Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology
By : Drs. Agus Subandi, MBA

"Child Psychology" redirects here. For the song by Black Box Recorder, see Child Psychology (song).

Developmental psychology, also known as human development, is the scientific study of systematicpsychological changes that occur in human beings over the course of their life span. Originally concerned withinfants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire life span. This field examines change across a broad range of topics including motor skills and other psycho-physiological processes; cognitive development involving areas such as problem solving, moral understanding, and conceptual understanding; language acquisition; social, personality, and emotional development; and self-concept and identity formation.
Developmental psychology includes issues such as the extent to which development occurs through the gradual accumulation of knowledge versus stage-like development, or the extent to which children are born with innate mental structures versus learning through experience. Many researchers are interested in the interaction between personal characteristics, the individual's behavior, and environmental factors including social context, and their impact on development; others take a more narrowly focused approach.
Developmental psychology informs several applied fields, including: educational psychology, child psychopathology, and forensic developmental psychology. Developmental psychology complements several other basic research fields in psychology including social psychology, cognitive psychology, ecological psychology, and comparative psychology.
Approaches
Many theoretical perspectives attempt to explain development; among the most prominent are; Jean Piaget's Stage Theory, Lev Vygotsky'sSocial constructivism (and its heirs, the Cultural Theory of Development of Michael Cole, and the Ecological Systems Theory of Urie Bronfenbrenner), Albert Bandura's Social learning theory, and the information processing framework employed by cognitive psychology.
To a lesser extent, historical theories continue to provide a basis for additional research. Among them are Erik Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development and John B. Watson's and B. F. Skinner's behaviorism (for more on behaviorism's role see Behavior analysis of child development).
Many other theories are prominent for their contributions to particular aspects of development. For example, attachment theory describes kinds of interpersonal relationships and Lawrence Kohlberg describes stages in moral reasoning.
Theorists and theories
Main article: Developmental stage theories
1. John Bowlby, Harry Harlow, Mary Ainsworth: Attachment theory
2. Urie Bronfenbrenner: the social ecology of human development
3. Jerome Bruner: Cognitive (constructivist); learning theory / Narrative construction of reality
4. Erik Erikson: Erikson's stages of psychosocial development
5. Sigmund Freud: Psychosexual development
6. Jerome Kagan: A pioneer of developmental psychology
7. Lawrence Kohlberg: Kohlberg's stages of moral development
8. Jean Piaget: Theory of cognitive development, Genetic epistemology
9. Lev Vygotsky: Social constructivism, Zone of proximal development
10. Reuven Feuerstein: Structural Cognitive Modifiability
11. Judith Rich Harris: Modular theory of social development
12. Eleanor Gibson: Ecological psychology
13. Robert Kegan: Adult development
Piagetian stages of cognitive development
Main articles: Jean Piaget and Theory of cognitive development
Piaget was a French speaking Swiss theorist who posited that children learn by actively constructing knowledge through hands-on experience.[1] He suggested that the adult's role in helping the child learn was to provide appropriate materials for the child to interact and construct. He would use Socratic questioning to get the children to reflect on what they were doing. He would try to get them to see contradictions in their explanations. He also developed stages of development. His approach can be seen in how the curriculum is sequenced in schools, and in the pedagogy of preschool centers across the United States.
Vygotsky's cultural-historical theory
Main articles: Lev Vygotsky and Cultural-historical psychology
Vygotsky was a theorist from the Soviet era, who posited that children learn through hands-on experience, as Piaget suggested. However, unlike Piaget, he claimed that timely and sensitive intervention by adults when a child is on the edge of learning a new task (called the "zone of proximal development") could help children learn new tasks. This technique is called "scaffolding," because it builds upon knowledge children already have with new knowledge that adults can help the child learn.[2] Vygotsky was strongly focused on the role of culture in determining the child's pattern of development, arguing that development moves from the social level to the individual level.[2]
Ecological Systems Theory
Main article: Ecological Systems Theory
Also called "Development in Context" or "Human Ecology" theory, Ecological Systems Theory, originally formulated by Urie Bronfenbrennerspecifies four types of nested environmental systems, with bi-directional influences within and between the systems. The four systems are Microsystem, Mesosystem, Exosystem, and Macrosystem. Each system contains roles, norms and rules that can powerfully shape development. Since its publication in 1979, Bronfenbrenner's major statement of this theory, The Ecology of Human Development[3] has had widespread influence on the way psychologists and others approach the study of human beings and their environments. As a result of this conceptualization of development, these environments — from the family to economic and political structures — have come to be viewed as part of the life course from childhood through adulthood.[4]
Attachment theory
Main article: Attachment theory
Attachment theory, originally developed by John Bowlby, focuses on open, intimate, emotionally meaningful relationships. Attachment is described as a biological system or powerful survival impulse that evolved to ensure the survival of the infant. A child who is threatened or stressed will move toward caregivers who create a sense of physical, emotional and psychological safety for the individual. Attachment feeds on body contact and familiarity. Later Mary Ainsworth developed the Strange Situation Protocol and the concept of the secure base. See also the critique by developmental psychology pioneer Jerome Kagan.
Unfortunately, there are situations that inhibit a child from forming attachments. Some babies are raised without the stimulation and attention of a regular caregiver, or locked away under conditions of abuse or extreme neglect. The possible short-term effects of this deprivation are anger, despair, detachment, and temporary delay in intellectual development. Long-term effects include increased aggression, clinging behavior, detachment, psychosomatic disorders, and an increased risk of depression as an adult.[5][6]
Nature/nurture
Main article: Nature versus nurture
A significant issue in developmental psychology is the relationship between innateness and environmental influence in regard to any particular aspect of development. This is often referred to as "nature versus nurture" or nativism versus empiricism. A nativist account of development would argue that the processes in question are innate, that is, they are specified by the organism's genes. An empiricist perspective would argue that those processes are acquired in interaction with the environment. Today developmental psychologists rarely take such extreme positions with regard to most aspects of development; rather they investigate, among many other things, the relationship between innate and environmental influences. One of the ways in which this relationship has been explored in recent years is through the emerging field ofevolutionary developmental psychology.
One area where this innateness debate has been prominently portrayed is in research on language acquisition. A major question in this area is whether or not certain properties of human language are specified genetically or can be acquired through learning. The empiricist position on the issue of language acquisition suggests that the language input provides the necessary information required for learning the structure of language and that infants acquire language through a process of statistical learning. From this perspective, language can be acquired via general learning methods that also apply to other aspects of development, such as perceptual learning. The nativist position argues that the input from language is too impoverished for infants and children to acquire the structure of language. Linguist Noam Chomsky asserts that, evidenced by the lack of sufficient information in the language input, there is a universal grammar that applies to all human languages and is pre-specified. This has led to the idea that there is a special cognitive module suited for learning language, often called the language acquisition device. Chomsky's critique of the behaviorist model of language acquisition is regarded by many as a key turning point in the decline in the prominence of the theory of behaviorism generally.[7] But Skinner's conception of "Verbal Behavior" has not died, perhaps in part because it has generated successful practical applications.[7]
Mechanisms of development
Developmental psychology is concerned not only with describing the characteristics of psychological change over time, but also seeks to explain the principles and internal workings underlying these changes. Psychologists have attempted to better understand these factors by using models. Developmental models are sometimes computational, but they do not need to be. A model must simply account for the means by which a process takes place. This is sometimes done in reference to changes in the brain that may correspond to changes in behavior over the course of the development. Computational accounts of development often use either symbolic, connectionist (neural network), ordynamical systems models to explain the mechanisms of development.
Research areas
Cognitive development
Main articles: Cognitive development, Theory of cognitive development, and Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development
Cognitive development is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and children acquire, develop, and use internal mental capabilities such as problem solving, memory, and language. Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language acquisition and the development of perceptual and motor skills. Piaget was one of the influential early psychologists to study the development of cognitive abilities. His theory suggests that development proceeds through a set of stages from infancy to adulthood and that there is an end point or goal. Other accounts, such as that of Lev Vygotsky, have suggested that development does not progress through stages, but rather that the developmental process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex for such structure and finality. Rather, from this viewpoint, developmental processes proceed more continuously, thus development should be analyzed, instead of treated as a product to be obtained.
