B. F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher. He was a professor of psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.Considering free will to be an illusion, Skinner saw human action as dependent on consequences of previous actions, a theory he would articulate as the principle of reinforcement: If the consequences to an action are bad, there is a high chance the action will not be repeated; if the consequences are good, the probability of the action being repeated becomes stronger.Skinner developed behavior analysis, especially the philosophy of radical behaviorism, and founded the experimental analysis of behavior, a school of experimental research psychology. He also used operant conditioning to strengthen behavior, considering the rate of response to be the most effective measure of response strength. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of B. F. Skinner has received more than 3,849,951 page views. His biography is available in 59 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 57 in 2019). B. F. Skinner is the 21st most popular psychologist (down from 16th in 2019), the 203rd most popular biography from United States (down from 193rd in 2019) and the 7th most popular American Psychologist.

B. F. Skinner is most famous for his operant conditioning, which is a type of behaviorism. This theory is based on the idea that behavior is shaped by its consequences.