Heath, Terri, ed. ‘‘Single Mothers, Single Fathers.’’ Special issue
of Journal of Family Issues 20, no. 4 (1999).
Hetherington, Mavis, Martha Cox, and Roger Cox. ‘‘Effects of Di-
vorce on Parents and Children.’’ In Michael E. Lamb ed.,
Nontraditional Families: Parenting and Child Development. Hills-
dale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1982.
Weinraub, Marsha, and Marcy B. Gringlas. ‘‘Single Parenthood.’’
In Marc H. Bornstein ed., Handbook of Parenting, Vol. 3: Status
and Social Conditions of Parenting. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erl-
baum, 1995.
Anne C. Fletcher
SKINNER, B. F. (1904–1990)
Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner was born in Susque-
hanna, Pennsylvania. His main contribution to the
study of human and nonhuman behavior was to estab-
lish a psychology in which behavior is understood in
scientific, naturalistic terms. For example, he ex-
plained behavior in terms of an ongoing stream of
public and private events, not in terms of popular,
cultural concepts such as ego, mind, or free will. Skin-
ner’s contributions were foundational to the field of
behavior analysis.
Skinner received a B.S. in English from Hamilton
College (New York) in 1926, failed in a brief literary
career, and turned to psychology, receiving his Ph.D.
from Harvard University in 1931. In ground-
breaking research, he experimentally analyzed the
‘‘voluntary’’ behavior of individual organisms (rats),
using equipment he himself designed and built (e.g.,
the operant chamber or ‘‘Skinner box’’). Skinner’s
main interests were how behavior was learned and,
once learned, how it was maintained. Skinner formal-
ized, first, the principle of reinforcement, which states
that behavior is learned because of its consequences
(e.g., reinforcers), and, second, the concept of the
contingencies of reinforcement. As for the latter, he
discovered an important class of contingencies—
schedules of reinforcement (e.g., the number of re-
sponses per reinforcer)—that maintained predictable
patterns of behavior over time (e.g., high and low
rates). The most representative presentation of Skin-
ner’s early research is The Behavior of Organisms
(1938).
Although Skinner never conducted research with
humans, he systematically interpreted human behav-
ior in terms of the basic behavioral principles (e.g.,
Science and Human Behavior, 1953). His best known
scholarly interpretation was Verbal Behavior (1957),
which set off a debate about the role of mind and be-
havior in the analysis of language; the repercussions
of the debate still linger. His more popular interpre-
tations included Walden Two (1948) and Beyond Free-
dom and Dignity (1971), which addressed the human
The work of psychologist B.F. Skinner helped form the foundation
for behavioral analysis studies. (Psychology Archives, University
of Akron)condition and how to improve it. Skinner rarely ap-
plied his psychology directly. This was undertaken by
others, especially in the fields of developmental dis-
abilities, education, and clinical psychology, who be-
came known as applied behavior analysts and
behavior therapists.
Skinner did, however, address topics in develop-
mental psychology, mainly child rearing and educa-
tion, and invented important apparatuses (e.g.,
teaching machines, the ‘‘air crib’’—a controlled phys-
ical space for infants). In the 1950s and 1960s his
principles, concepts, and theory were extended to
child development by other behavior analysts, nota-
bly Donald Baer, Sidney Bijou, and Jacob Gewirtz.
See also: BEHAVIOR ANALYSISBibliography
Bjork, Daniel W. B. F. Skinner: A Life. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
Nye, Robert D. The Legacy of B. F. Skinner: Concepts and Perspectives,
Controversies and Misunderstandings. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/
Cole, 1992.
Publications by Skinner
The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis. New York: Ap-
pleton-Century-Crofts, 1938.
Walden Two. New York: Macmillan, 1948.
Science and Human Behavior. New York: The Free Press, 1953.SKINNER, B. F. 369