Modern cognitive development has integrated the considerations of cognitive psychology and the psychology of individual differences into the interpretation and modeling of development.[8] Specifically, the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development showed that the successive levels or stages of cognitive development are associated with increasing processing efficiency and working memory capacity. These increases explain progression to higher stages, and individual differences in such increases by same-age persons explain differences in cognitive performance. Other theories have moved away from Piagetian stage theories, and are influenced by accounts of domain-specificinformation processing, which posit that development is guided by innate evolutionarily specified and content-specific information processing mechanisms.
Social and emotional development
Main article: Social psychology (psychology)
Developmental psychologists who are interested in social development examine how individuals develop social and emotional competencies. For example, they study how children form friendships, how they understand and deal with emotions, and how identity develops. Research in this area may involve study of the relationship between cognition or cognitive development and social behavior.
Research methods
Developmental psychology employs many of the research methods used in other areas of psychology. However, infants and children cannot always be tested in the same ways as adults, so different methods are often used to study their development.
Methods and techniques
Cognitive development is primarily concerned with the ways in which infants and children acquire, develop, and use internal mental capabilities such as problem solving, memory, and language. Major topics in cognitive development are the study of language acquisition and the development of perceptual and motor skills. Piaget was one of the influential early psychologists to study the development of cognitive abilities. His theory suggests that development proceeds through a set of stages from infancy to adulthood and that there is an end point or goal. Other accounts, such as that of Lev Vygotsky, have suggested that development does not progress through stages, but rather that the developmental process that begins at birth and continues until death is too complex for such structure and finality. Rather, from this viewpoint, developmental processes proceed more continuously, thus development should be analyzed, instead of treated as a product to be obtained. Modern cognitive development has integrated the considerations of cognitive psychology and the psychology of individual differences into the interpretation and modeling of development.[8] Specifically, the neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development showed that the successive levels or stages of cognitive development are associated with increasing processing efficiency and working memory capacity. These increases explain progression to higher stages, and individual differences in such increases by same-age persons explain differences in cognitive performance. Other theories have moved away from Piagetian stage theories, and are influenced by accounts of domain-specific information processing, which posit that development is guided by innate evolutionarily specified and content-specific information processing mechanisms.
Research design
Developmental psychologists have a number of methods to study changes in individuals over time.
In a longitudinal study, a researcher observes many individuals born at or around the same time (a cohort) and carries out new observations as members of the cohort age. This method can be used to draw conclusions about which types of development are universal (or normative) and occur in most members of a cohort. As an example a longitudinal study of early literacy development examined in detail the early literacy experiences of one child in each of 30 families.[9] Researchers may also observe ways in which development varies between individuals and hypothesize about the causes of variation observed in their data. Longitudinal studies often require large amounts of time and funding, making them unfeasible in some situations. Also, because members of a cohort all experience historical events unique to their generation, apparently normative developmental trends may in fact be universal only to their cohort.
In a cross-sectional study, a researcher observes differences between individuals of different ages at the same time. This generally requires less resources than the longitudinal method, and because the individuals come from different cohorts, shared historical events are not so much of a confounding factor. By the same token, however, cross-sectional research may not be the most effective way to study differences between participants, as these differences may result not from their different ages but from their exposure to different historical events.
An third study design, the cohort study, combines both methodologies. Here, a researcher observes members of different birth cohorts at the same time, and then tracks all participants over time, charting changes in the groups. While much more resource-intensive, the format aids in a clearer distinction between what changes can be attributed to individual or historical environment from those which are truly universal.
Notably, these are all correlational, not experimental, designs, and so one cannot readily infer causation from the data they yield. Nonetheless, correlational research methods are common in the study of development, in part due to ethical concerns. In a study of the effects of poverty on development, for instance, one cannot easily randomly assign certain families to a poverty condition and others to an affluent one, and so observation alone has to suffice.
Stages of development
See also: Child development stages
Pre-natal development
See also: Pre-natal development and Pre- and perinatal psychology
Pre-natal development is of interest to psychologists investigating the context of early psychological development. For example, someprimitive reflexes arise before birth and are still present in newborns. One hypothesis is that these reflexes are vestigial and have limited use in early human life. Piaget's theory of cognitive development suggested that some early reflexes are building blocks for infant sensorimotor development. For example the tonic neck reflex may help development by bringing objects into the infant's field of view.[10] Other reflexes, such as the walking reflex disappear to be replaced by more sophisticated voluntary control later in infancy. This may be because the infant gains too much weight after birth to be strong enough to use the reflex, or because the reflex and subsequent development are functionally different.[11] It has also been suggested that some reflexes (for example the moro and walking reflexes) are predominantly adaptations to life in the womb with little connection to early infant development.[10] Primitive reflexes reappear in adults under certain conditions, such as neurological conditions like dementia or traumatic lesions.
Ultrasound has shown that infants are capable of a range of movements in the womb, many of which appear to be more than simple reflexes.[11] By the time they are born, infants can recognise and have a preference for their mother's voice suggesting some pre-natal development of auditory perception.[11] Pre-natal development and birth complications may also be connected to neurodevelopmental disorders, for example in schizophrenia. With the advent of cognitive neuroscience, embryology and the neuroscience of pre-natal development is of increasing interest to developmental psychology research.
Infancy
Main articles: Infant and child psychology and Infant cognitive development
From birth until the onset of speech, the child is referred to as an infant. Developmental psychologists vary widely in their assessment of infant psychology, and the influence the outside world has upon it, but certain aspects are relatively clear.
The majority of a newborn infant's time is spent in sleep. At first this sleep is evenly spread throughout the day and night, but after a couple of months, infants generally become diurnal.
Infants can be seen to have 6 states, grouped into pairs:
 quiet sleep and active sleep (dreaming, when REM occurs)
 quiet waking, and active waking
 fussing and crying
Infants respond to stimuli differently in these different states.[11]
Habituation (see above) has been used to discover the resolution of perceptual systems, suggesting that infants' basic perceptual abilities develop before acquisition of object permanence.
 Vision is significantly worse in infants than in older children. Infant sight, blurry in early stages, improves over time. Colour perception similar to that seen in adults has been demonstrated in infants as young as four months, using habituation methods.[10]
• Hearing is well-developed prior to birth, however, and a preference for the mother's heartbeat is well established. Infants are fairly good at detecting the direction from which a sound comes, and by 18 months their hearing ability is approximately equal to that of adults.
 Smell and taste are present, with infants showing different expressions of disgust or pleasure when presented with pleasant odors (honey, milk, etc.) or unpleasant odors (rotten egg) and tastes (e.g. sour taste). There is good evidence for infants preferring the smell of their mother to that of others.[10]
1. Language : infants of around six months can differentiate between phonemes in their own language, but not between similar phonemes in another language. At this stage infants also start to babble, producing phonemes.
• Touch is one of the better developed senses at birth, being one of the first to develop inside the womb. This is evidenced by the primitive reflexes described above, and the relatively advanced development of the somatosensory cortex.[12]
 Pain : Infants feel pain similarly, if not more strongly than older children but pain-relief in infants has not received so much attention as an area of research.[13]
An early theory of infant development was the Sensorimotor stage of Piaget's Theory of cognitive development. Piaget suggested that an infant's perception and understanding of the world depended on their motor development, which was required for the infant to link visual, tactile and motor representations of objects. According to this view, it is through touching and handling objects that infants develop object permanence, the understanding that objects are solid, permanent, and continue to exist when out of sight.[11]


