Birth, family life and education
-By Timothy Lyons
The school of thought that I currently follow is that of behaviorism which was heavily influenced by B.F. Skinner. I have utilized many different types of modalities in my current work. This school was one that has interested me more so than others. The reason that I have come to the use and study of behaviorism is through my own path to introspection. I had once found in the back of a magazine a reference to something called ACT. I did not know what this was and I wanted to know more. I began to read books, journals and articles on the subject. I traced its history and origins. I found the ideas that I encountered intriguing. I found its application to my life as something that would come to change the very person that I was into who I am today (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2012).
The psychologist that is most well known in the history of the field of behaviorism is B.F. Skinner. Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904. He grew up in Susquehana, Pennsylvania. He was raised by his mother and father. His Father was a lawyer. It appears that B.F. Skinner was a good student and that he loved learning. He tinkered with and built all manner of gadgets (Biography.com, n.d.).
His early college career lead him to receiving his BA in English from Hamilton College. He was not a very outgoing college attendee. He was serious about his studies and did not enjoy going to parties or attending football games. He was a writer for the school paper. He was also an affirmed atheist at the college that was known for requirement that students attend chapel each day. His attempts at writing included writing poetry and short stories. When he finally graduated he attempted to build a study in his parent’s attic so that he could continue his writing career but he soon found that it did not suit his interests and he set out to live and write for newspapers in New York City (Boeree, 2006).
In an autobiographical chapter from (E.G. Boring & Lindzey, 1967), B.F. Skinner described his childhood as warm and stable. He admitted to living with his parents until he went to college. He wrote briefly about his brother who died of a cerebral aneurysm when he was just 16. The interesting part of this is that B.F. Skinner wrote that he did not feel for his brother’s death when it occurred. He said that he felt guilty for not feeling anything at the time. I wonder if there were any doubt from this example that B.F. Skinner would be more apt to enter the field of psychology and move into behaviorism while eschewing the cognitive aspect that dealt with thoughts and emotions.
It would appear from his later work that B.F. Skinners approach to what he termed verbal behavior, thinking processes, would be complicated and would deal with thoughts in a very objective and fact like manner. In fact it would be so complicated that in order to attempt to understand those processes one must know that they are mediated not only by contingencies but also by external social stimuli. This would be the one area where the likelihood of understanding the behavior would be difficult because an analysis of external stimuli such as other persons and their contingent reinforcement would be necessary to comprehend the behavior (Chomsky, 1959; B.F. Skinner, 1957; Vargas, 2007).
The writing career that he envisioned was not to be in the way that B.F. Skinner had started out. He was writing for newspapers and had become dissatisfied with this. He decided to return to university to get a higher degree. He began his return to college in 1928. His idea was to become the person who could change the world. He had thought to do this through his writing. He enrolled in the program within the Department of Philosophy and Psychology. While attending he had come upon the ideas of John Watson through his reading avarice. The ideas that were put forth on behaviorism brought B.F. Skinner to the conclusion that if he wanted to change the world, the most effective way to do it was through psychology. His schedule was one that did not lend itself to any social interactions. His work hours through school were intense. He would wake early, attend classes all day and then study into the night. He even commented that his graduate school had tested him in a way that no other part of his life had (Briker, 2014).
As a testament to his rigorous schedule, B.F. Skinner obtained his Masters in psychology by 1930 and his Doctorate in 1931 (Boeree, 2006). In that same year he moved to Minneapolis to teach at the University of Minnesota. He met and Married his wife Yvonne Blue and they had two children together. Another interesting fact is that one of those children would be the first child to be raised in one of his experimental gadgets that he called an air crib.