Burrhus Frederic Skinner, known to the world as B.F. Skinner, was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to William and Grace Skinner. Burrhus's father was a lawyer and his mother was a homemaker.Burrhus had one sibling, a younger brother named Ebbe;Ebbe died during Burrhus'sfreshman year at Hamilton College. Susquehanna, a railroad town, was an unlikely birthplace for a future psychologist whose father was determined that he should become a lawyer; William put an advertisement in the paper annoucing that the town had a new law firm listing his name along with his listed as partner (Burger, 2004). Burrhus, however, did not seem destined to become a lawyer.The young B.F. Skinner had an aptitude for building things,especially devices capable of movement such as wagons and model airplanes, and a passion for studying animals. His childhood traits can be seen as foreshadowing his future work in behaviorism;the invention of the aircrib and his work with pigeons are two examples of Skinner's childhood interests foreshadowing his future career as a scientist.
Skinner matriculated at Hamilton College in New York at the age of 18. Skinner where, despite his childhood interests in mechanical inventions and animal behavior, became an English major. He eventually gained a reputation for his literary skills; his poems and short stories were regularly published in the Hamilton Literary Magazine and the Royal Gaboon by his Junior Year. Skinner's writing ability led a Hamilton alumnus to tell him about an intensive program for young writers known as the Bread Loaf Summer School of English (Demorest, 2005). Skinner applied and was accepted for the following summer's program. The Bread Loaf program allowed Skinner to meet withmany famous authors; most notably, the poet Robert Frost who encouraged Skinner to embark upon a literary career. Skinner, determined to become a writer, convinced his parents to support him for one year while he attempted the composition of a novel. The literary inspiration which Hamilton provided was normally absent upon Skinner's return to his parent's house. Skinner, in the absence of his literary muse, ended up spending most of his time reading and playing piano. Skinner later referred to this year as the "Dark Year"; ironically the "Dark Year" provided Skinner with his behaviorist theory through his reading of John Watson's Behaviorism (Demorest, 2005). Skinner spent the following year in Greenwich Village in New York where he still was unable to produce literature; after this year Skinner abandoned literature for science.
Skinner, who had never taken a psychology course before graduate school, entered Harvard in 1928 to study psychology where he earned his Ph.D and was awarded a three year fellowship. He later taught at the University of MInnesota and Indiana University until 1948 when he became a faculty member at Harvard. Skinner's work on operant conditioning led to his law of acquisition, which states that the strength of an operant behavior is increased when it is followed by the presentation of a reinforcing stimulus (Schultz, D.P; Schultz, E.S.,2008). Skinner became famous for his operant conditioning work; he remained a prolific writer and inventor after gaining prominence in the psychology community, inventing many devices including the infamous air crib. He also maintained his early interest in literature by authoring many works on behaviorism and journal artilces. Skinner also maintained his interest in fiction through his novel Walden Two ;Walden Two was about a modern utopia created through the use of operant conditioning. (Burger, 2004). Skinner died on August 18, 1990, of leukemia, 8 days after giving the keynote address for the American Psychological Association; his last speech was devoted to his goal of having behaviorism become the dominant paradigm in psychology.
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