Special methods are used to study infant behavior.
Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage comprised six sub-stages (see sensorimotor stages for more detail). In the early stages, development arises out of movements caused by primitive reflexes.[14] Discovery of new behaviours results from classical and operant conditioning, and the formation of habits.[14] From eight months the infant is able to uncover a hidden object but will persevere when the object is moved. Piaget's evidence for an incomplete understanding of object permanence before 18 months was the infant's failure to look for an object where it was last seen. Instead infants continue to look for an object where it was first seen, committing the "A-not-B error".
Later researchers have developed a number of other tests which suggest that younger infants understand more about objects than first thought. These experiments usually involve a toy, and a crude barrier which is placed in front of the toy, and then removed, repeatedly. Before the age of eight to nine months, infants inability to understand object permanence extends to people, which explains why infants at this age do not cry when their mothers are gone ("Out of sight, out of mind.").
There are critical periods in infancy and childhood during which development of certain perceptual, sensorimotor, social and language systems depends crucially on environmental stimulation.[15] Feral children such as Genie, deprived of adequate stimulation, fail to acquire important skills which they are then unable to learn in later childhood. The concept of critical periods is also well established inneurophysiology, from the work of Hubel and Wiesel among others. Some feel that classical music, particularly Mozart is good for an infant's mind. While some tentative research has shown it to be helpful to older children, no conclusive evidence is available involving infants.[16]
Babyhood
Intelligence is demonstrated through the use of symbols, language use matures, and memory and imagination are developed. Thinking is done in a nonlogical, nonreversible manner. Egocentric thinking predominates.
Socially, toddlers are little people attempting to become independent at this stage, which they are commonly called the " terrible twos". They walk, talk, use the toilet, and get food for themselves. Self-control begins to develop. If taking the initiative to explore, experiment, risk mistakes in trying new things, and test their limits is encouraged by the caretaker(s) the child will become autonomous, self-reliant, and confident. If the caretaker is overprotective or disapproving of independent actions, the toddler may begin to doubt their abilities and feel ashamed for the desire for independence. The child's autonomic development will be inhibited, and be less prepared to successfully deal with the world in the future.
Early childhood
Also called as "Pre-school age", "Exploratory age" and "Toy age".
When children attend preschool, they broaden their social horizons and become more engaged with those around them. Impulses are channeled into fantasies, which leaves the task of the caretaker to balance eagerness for pursuing adventure, creativity and self expression with the development of responsibility. If caretakers are properly encouraging and consistently disciplinary, children are more likely to develop positive self-esteem while becoming more responsible, and will follow through on assigned activities.[citation needed] If not allowed to decide which activities to perform, children may begin to feel guilt upon contemplating taking initiative.[citation needed] This negative association with independence will lead them to let others make decisions in place of them.
Late Childhood
In middle childhood, intelligence is demonstrated through logical and systematic manipulation of symbols related to concrete objects. Operational thinking develops, which means actions are reversible, and egocentric thought diminishes.
Children go through the transition from the world at home to that of school and peers. Children learn to make things, use tools, and acquire the skills to be a worker and a potential provider. Children can now receive feedback from outsiders about their accomplishments. If children can discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation, being productive, seeking success, they will develop a sense of competence. If they are not successful or cannot discover pleasure in the process, they may develop a sense of inferiority and feelings of inadequacy that may haunt them throughout life. This is when children think of them selves as industrious or as inferior.
Adolescence
Main article: Adolescent psychology
Adolescence is the period of life between the onset of puberty and the full commitment to an adult social role, such as worker, parent, and/or citizen. It is the period known for the formation of personal and social identity (see Erik Erikson) and the discovery of moral purpose (seeWilliam Damon). Intelligence is demonstrated through the logical use of symbols related to abstract concepts and formal reasoning. A return to egocentric thought often occurs early in the period. Only 35% develop the capacity to reason formally during adolescence or adulthood. (Huitt, W. and Hummel, J. January 1998)[17]
It is divided into two parts namely:
1. Early Adolescence: 13 to 16 years and
2. Late Adolescence: 16 to 19 years
The adolescent unconsciously explores questions such as "Who am I? Who do I want to be?" Like toddlers, adolescents must explore, test limits, become autonomous, and commit to an identity, or sense of self. Different roles, behaviors and ideologies must be tried out to select an identity. Role confusion and inability to choose vocation can result from a failure to achieve a sense of identity.
Early adulthood
The person must learn how to form intimate relationships, both in friendship and love. The development of this skill relies on the resolution of other stages. It may be hard to establish intimacy if one has not developed trust or a sense of identity. If this skill is not learned the alternative is alienation, isolation, a fear of commitment, and the inability to depend on others.
A related framework for studying this part of the life span is that of Emerging adulthood, introduced in 2000 by Jeffrey Arnett. Scholars of emerging adulthood are interested not only in relationship development (focusing on the role of dating in helping individuals settle on a long-term spouse/partner), but also the development of sociopolitical views and occupational choice.
Middle age
Middle adulthood generally refers to the period between ages 40 to 60. During this period, the middle-aged experience a conflict between generativity and stagnation. They may either feel a sense of contributing to the next generation and their community or a sense of purposelessness.
Physically, the middle-aged experience a decline in muscular strength, reaction time, sensory keenness, and cardiac output. Also, women experience menopause and a sharp drop in the hormone estrogen. Men do have an equivalent to menopause, it is called Andropause which is a hormone fluctuation with physical and psychological effects similar to menopause. Lowered testosterone levels result in mood swings and a decline in sperm count and speed of ejaculation and erection. Most men and women remain capable of sexual satisfaction after middle age. Compare Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.
Old age
This stage generally refers to those over 60–80 years. During old age, people experience a conflict between integrity vs. despair. When reflecting on their life, they either feel a sense of accomplishment or failure.
Physically, older people experience a decline in muscular strength, reaction time, stamina, hearing, distance perception, and the sense of smell. They also are more susceptible to severe diseases such as cancer and pneumonia due to a weakened immune system. Mental disintegration may also occur, leading to Dementia or Alzheimer's Disease. However, partially due to a lifetime's accumulation of antibodies, the elderly are less likely to suffer from common diseases such as the cold.
Whether or not intellectual powers increase or decrease with age remains controversial. Longitudinal studies have suggested that intellect declines, while cross-sectional studies suggest that intellect is stable. It is generally believed that crystallized intelligence increases up to old age, while fluid intelligence decreases with age.
