B. F. Skinner

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There is no questioning that B.F Skinner’s work in psychology is influencing the world including the way schools, prisons, and mental institutions are directed. One of Skinner’s most popular, as well as most controversial, ideas was the development of operant conditioning. Like psychologist before him such as Sigmund Freud and Philip Zimbardo, Skinner’s theories and work were deemed immoral by the public for various reasons. The controversy over his theories developed when Skinner attempted to connect his research, primarily done on animals, to humans. Public audiences began to disagree with the morals of his research. The questions of “Should human’s behavior be controlled?” and “Do animals have the same complexity in behavior as humans?” …show more content…

Those in support of him describe Skinner’s work as impactful in helping people through curing phobias, depression, and anxiety disorders (Dvorsky), while those who disagree with Skinner see his work as inhumane based on the principle that humans should not be controlled. The sources focusing on the right, or morally correct, side of quality of Skinner are the articles written by Martin Lalumiére and George Dvorsky. Lalumiére states that the reason the public disagrees with Skinner’s morality is that they misinterpret the purpose of his research. Specifically, the misconception that humans have a more complex behavioral system than animals, therefore, Skinner would be reproducing inhumane experiments on the public (Lalumiére). The misconception was both proven correct and incorrect as the use of Skinner’s theories were later put into development. The incorrect use was discussed in George Dvorsky’s article; he writes about Skinner’s theories being used to cure autism and homosexuality through harming individuals with shock therapy and restraints. On the other hand, he also discusses the positive effects Skinner’s research served through developing a treatment for phobias, depression, and anxiety disorders (Dvorsky). Underneath the question of if the treatments developed were right or wrong, Laurence Smith discusses if the idea of attempting to control humans at all was morally correct. Considering the state of the country going through World War I while Skinner was developing his ideas, the emotional reaction of society over the founding’s of Skinner was substantial even getting him a spot in Life Magazine for his development of operant conditioning and the Skinner Box (Smith 130). Because of the amount of controversy surrounding Skinner’s work, his specific inventions including the Skinner Box was never widely used, but his theories and research have been

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