...B. F. Skinner Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist, behaviorist, author, inventor, and social philosopher.[1][2][3][4] He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.[5] Skinner believed that human free will is an illusion and that any human action is the result of the consequences of the same action. If the consequences are bad, there is a high chance that the action will not be repeated; however if the consequences are good, the actions that led to it will become more probable.[6] Skinner called this the principle of reinforcement.[7] The use of reinforcement to strengthen behavior he called operant conditioning. As his main tool for studying operant conditioning Skinner The Skinners’ grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery invented the operant conditioning chamber, also known as the Skinner Box.[8] Skinner developed his own philosophy of science called radical behaviorism,[9] and founded a school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior, as well as his philosophical manifesto Walden Two, both of which still stimulate considerable experimental research and clinical application.[10] Contemporary academia considers Skinner a pioneer of modern behaviorism along with John B. Watson and Ivan Pavlov. Skinner emphasized rate of response as a dependent variable in psychological...
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...such as Dr. Phil feature psychologists who provide personal advice to those with personal or family difficulties. Crime dramas such as CSI, Lie to Me, and others feature the work of forensic psychologists who use psychological principles to help solve crimes. And many people have direct knowledge about psychology because they have visited psychologists, for instance, school counselors, family therapists, and religious, marriage, or bereavement counselors. Because we are frequently exposed to the work of psychologists in our everyday lives, we all have an idea about what psychology is and what psychologists do. In many ways I am sure that your conceptions are correct. Psychologists do work in forensic fields, and they do provide counseling and therapy for people in distress. But there are hundreds of thousands of psychologists in the world, and most of them work in other places, doing work that you are probably not aware of. Most psychologists work in research laboratories, hospitals, and other field settings where they study the behavior of humans and animals. For instance, my colleagues in the Psychology Department at the University of Maryland study such diverse topics as anxiety in children, the interpretation of dreams, the effects of caffeine on thinking, how birds recognize each other, how praying mantises hear, how people from different cultures react differently in negotiation, and the factors that lead people to engage in terrorism. Other psychologists study such topics as alcohol...
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...philosophy. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle differed in preferences of extremes. Socrates is infamous for pushing limits while Aristotle preached balance. Many historians consider Plato the most sophisticated of the three; Socrates taught on the streets of Athens. Sources, such as the American Psychological Association, credit Plato, with founding the first formal institution of education, “After returning to Athens, Plato set up his own school, which was called the Academy. Philosophy and other subjects were taught there, and the Academy continued to produce scholars for many centuries after Plato died.” (Downey, 2006, para. 6). Aristotle, according to legend, was the teacher of Alexander the Great. The most notable theory from this time the Socratic Method, which consists of posing probing questions to students rather than espousing a hierarchy of knowledge. Brief History of its Founding Modern theories such as behaviorism, founded in the early twentieth century, are associated with theorists including Watson, Skinner, Pavlov and Thorndike. Watson known as the father of behaviorism proposed an alternative to the views of Wilhelm Wundt the founder of the discipline of psychology in1879. (Moore, 2011, p. 1). According to Moore, “Wundt assumed that the study of consciousness or subjective mental life was the appropriate subject matter for psychology.” (Moore, 2011, p. 1, para.1). Watson proposed that study and analysis should focus on observable behavior and that concerns...
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...A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 First American paperback edition published in 2006 by Enchanted Lion Books, 45 Main Street, Suite 519, Brooklyn, NY 11201 Copyright © 2002 Philip Stokes/Arcturus Publishing Limted 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151-153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA Glossary © 2003 Enchanted Lion Books All Rights Reserved. The Library of Congress has cataloged an earlier hardcover edtion of this title for which a CIP record is on file. ISBN-13: 978-1-59270-046-2 ISBN-10: 1-59270-046-2 Printed in China Edited by Paul Whittle Cover and book design by Alex Ingr A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 Philip Stokes A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 ENCHANTED LION BOOKS New York Contents The Presocratics Thales of Miletus . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Pythagoras of Samos . . . . . 10 Xenophanes of Colophon 12 Heraclitus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Scholastics St Anselm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 St Thomas Aquinas . . . . . . . 50 John Duns Scotus . . . . . . . . . 52 William of Occam . . . . . . . . . 54 The Liberals Adam Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Mary Wollstonecraft . . . . 108 Thomas Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Jeremy Bentham . . . . . . . . . 112 John Stuart Mill . . . . . . . . . . 114 Auguste Comte . . . . . . . . . . . 116 The Eleatics Parmenides of Elea . . . . . . . 16 Zeno of Elea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Age of Science Nicolaus Copernicus . . . . . . 56 Niccolò Machiavelli...
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