Other findings
Parenting
See also: Parenting
In Western developed societies, mothers (and women generally) were emphasized to the exclusion of other caregivers, particularly as the traditional role of the father was more the breadwinner, and less the direct caregiver of an infant, he has been traditionally viewed as impacting an infant indirectly through interactions with the mother of the child.
The emphasis of study has shifted to the primary caregiver (regardless of gender or biological relation), as well as all persons directly or indirectly influencing the child (the family system). The roles of the mother and father are more significant than first thought as we moved into the concept of primary caregiver.
Affirming a role for fathers, studies have shown that children as young as 15 months benefit significantly from substantial engagement with their father.[18][19] In particular, a study in the U.S.A. and New Zealand found the presence of the natural father was the most significant factor in reducing rates of early sexual activity and rates of teenage pregnancy in girls.[20] Covariate factors used included early conduct problems, maternal age at first childbirth, race, maternal education, father's occupational status, family living standards, family life stress, early mother-child interaction, measures of psychosocial adjustment and educational achievement, school qualifications, mood disorder, anxiety disorder, suicide attempts, violent offending, and conduct disorder. Further research has found fathers have an impact on child academic performance, including involved nonresident fathers.[18] However, father absence is associated with a range of negative outcomes for children, including child and later criminal behavior.[21]
Historical antecedents
The modern form of developmental psychology has its roots in the rich psychological tradition represented by Aristotle,Tabari,[22][unreliable source?] Rhazes,[23][unreliable source?] and Descartes. William Shakespeare had his melancholy character Jacques (in As You Like It) articulate the seven ages of man: these included three stages of childhood and four of adulthood. In the mid-eighteenth centuryJean Jacques Rousseau described three stages of childhood: infans (infancy), puer (childhood) and adolescence in Emile: Or, On Education. Rousseau's ideas were taken up strongly by educators at the time.
In the late nineteenth century, psychologists familiar with the evolutionary theory of Darwin began seeking an evolutionary description of psychological development; prominent here was G. Stanley Hall, who attempted to correlate ages of childhood with previous ages of mankind.
A more scientific approach was initiated by James Mark Baldwin, who wrote essays on topics that included Imitation: A Chapter in the Natural History of Consciousness and Mental Development in the Child and the Race: Methods and Processes. In 1905, Sigmund Freudarticulated five psychosexual stages. Later, Rudolf Steiner articulated stages of psychological development throughout human life.[24] By the early to mid-twentieth century, the work of Vygotsky and Piaget, mentioned above, had established a strong empirical tradition in the field.
See also
1. Behavioral Cusp
2. Child development
3. Developmental psychobiology
4. Developmental psychopathology
5. Evolutionary developmental psychopathology
6. Microgenetic design
7. Ontogenetic parade
8. Outline of psychology
9. Perceptual narrowing
10. Pre- and perinatal psychology
11. Scale error
12. Sociometric status
References
 ^ Wood SE, Wood CE and Boyd D (2006). Mastering the world of psychology (2 ed.). Allyn & Bacon.
 ^ a b Mind in Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 1978.
 ^ Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by Nature and Design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. (ISBN 0-674-22457-4)
 ^ Smith PK, Cowie H and Blades M. Understanding Children's Development. Basic psychology (4 ed.). Oxford, England: Blackwell.
 ^ Myers, D (2008). Exploring Psychology. Worth Publishers.ISBN 1572590963.
 ^ Hill, G (2001). A Level Psychology Through Diagrams. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0199180946.
 ^ a b Schlinger, H.D. (2008). The long good-bye: why B.F. Skinner's Verbal Behavior is alive and well on the 50th anniversary of its publication.
 ^ Demetriou, A. (1998). Cognitive development. In A. Demetriou, W. Doise, K. F. M. van Lieshout (Eds.), Life-span developmental psychology (pp. 179-269). London: Wiley.
 ^ A Longitudinal Study of Early Literacy Development and the Changing Perceptions of Parents and Teachers, Dr John Worthington, 2001
 ^ a b c d Butterworth, G; Harris, M (1994). Principles of Developmental Psychology. Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.ISBN 0-86377-280-3.
 ^ a b c d e Bremner, JG (1994). Infancy (2 ed.). Blackwell.ISBN 063118466X.
 ^ Slater, A; Lewis, M (2006). Introduction to Infant Development. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 0199283052.
 ^ Mathew, PJ; Mathew, JL (2003). "Assessment and management of pain in infants". Postgraduate Medical Journal 79 (934): 438–443. doi:10.1136/pmj.79.934.438. PMC 1742785.PMID 12954954.
 ^ a b Piaget, J. (1977). Gruber, H.E.; Voneche, J.J.. eds. The essential Piaget. New York: Basic Books. ISBN 0710087780.
 ^ Siegler, Robert (2006). How Children Develop, Exploring Child Development Student Media Tool Kit & Scientific American Reader to Accompany How Children Develop. New York: Worth Publishers. ISBN 0716761130.
 ^ Fagen, JW; Hayne, H, eds (2002). Progress in Infancy Research. Progress in Infancy Research Series. 2. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 1-4106-0210-9, 9781410602107.
 ^ Developmental Theory
 ^ a b Fathers' Role in Children's Academic Achievement and Early Literacy. ERIC Digest
 ^ "Children with active, involved fathers have better social skills, are healthier, and do better in school", according to Duane Wilson, the Proud Fathers, Proud Parents program coordinator for the Michigan Department of Human Services (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2125328669291708941 2:57)
 ^ Bruce J. Ellis, Child Development May/June 2003, 74:3, pp. 801-821
 ^ Rebekah Levine Coley and Bethany L. Medeiros, Reciprocal Longitudinal Relations Between Nonresident Father Involvement and Adolescent Delinquency, Child Development
 ^ Amber Haque (2004), "Psychology from Islamic Perspective: Contributions of Early Muslim Scholars and Challenges to Contemporary Muslim Psychologists", Journal of Religion and Health 43 (4): 357-377 [361]
 ^ David W. Tschanz, MSPH, PhD (August 2003). "Arab Roots of European Medicine", Heart Views 4 (2).
 ^ The first three of these stages, which correspond closely withPiaget's later-described stages of childhood, were first presented in Steiner's 1911 essay The Education of the Child.
Further reading
• Bjorklund, D. F. & Pellegrini, A. D. (2000). Child Development and Evolutionary Psychology. Child Development, 71, 1687-1708. Full text
• Bornstein, M. H. & Lamb, M. E. (2005). Developmental science: An advanced textbook. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2005.
• Johnson-Pynn, J., Fragaszy, D.M., & Cummins-Sebree, S. (2003). Common territories in comparative and developmental psychology: The quest for shared means and meaning in behavioral investigations. International Journal of Comparative Psychology, 16, 1-27. Full text
• Lerner, R. M. Concepts and theories of human development. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 2002.
• Reid, V., Striano, T., & Koops, W. Social Cognition During infancy. Psychology Press. 2007
External links
• The Society for Research in Child Development
• The British Psychological Society, Developmental Psychology Section
• Developmental Psychology: lessons for teaching and learning developmental psychology
• GMU’s On-Line Resources for Developmental Psychology: a web directory of developmental psychology organizations
• Home Economics Archive: Research, Tradition, History (HEARTH)
An e-book collection of over 1,000 books spanning 1850 to 1950, created by Cornell University's Mann Library. Includes several hundred works on human development, child raising, and family studies itemized in a specific bibliography.
• Infants can do more than we think. Research from Uppsala university 2010.
[show]v • d • eHuman Development: Biological • Psychological





