Did any of you folks ever read any of the studies he did?

Are you asking for details or starting a conversation? I had classes on Skinner in psych I'd have to go back to my library to get the details of the studies.

Marc,

The extent of my reading of Skinner's studies is somewhat limited to second part reviews. Alfie Kohn covers some of this in his book, "Punished by Rewards" and includes transcripts of meetings between Skinner and Kohn where they discussed Skinnerian Thinking.

When studying Motivation, I read another 5 books or so that centered on Skinners beliefs, although much of what was written about never gave full credit to Skinner.

What are you looking for? Anything in particular?

Regards,

Kevin

Isn't this the guy that found that no matter how he changed the work enviroment, people always out performed when they were being studied.

I seem to recall something about changing the lighting and finding the workers did better with the lights low, but further study only showed it was related to the study itself.

Is this the guy?

CX

The father of reinforcement theory.
1. Positive
2. Escape and advoidance
3. Extinction
4. Punishment

Isn't this the guy that found that no matter how he changed the work enviroment, people always out performed when they were being studied.

I seem to recall something about changing the lighting and finding the workers did better with the lights low, but further study only showed it was related to the study itself.

Is this the guy?

CX

Carol:

Skinner was known for operant behavior. I believe what you describe is the Hawthorne effect, after the Hawthorn Western Electric plant. the study was supposed to measure the effect of lighting on productivity. When they found that productivity increased at each level of lighting, they deduced that something else was affecting the system.

"The Hawthorne Effect", then, is what happens when the system changes just because it is being observed.

That said, I could not find where Skinner was involved at Hawthorne, so he may have been... See http://www.ship.edu/~cgboeree/skinner.html for a description of his work. The Hawthorne effect was based on work by Elton Mayo. See http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/hawthorne_01.html

Craig

Skinner was known for operant behavior.

This theory is what that story about the monkeys and the water hose is based upon.

I've been playing with this cat that has taken up residence here. When ever I feed the little intruder I whistle first. Now she almost always comes to my whistle. I guess that's Pavlonian or something.

I've been playing with this cat that has taken up residence here. When ever I feed the little intruder I whistle first. Now she almost always comes to my whistle. I guess that's Pavlonian or something.

Be careful here Marc, if you feed, Stew will show up. And when the time comes for the bill, he will announce he has to make an important phone call and never return. :biglaugh:

Hey db, you fell for it. Besides, I thought it was understood that the first one to look at the check had to pay. Isn't that in the MI constitution?

Look at it another way. In this day and age of political correctness, why shouldn't we let Cari pay? It was her punishment for being late! :biglaugh:

If Stew eats MeowMix he's welcome to come for chow!

The cat has already cost me about US$150. It got real sick so I took it to the vet. Turned out to be a real bad ear infection. Since we were there I had the vet do the lukemia and other blood tests and she got her shots. Took a week for her to come back to 'normal'. Of course the issue of having her spayed came up so it's set for next Monday at 8 am for about another US$150. I brought her inside when she got sick and now she's in an awful lot. De-fleaed, ear mite medicine, brushed.

Cat for sale (well, for free, actually)! Comes to a whistle! No bird or small rodent can out run this little number! Get her while she's hot and de-fleaed!

Darn - I jumped off topic again. I thought I was in the cat thread.

Actually I started this thread because I was thinking back to my college days when I went through a lot of the different folks who studied human behaviour - some with respect to 'business', some not. I'm trying to reconcile some of what I do remember and 'know' and to remember what I've forgotten - such as who Skinner was and whether his studies are relevant today (so many studies have turned out to have been biased in one way or another often in ways they couldn't predict (or just simply discounted due to 'the thinking of the day') back then.

In this day and age of political correctness, why shouldn't we let Cari pay? It was her punishment for being late! :biglaugh:

Agreed, but $100 a plate :eek: - did the punishment fit the crime?

did the punishment fit the crime?

You should see my hourly bill for consulting! You got off light!

If Stew eats MeowMix he's welcome to come for chow!

I've had to eat a lot worse in my day, sheeze, you should have seen what Cari paid $100 bucks for!

whether his studies are relevant today
You still see and hear about his stuff a bit. Mainly when you hear that term "a product of his environment" pertaining to child violence. You'll also hear it when they talk about the violent video games and allowing kids to play with toy guns. They are being desensitized.

Actually I started this thread because I was thinking back to my college days when I went through a lot of the different folks who studied human behaviour - some with respect to 'business', some not. I'm trying to reconcile some of what I do remember and 'know' and to remember what I've forgotten - such as who Skinner was and whether his studies are relevant today (so many studies have turned out to have been biased in one way or another often in ways they couldn't predict (or just simply discounted due to 'the thinking of the day') back then.

B.F. Skinner is considered to be the father of popular behaviorism (pop behaviorism) which is what gpainter detailed in his post. Basically, Skinner believed the people responded to the external forces acting on us. As you might recall, he did his studies on rats, but wrote his papers and books mostly about people. He concluded that there wasn't a huge difference between animals (rats and people). Given the same set of external forces, he believed people (rats) would react in the same fashion. This was easy to prove, as most of the observations he made dealt with reinforcements of some type. Children would behave if you gave them a treat, or, rats would press the correct lever to release food down a shoot. To a degree, he was correct to point out that external forces contribute to our outcomes. What he was wrong about (IMO) is believing that they were the only forces contributing. He never believed in a humans having free-will.

For the past 40-50 years, this has been the prevailing definition of pop behaviorism. Honestly, all you have to do is look around and see how much attention is paid to trying to influence people's behaviour through the use of extrinsic means. Sales on the radio and t.v. using incentives. Reading programs in local libraries using 'book bucks' to encourage reading. Grading programs in schools and performance appraisals in work. All using external forces to encourage the kind of behavior that is most desirable. Skinner, however, made some serious issues with his studies. As I recall, he never extended a study to determine long term effects. This may have been done because once he confirmed his theory, he was satisfied with the results. Then there are some who say this might have been a convenient tactic.

Regards,

Kevin