INTRODUCTION: WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?Noam Chomsky; and the controversial, bestselling Beyond Freedom
and Dignity (1971), which argued that much of human behaviour
is controlled by the environment. Skinner’s research and writings
became influential in many areas of public life, including education
and criminal rehabilitation. To this day, there’s a commune in Mexico
called Los Horocones that lives according to the principles of Skinner’s
behaviourism.
As well as inventing the Skinner box, Skinner also created a pigeon-
guided missile system during World War II (it apparently worked but
was never used) and a glass, temperature-controlled “Air Crib” for
babies. A Life magazine article published in the 1950s about the crib
provoked allegations that he experimented on his own daughter,
some of which rumble on to this day.
B.F. Skinner invented the baby tender or Air Crib in order to provide
infants with a clean, safe environment in which to develop. He tested it on
his own daughter Deborah, seen here with her mother Yvonne Skinner.