[hide]v • d • ePsychology


History • Portal • Psychologist


Basic psychology
Abnormal • Affective science • Affective neuroscience • Behavioral neuroscience • Cognitive • Cognitive neuroscience •Comparative • Cultural • Developmental • Evolutionary • Experimental • Mathematical • Personality • Positive •Psycholinguistics • Psychophysics • Psychophysiology • Social • Theoretical



Applied psychology
Assessment • Clinical • Community psychology • Consumer • Counseling • Educational • Forensic • Health •Industrial and organizational • Legal • Media • Military • Narcissism • Occupational health • Pastoral • Political • Psychometrics •School • Sport and exercise • Systems • Traffic


Methodologies
Animal testing • Archival research • Case study • Content analysis • Experiments • Human subject research • Interviews •Neuroimaging • Observation • Qualitative research • Quantitative research • Self-report inventory • Statistical surveys


Orientations Adlerian • Analytical • Behaviorism • Cognitive behavioral therapy • Cognitivism • Descriptive • Ecological Systems Theory •Existential therapy • Family therapy • Feminist therapy • Gestalt psychology • Humanistic • Narrative therapy • Philosophy •Psychoanalysis • Psychodynamic psychotherapy • Rational emotive behavior therapy • Transpersonal


Eminent
psychologists
Alfred Adler • Gordon Allport • Albert Bandura • Raymond Cattell • Kenneth and Mamie Clark • Erik Erikson • Hans Eysenck •Leon Festinger • Sigmund Freud • Donald O. Hebb • Clark L. Hull • William James • Carl Jung • Jerome Kagan • Kurt Lewin •Abraham Maslow • David McClelland • George A. Miller • Neal E. Miller • Walter Mischel • Ivan Pavlov • Jean Piaget •Carl Rogers • Stanley Schachter • B. F. Skinner • Edward Thorndike • John B. Watson • Viktor Frankl


Lists
Counseling topics • Disciplines • Important publications • Organizations • Psychologists • Psychotherapies •Research methods • Schools of thought • Timeline • Topics




Psychosexual development
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In Freudian psychology, psychosexual development is a central element of the psychoanalytic sexual drive theory, that human beings, from birth, possess an instinctual libido (sexual appetite) that develops in five stages. Each stage — the oral, the anal, the phallic, the latent, and the genital — is characterized by theerogenous zone that is the source of the libidinal drive. Sigmund Freud proposed that if the child experiencedanxiety, thwarting his or her sexual appetite during any libidinal (psychosexual) development stage, said anxiety would persist into adulthood as a neurosis, a functional mental disorder.[1][2]
Background


