Arvester & Jake

• Burrhus Frederic (March 20, 1904-Aug 18, 1990) was an
American behaviorist, inventor. He was the Edgar Pierce
Professor of Psych. at Harvard University from 1958-1974.
• Skinner called his brand of behaviorism “Radical” behaviorism.
• He believed that everything psychology is behaviorally driven

• Exploring:
• Consequences shape actions.
• By:
• Skinner Box method.

• Skinner Box (Conditioning Chamber)
• Food dispenser controlled by Skinner
• Food Given for reinforcement
• Lever if pressed will cause food to be dispensed.
• Experimenter controls lever.

• Rats could be conditioned to the experimenters liking.
• They behaved as if a certain action produced the food.
• They became superstitious.
• The behavior is put on extinction.
• This meant the reinforcement was discontinued.

• Superstitions are proven to be real
• Superstitions are everywhere and produce society wide effects.
• Superstitions can now be used to influence behavior throughout the medical field.

• Helps advance medical fields treatments of kids with ADHD by using skinner’s reinforcement theory
• Studies found that superstitious behaviors were developed better and faster through negative reinforcement.

• Subject of heated controversy
• Other prominent theoretical approaches to human behavior have argued that the strict behavioral views are unable to account for many of the psychological processes that are fundamental to humans.