460 Part VI Learning-Cognitive Theories
As an environmentalist, Skinner held that psychology must not explain
behavior on the basis of the physiological or constitutional components of the
organism but rather on the basis of environmental stimuli. He recognized that
genetic factors are important, but he insisted that, because they are fixed at concep-
tion, they are of no help in the control of behavior. The history of the individual,
rather than anatomy, provides the most useful data for predicting and controlling
behavior.
Watson took radical behaviorism, determinism, and environmental forces
beyond Skinner’s conception by ignoring genetic factors completely and promising
to shape personality by controlling the environment. In a famous lecture, Watson
(1926) made this extraordinary promise:
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to
become any type of specialist I might select—a doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-
chief, and, yes, even into beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. (p. 10)
Although few radical behaviorists currently accept this extreme position,
Watson’s promise has led to much discussion and debate.Biography of B. F. Skinner
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania,
the first child of William Skinner and Grace Mange Burrhus Skinner. His father
was a lawyer and an aspiring politician while his mother stayed home to care for
their two children. Skinner grew up in a comfortable, happy, upper-middle-class
home where his parents practiced the values of temperance, service, honesty, and
hard work. The Skinners were Presbyterian, but Fred (he was almost never called
Burrhus or B. F.) began to lose his faith during high school and thereafter never
practiced any religion.
When Skinner was 2^1 / 2 years old, a second son, Edward, was born. Fred felt
that Ebbie (as he was known) was loved more by both parents, yet he did not feel
unloved. He was simply more independent and less emotionally attached to his
mother and father. But after Ebbie died suddenly during Skinner’s first year at
college, the parents became progressively less willing to let their older son go.
They wanted him to become “the family boy” and indeed succeeded in keeping
him financially obligated even after B. F. Skinner became a well-known name in
American psychology (Skinner, 1979; Wiener, 1996).
As a child, Skinner was inclined toward music and literature. From an early
age, he was interested in becoming a professional writer, a goal he may have
achieved with his publication of Walden Two when he was well into his 40s.
At about the time Skinner finished high school, his family moved about 30 miles
to Scranton, Pennsylvania. Almost immediately, however, Skinner entered Hamilton
College, a liberal arts school in Clinton, New York. After taking his bachelor’s
degree in English, Skinner set about to realize his ambition of being a creative writer.
When he wrote to his father, informing him of his wish to spend a year at home
working at nothing except writing, his request was met with lukewarm acceptance.