The neurologist Sigmund Freud (ca. 1921)
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) observed that during the predictable stages of early childhood development, the child’s behavior is oriented towards certain parts of his or her body, e.g. the mouth during breast-feeding, the anus during toilet-training. He proposed that adult neurosis (functional mental disorder) often is rooted in childhood sexuality, therefore, said neurotic adult behaviors were manifestations of childhood sexual fantasy and desire. That because human beings are born “polymorphously perverse”, infants can derive sexual pleasure from any part of their bodies, and that socialization directs the instinctual libidinal drives into adult heterosexuality.[3] Given the predictable timeline of childhood behavior, he proposed “libido development” as a model of normal childhoodsexual development, wherein the child progresses through five psychosexual stages — (i) the oral, (ii) the anal, (iii) the phallic, (iv) the latent, and (v) the genital — in which the source pleasure is in a different erogenous zone.
Freudian psychosexual development
Sexual infantilism — In pursuing and satisfying his or her libido (sexual drive), the child might experience failure (parental and societal disapproval) and thus might associate anxiety with the given erogenous zone. To avoid anxiety, the child becomes fixated, preoccupied with the psychologic themes related to the erogenous zone in question, which persist into adulthood, and underlie the personality and psychopathology of the man or woman, as neurosis, hysteria, personality disorders, et cetera.
Stage Age Range Erogenous zone Consequences of psychologic fixation
Oral
Birth–1 year Mouth
Orally aggressive: chewing gum and the ends of pencils, etc.
Orally Passive: smoking, eating, kissing, oral sexual practices[4]
Oral stage fixation might result in a passive, gullible, immature, manipulative personality.
Anal
1–3 years Bowel and bladderelimination
Anal retentive: Obsessively organized, or excessively neat
Anal expulsive: reckless, careless, defiant, disorganized, coprophiliac

Phallic
3–6 years Genitalia
Oedipus complex (in boys)
Electra complex (in girls)

Latency
6–puberty Dormant sexual feelings Sexual unfulfillment if fixation occurs in this stage.
Genital
Puberty–death Sexual interests mature Frigidity, impotence, unsatisfactory relationships
Oral stage
The oral stage: An infant feeding at his mother’s breast.
The first stage of psychosexual development is the oral stage, spanning from birth until the age of two years, wherein the infant’s mouth is the focus of libidinal gratification derived from the pleasure of feeding at the mother’s breast, and from the oral exploration of his or her environment, i.e. the tendency to place objects in the mouth. The id dominates, because neither the ego nor the super ego is yet fully developed, and, since the infant has no personality (identity), every action is based upon the pleasure principle. Nonetheless, the infantile ego is forming during the oral stage; two factors contribute to its formation: (i) in developing a body image, he or she is discrete from the external world, e.g. the child understands pain when it is applied to his or her body, thus identifying the physical boundaries between body and environment; (ii) experiencing delayed gratification leads to understanding that specific behaviors satisfy some needs, e.g. crying gratifies certain needs.[5]
Weaning is the key experience in the infant’s oral stage of psychosexual development, his or her first feeling of loss consequent to losing the physical intimacy of feeding at mother’s breast. Yet, weaning increases the infant’s self-awareness that he or she does not control the environment, and thus learns ofdelayed gratification, which leads to the formation of the capacities for independence (awareness of the limits of the self) and trust(behaviors leading to gratification). Yet, thwarting of the oral-stage — too much or too little gratification of desire — might lead to an oral-stagefixation, characterised by passivity, gullibility, immaturity, unrealistic optimism, which is manifested in a manipulative personality consequent to ego malformation. In the case of too much gratification, the child does not learn that he or she does not control the environment, and that gratification is not always immediate, thereby forming an immature personality. In the case of too little gratification, the infant might become passive upon learning that gratification is not forthcoming, despite having produced the gratifying behavior.[6]
Anal stage
The second stage of psychosexual development is the anal stage, spanning from the age of fifteen months to three years, wherein the infant’serogenous zone changes from the mouth (the upper digestive tract) to the anus (the lower digestive tract), while the ego formation continues. Toilet training is the child’s key anal-stage experience, occurring at about the age of two years, and results in conflict between the Id(demanding immediate gratification) and the Ego (demanding delayed gratification) in eliminating bodily wastes, and handling related activities (e.g. manipulating feces, coping with parental demands). The style of parenting influences the resolution of the Id–Ego conflict, which can be either gradual and psychologically uneventful, or which can be sudden and psychologically traumatic. The ideal resolution of the Id–Ego conflict is in the child’s adjusting to moderate parental demands that teach the value and importance of physical cleanliness and environmental order, thus producing a self-controlled adult. Yet, if the parents make immoderate demands of the child, by over-emphasizing toilet training, it might lead to the development of a compulsive personality, a person too concerned with neatness and order. If the child obeys the Id, and the parents yield, he or she might develop a self-indulgent personality characterized by personal slovenliness and environmental disorder. If the parents respond to that, the child must comply, but might develop a weak sense of Self, because it was the parents’ will, and not the child’s ego, who controlled the toilet training.
Phallic stage
The third stage of psychosexual development is the phallic stage, spanning the ages of three to six years, wherein the child’s genitalia are his or her primary erogenous zone. It is in this third infantile development stage that children become aware of their bodies, the bodies of other children, and the bodies of their parents; they gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, and so learn the physical (sexual) differences between “male” and “female” and the gender differences between “boy” and “girl”. In the phallic stage, a boy’s decisive psychosexual experience is the Oedipus complex, his son–father competition for possession of mother. Thispsychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic character Oedipus, who unwittingly killed his father, Laius, and sexually possessed his mother, Jocasta. Analogously, in the phallic stage, a girl’s decisive psychosexual experience is the Electra complex, her daughter–mother competition for psychosexual possession of father. This psychological complex derives from the 5th-century BC Greek mythologic Electra, who plotted matricidal revenge with Orestes, her brother, against Clytemnestra, their mother, and Aegisthus, their stepfather, for their murder of Agamemnon, their father, (cf. Electra, by Sophocles).[7][8][9]
Initially, Freud equally applied the Oedipus complex to the psychosexual development of boys and girls, but later developed the the female aspects of the theory as the feminine Oedipus attitude and the negative Oedipus complex;[10] yet, it was his student–collaborator, Carl Jung, who coined the term Electra complex in 1913.[11][12] Nonetheless, Freud rejected Jung’s term as psychoanalytically inaccurate: “that what we have said about the Oedipus complex applies with complete strictness to the male child only, and that we are right in rejecting the term ‘Electra complex’, which seeks to emphasize the analogy between the attitude of the two sexes”.[13][14]

Oedipus complex: Oedipus explains the riddle of the Sphinx,Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres. (ca. 1805)


