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A Daughter's Retrospective of B. F. Skinner

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Julie S. Vargas*
Affiliation:
The B. F. Skinner Foundation
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Julie S. Vargas, B.F. Skinner Foundation, 12 Arrow St. # 303, Cambridge, MA, 02138, United States. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

This paper describes characteristic behaviors of my father, B. F. Skinner, using family documents and my own recollections. Early contingencies in his upbringing strengthened his love of building things and his independence in discovering how the world works. Those skills, combined with a lack of supervision in graduate school, set the stage for his discovery of the operant. He did not stop with laboratory research. He extended his discovery of how consequences select behavior into education and the design of cultural practices. As well as solving society's problems, my father was always concerned with improving his own behavior. Some of the contingencies he set up to maximize his own productivity are described.

Este artículo describe algunas de las conductas características de mi padre, B.F. Skinner, usando documentos familiares y mis propios recuerdos. Algunas contingencias tempranas en su crianza fortalecieron su amor por la construcción de objetos y su independencia para descubrir cómo funciona el mundo. Estas habilidades, combinadas con la falta de supervisión en sus años de doctorando, pusieron la base de su descubrimiento del operante. No se limitó al trabajo de laboratorio. Extendió su descubrimiento de cómo las consecuencias seleccionan la conducta a la educación y al diseño de prácticas culturales. Mi padre siempre se preocupó tanto de solucionar los problemas de la sociedad como de mejorar su propia conducta y describo aquí alguna de las contingencias que organizó para maximizar su propia productividad.

Type
Complutense University Celebration of B.F. Skinner's Centennial (1904-2004)
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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References

Keller, F. S. (1931, October 2) Unpublished letter to B. F. Skinner. Harvard University Archives, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
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