The Man And Science Behind Token Economies - 1814 Words

The Man and Science Behind Token Economies B.f. Skinner once proclaimed â€Å"Give me a child and I’ll shape him into anything.† Today, our generation now knows that statement to be true. Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904 in a small town, Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. His father was a lawyer and his mother was an independent housewife. B.F. Skinner, as he is more commonly referred to, had a brother who died of a cerebral aneurysm at age sixteen. While at Hamilton University, Skinner received his bachelor’s degree in English. At Hamilton, he wrote for the school newspaper and confessed to being an atheist (Boeree 1). Skinner received his master’s in 1930 and his doctoral in 1931, both in psychology and at Harvard. He continued to†¦show more content†¦Freedom and Dignity reached the top of the New York Times Bestseller List in 1972 (Rutherford 1). Skinner penned many other books that did not have as much acclaim (Boeree 5). Besides books, Skinner also had many notable inventions under his name. When he was a young boy, he invented a device to remind him to pick up his clothes off the floor. Later in his life, Skinner developed a technology for the military that allowed pigeon-guided missiles to be used. Burrhus also invented a device called the ‘air-crib.’ He used the crib on his second daughter as an experiment. The idea was good, but the ‘air-crib’ never caught on due to it looking like a toddler aquarium. B.F. Skinner also invented the teaching machine. The machine literally taught children like a teacher using Skinner’s principles. He was so confident in the idea that he once said â€Å"I have no doubt at all that programmed instruction based on operant principles will take over education.† B.F. Skinner was clearly ahead of his time. Look at modern online courses and one would see a striking resemblance (Rutherford 1). B.F. Skinner’s ideology would forever change how people would see the science of behaviorism and psychology. Skinner thought it was much more productive to study observable behavior rather than the mental cause and effects of experiments. In this way, he would