Electra complex: Electra at the Tomb of Agamemnon, by Frederic Leighton, c.1869
Oedipus — Despite mother being the parent who primarily gratifies the child’s desires, the child begins forming a discrete sexual identity — “boy”, “girl” — that alters the dynamics of the parent and child relationship; the parents become the focus of infantile libidinal energy. The boy focuses his libido (sexual desire) upon his mother, and focuses jealousy and emotional rivalry against his father — because it is he who sleeps with mother. To facilitate uniting him with his mother, the boy’s id wants to kill father (as did Oedipus), but the ego, pragmatically based upon the reality principle, knows that the father is the stronger of the two males competing to possess the one female. Nevertheless, the boy remains ambivalent about his father’s place in the family, which is manifested as fear of castration by the physically greater father; the fear is an irrational, subconscious manifestation of the infantile Id.[15]
Electra — Whereas boys develop castration anxiety, girls developpenis envy that is rooted in anatomic fact: without a penis, she cannot sexually possess mother, as the infantile id demands. Resultantly, the girl redirects her desire for sexual union upon father; thus, she progresses towards heterosexual femininity that culminates in bearing a child who replaces the absentpenis. Moreover, after the phallic stage, the girl’s psychosexual development includes transferring her primary erogenous zone from the infantile clitoris to the adult vagina. Freud thus considered a girl’s Oedipal conflict to be more emotionally intense than that of a boy, resulting, potentially, in a submissive woman of insecure personality.[16]
Psychologic defense — In both sexes, defense mechanisms provide transitory resolutions of the conflict between the drives of the Id and the drives of the Ego. The first defense mechanism is repression, the blocking of memories, emotional impulses, and ideas from the conscious mind; yet it does not resolve the Id–Ego conflict. The second defense mechanism is identification, by which the child incorporates, to his or her ego, the personality characteristics of the same-sex parent; in so adapting, the boy diminishes his castration anxiety, because his likeness to father protects him from father’s wrath as a rival for mother; by so adapting, the girl facilitates identifying with mother, who understands that, in being females, neither of them possesses a penis, and thus they are not antagonists.[17]
Dénouement — Unresolved psychosexual competition for the opposite-sex parent might produce a phallic-stage fixation leading a girl to become a woman who continually strives to dominate men (viz. penis envy), either as an unusually seductive woman (high self-esteem) or as an unusually submissive woman (low self-esteem). In a boy, a phallic-stage fixation might lead him to become an aggressive, over-ambitious, vain man. Therefore, the satisfactory parental handling and resolution of the Oedipus complex and of the Electra complex are most important in developing the infantile super-ego, because, by identifying with a parent, the child internalizes morality, thereby, choosing to comply with societal rules, rather than having to reflexively comply in fear of punishment.
Latency stage
The fourth stage of psychosexual development is the latency stage that spans from the age of six years until puberty, wherein the child consolidates the character habits he or she developed in the three, earlier stages of psychologic and sexual development. Whether or not the child has successfully resolved the Oedipal conflict, the instinctual drives of the id are inaccessible to the Ego, because his or her defense mechanisms repressed them during the phallic stage. Hence, because said drives are latent (hidden) and gratification is delayed — unlike during the preceding oral, anal, and phallic stages — the child must derive the pleasure of gratification from secondary process-thinking that directs the libidinal drives towards external activities, such as schooling, friendships, hobbies, et cetera. Any neuroses established during the fourth, latent stage, of psychosexual development might derive from the inadequate resolution either of the Oedipus conflict or of the Ego’s failure to direct his or her energies towards socially acceptable activities.
Genital stage
The fifth stage of psychosexual development is the genital stage that spans puberty and adult life, and thus occupies most of the life of a man and of a woman; its purpose is the psychologic detachment and independence from the parents. The genital stage affords the person the ability to confront and resolve his or her remaining psychosexual childhood conflicts. As in the phallic stage, the genital stage is centered upon the genitalia, but the sexuality is consensual and adult, rather than solitary and infantile. The psychological difference between the phallic and genital stages is that the ego is established in the latter; the person’s concern shifts from primary-drive gratification (instinct) to applying secondary process-thinking to gratify desire symbolically and intellectually by means of friendships, a love relationship, family and adult responsibilities.
Criticism
Feminist


Psychosexual development: Neo-Freudianpsychiatrist Karen Horney (1938).
Contemporaneously, Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual development theory is criticized as sexist, because it was informed with his introspection (self-analysis). To integrate the female libido (sexual desire) to psychosexual development, he proposed that girls develop “penis envy”. In response, the German Neo-Freudian psychoanalyst Karen Horney, counter-proposed that girls instead develop “Power envy”, rather than penis envy. She further proposed the concept of “womb and vagina envy”, the male’s envy of the female ability to bear children; yet, contemporary formulations further develop said envy from the biologic (child-bearing) to the psychologic (nurturance), envy of women’s perceived right to be the kind parent.[18]
Scientific
A usual criticism of the scientific (experimental) validity of the Freudian psychology theory of humanpsychosexual development is that Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) was personally fixated upon human sexuality, therefore, he favored defining human development with a normative theory of psychologic and sexual development.[19] Hence, the phallic stage proved controversial, for being based upon clinical observations of the Oedipus complex.
In Analysis of a Phobia in a Five-year-old Boy (1909), the case study of the boy “Little Hans” (Herbert Graf, 1903–73) who was afflicted with equinophobia. The relation between Hans’s fears — of horses and of father — derived from external factors, the birth of a sister, and internal factors, the desire of the infantile id to replace father as companion to mother, and guilt for enjoying the masturbation normal to a boy of his age. Moreover, his admitting to wanting to procreate with mother was considered proof of the boy’s sexual attraction to the opposite-sex parent; he was a heterosexual male. Yet, the boy Hans was unable to relate fearing horses to fearing his father. The psychoanalyst Freud noted that “Hans had to be told many things that he could not say himself” and that “he had to be presented with thoughts, which he had, so far, shown no signs of possessing”.[20]
Anthropologic


