skinners theory can be employ inside the classroom as well. A teacher can get her students to behave by positively reinforcing acceptable behavior and punishing or negatively reinforcing poor behavior. A teacher can similarly get her student to work hard in her class by doing the very(prenominal) thing. I am planning ... ... with Skinner when he said, The major problems of the creative activity today can be solved only if we improve our understand of human behaviors (B.F.Skinner Foundation, 2003). As a future teach er, I believe that I can reinforce students to behave desirably in the future. I can also positively reinforce the use of technology in the classroom so students are excited to learn about and use this technology. This is mainly because I feel technology is such an important tool in the classroom. In conclusion, B.F. Skinners theory about shaping behavior by using positive and/or negative reinforcements can be highly useful in the classroom.Works CitedB.F.Skinner Foundation. (2002, October 18) About B.F.Skinner. Retrieved September 18,2003 from http//www.bfskinner.org/bio.aspRoblyer, M.D. (2003). Integrating educational Technology into Teaching Merril Prentice Hall.