Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionV. Learning Theories 15. Skinner: Behavioral
Analysis(^450) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
financial aid from General Mills, the food conglomeration housed in Minneapolis.
Unfortunately, he still lacked government support.
In an effort to secure the needed funds, he prepared a film of trained pigeons
pecking at the controls of a missile and guiding it toward a moving target. After
viewing the film, government officials rekindled their interest and awarded General
Mills a substaintal grant to develop the project. Nevertheless, frustrations lay ahead.
In 1944, Skinner dramatically demonstrated to government officials the feasibility of
the project by producing a live pigeon that unerringly tracked a moving target. De-
spite this spectacular demonstration, some observers laughed and most remained
skeptical. Finally, after 4 years of work, more than 2 of which were full time, Skin-
ner was notified that financial help could no longer be continued, and the project
came to a halt.
Shortly after Skinner abandoned Project Pigeon and immediately before the
birth of his second daughter, Debbie, he became involved in another venture—the
baby-tender. The baby-tender was essentially an enclosed crib with a large window
and a continual supply of fresh warm air. It provided a physically and psychologi-
cally safe and healthy environment for Debbie, one that also freed the parents from
unnecessary tedious labor. The Skinners frequently removed Debbie from her crib
for play, but for most of the day, she was alone in her baby-tender. After Ladies’
Home Journalpublished an article on the baby-tender, Skinner was both condemned
and praised for his invention. Interest from other parents persuaded him to market
the device. However, difficulties in securing a patent and his association with an in-
competent, unscrupulous business partner led to his abandonment of the commercial
venture. When Debbie outgrew the baby-tender at age 2^1 / 2 years, Skinner uncere-
moniously fashioned it into a pigeon cage.
Beyond Biography How did B. F. Skinner solve his identity
crises? For more information on Skinner’s identity crises and
on his failed Project Pigeon, please go to our website at
http://www.mhhe.com/feist7
At this point in his life, Skinner was 40 years old, still dependent on his father
for financial help, struggling unsuccessfully to write a book on verbal behavior, and
not completely detached from his Dark Year nearly 20 years earlier. Alan Elms
(1981, 1994) believed that the frustrations Skinner experienced over Project Pigeon
and the baby-tender led to a second identity crisis, this one at midlife.
Even as Skinner was becoming a successful and well-known behaviorist, he
was slow to establish financial independence and in childlike fashion allowed his
parents to pay for automobiles, vacations, his children’s education in private schools,
and a house for his family (Bjork, 1993; Wiener, 1996).
One significant experience occurred while Skinner was still at the University
of Minnesota. His father offered to pay him the amount of his summer school salary
if he would forego teaching during the summer months and bring his wife and
daughter to Scranton. In his autobiography, Skinner (1979, p. 245) questioned his fa-
ther’s motives, saying that the father merely “wanted to see more of his adored
granddaughter.” Nevertheless, Skinner accepted his father’s offer, went to Scranton,
set up a table in the basement (as far as possible from the attic that was home base
during his Dark Year), and began writing. Once again, Scranton proved to be a sterile
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