Analysis Of The Book Opening Skinner s Box - 965 Words

Lauren Slater is the author of the 2004 book called â€Å"Opening Skinner’s Box†. In this book, Slater writes about ten important psychological studies of the 20th century and she describes the personalities of the famous researchers who conducted the experiments. The book is written in story form with the author recreating the experiments in her own way. Slater uses the experiments to get the reader thinking about important concepts such as free will, authoritarianism, conformity, and morality. She writes about controversies that surround the researchers and she also tries to track down the actual researcher or other people who can help provide more information. In the first chapter of the book, Slater writes about the work of B.F. Skinner, who is known for his contribution to behavioral psychology, specifically the concept of operant conditioning. In this paper, I will summarize some of the major points from this chapter, titled â€Å"Opening Skinner’s Boxâ₠¬  and I will also offer a critical analysis of the chapter. Slater describes how Skinner expanded on Pavlov’s findings about classical conditioning, which showed how a reflex could be conditioned to happen in response to a different stimulus (Slater 10). Skinner felt that it wasn’t just reflexes that could be conditioned but other behaviors as well. He studied animal’s behaviors after they were given a reward or consequence. His famous box studies involved him training rats to be rewarded with food in fixed-ratio schedules,Show MoreRelatedFour Main Perspectives in Psychology2425 Words   |  10 Pagesregardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and the race of his ancestors†. (Watson, 1924, p. 104) Skinner believed that the best way to understand behaviour is to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. This is called operant conditioning which is based on the work of Thorndike (1905) who suggested the ‘Law of Effect’ theory. Skinner introduced ‘Law of Effect Reinforcement’, suggesting behaviour which is reinforced tends to be repeated. Essentially it is aboutRead MoreCognitive psychology  . Essay5542 Words   |  23 Pagesdeclined in the first half of the 20th century with the rise of â€Å"behaviorism –- the study of laws relating observable behavior to objective, observable stimulus conditions without any recourse to internal mental processes (Watson, 1913; Boring, 1950; Skinner, 1950). It was this last requirement, fundamental to cognitive psychology, that was one of behaviorisms undoings. 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