Psychosexual development: Bronisław Malinowski and natives, Trobriand Islands (1918).
Contemporary criticism also questions the universality of the Freudian theory of personality (Id, Ego, Super-ego) discussed in the essay On Narcissism (1917), wherein he said that “it is impossible to suppose that a unity, comparable to the egocan exist in the individual from the very start”. Contemporary cultural considerations have questioned the normative presumptions of the Freudian psychodynamic perspective that posits the son–father conflict of the Oedipal complex as universal and essential to human psychologic development.
The anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski’s studies of the Trobriand islanderschallenged the Freudian proposal that psychosexual development (e.g. the Oedipus complex) was universal. He reported that in the insular matriarchal society of the Trobriand, boys are disciplined by their maternal uncles, not their fathers; impartial, avuncular discipline. In Sex and Repression in Savage Society (1927), Malinowski reported that boys dreamed of feared uncles, not of beloved fathers, thus, Power — not sexual jealousy — is the source of Oedipal conflict in such non–Western societies. In Human Behavior in Global Perspective: an Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology (1999), Marshall H. Segall et al. propose that Freud based the theory of psychosexual development upon a misinterpretation.[21] Furthermore, contemporary research confirms that although personality traits corresponding to the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latent stage, and the genital stage are observable, they remain undetermined as fixed stages of childhood, and as adult personality traits derived from childhood.[22].
See also
Herma
Min (god)
Fertility
Bacchanalia
Vanir
Priapus
Sigmund Freud
References
^ [1]
^ Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins:London pp. 643, 705
^ Myre, Sim (1974) Guide to Psychiatry, 3rd ed. Churchill Livingstone:Edinburgh and London, p. 396
^ Myre, Sim (1974) Guide to Psychiatry 3rd ed., Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh and London pp. 35, 407
^ Leach, P. (1997) Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five 5th edition. New York:Knopf p. 000
^ Leach, P. (1997) Your Baby and Child: From Birth to Age Five 5th edition. New York:Knopf p. 000
^ Murphy, Bruce (1996). Benét’s Reader’s Encyclopedia Fourth edition, HarperCollins Publishers:New York p. 310
^ Bell, Robert E. (1991) Women of Classical Mythology: A Biographical Dictionary Oxford University Press:California pp.177–78
^ Hornblower, S., Spawforth, A. (1998) The Oxford Companion to Classical Civilization pp. 254–55
^ Freud, Sigmund (1956). On Sexuality. Penguin Books Ltd.
^ Scott, Jill (2005) Electra after Freud: Myth and Culture Cornell University Press p. 8.
^ Jung, Carl (1970). Psychoanalysis and Neurosis. Princeton University Press..
^ Sigmund Freud, On Sexuality (London 1991) p. 375
^ “Sigmund Freud 1856–1939” entry (2000) Encyclopaedia of German Literature Routledge:London Retrieved 2 September 2009:http://www.credoreference.com.library.capella.edu/entry/routgermanlit/sigmund_freud_1856_1939
^ Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins:London pp. 607, 705
^ Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins:London pp. 259, 705
^ Bullock, A., Trombley, S. (1999) The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought Harper Collins:London pp. 205, 107
^ Berzoff, J., Flanagan, L. A. (2008) Inside Out and Outside In: Psychodynamic Clinical Theory and Psychopathology in Contemporary Multicutural Contexts Jason Aronson:New York pp.229–242
^ Frank Cioffi (2005) “Sigmund Freud” entry The Oxford Guide to Philosophy Oxford University Press:New York pp. 323–324
^ Frank Cioffi (2005) “Sigmund Freud” entry The Oxford Guide to Philosophy Oxford University Press:New York pp. 323–324
^ Segall, M.H. et al. (1999) Human Behavior in Global Perspective: An Introduction to Cross-Cultural Psychology 2nd ed. Boston:Allyn and Bacon, p. 399.
^ Fisher S., Greenberg R.P. (1977) The Scientific Credibility of Freud’s Theories and Therapy Basic Books:New York p. 000
Categories: Developmental psychology | Freudian psychology

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American behaviorist, author, inventor, social philosopher[1][2][3] and poet.[4] He was the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard University from 1958 until his retirement in 1974.[5]
Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, innovated his own philosophy of science called radical behaviorism,[6] and founded his own school of experimental research psychology—the experimental analysis of behavior. His analysis of human behavior culminated in his work Verbal Behavior, which has recently seen enormous increase[citation needed] in interest experimentally and in applied settings.[7]
Skinner discovered and advanced the rate of response as a dependent variable in psychological research. He invented the cumulative recorder to measure rate of responding as part of his highly influential work on schedules of reinforcement.[8][9] In a June, 2002 survey, Skinner was listed as the most influential psychologist of the 20th century.[10] He was a prolific author who published 21 books and 180 articles.[11][12]

The Skinners' grave at Mount Auburn Cemetery
Skinner was born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to Grace and William Skinner. His father was a lawyer. He became an atheist after a liberal Christian teacher tried to assuage his fear of the Hell that his grandmother described.[13] His brother Edward, two and a half years his junior, died at age sixteen of a cerebral hemorrhage. He attended Hamilton College in New York with the intention of becoming a writer. While attending, he joined Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity. He wrote for the school paper, but as an atheist, he was critical of the religious school he attended. He also attended Harvard University after receiving his B.A. in English literature in 1926. After graduation, he spent a year at his parents' home in Scranton attempting to become a writer of fiction. He soon became disillusioned with his literary skills and concluded that he had little world experience and no strong personal perspective from which to write.
Skinner received a PhD from Harvard in 1931, and remained there as a researcher until 1936. He then taught at the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis and later at Indiana University, where he was chair of the psychology department from 1946–1947, before returning to Harvard as a tenured professor in 1948. He remained at Harvard for the rest of his career.
In 1936, Skinner married Yvonne Blue. The couple had two daughters, Julie (m. Vargas) and Deborah (m. Buzan). He died of leukemia on August 18, 1990, and is buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, Massachusetts.[14]
Theory

Radical behaviorism seeks to understand behavior as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences.
Reinforcement processes were emphasized by Skinner, and were seen as primary in the shaping of behavior. A common misconception is that negative reinforcement is synonymous with punishment. This misconception is rather pervasive, and is commonly found in even scholarly accounts of Skinner and his contributions. To be clear, while positive reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the application of some event (e.g., praise after some behavior is performed), negative reinforcement is the strengthening of behavior by the removal or avoidance of some aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced by the cessation of rain falling on you).
Both types of reinforcement strengthen behavior, or increase the probability of a behavior reoccurring; the difference is in whether the reinforcing event is something applied (positive reinforcement) or something removed or avoided (negative reinforcement). Punishment and extinction have the effect of weakening behavior, or decreasing the future probability of a behavior's occurrence, by the application of an aversive stimulus/event (positive punishment or punishment by contingent stimulation), removal of a desirable stimulus (negative punishment or punishment by contingent withdrawal), or the absence of a rewarding stimulus, which causes the behavior to stop (extinction).
Skinner also sought to understand the application of his theory in the broadest behavioural context as it applies to living organisms, namely natural selection.[15]
Inventions

Air crib
In an effort to help his wife cope with the day-to-day tasks of child rearing, Skinner – a consummate inventor – thought he might be able to improve upon the standard crib. He invented the 'air-crib' to meet this challenge. An 'air-crib'[16][17] (also known as a 'baby tender' or humorously as an 'heir conditioner') is an easily cleaned, temperature and humidity-controlled box Skinner designed to assist in the raising of babies.
It was one of his most controversial inventions, and was popularly mischaracterized as cruel and experimental.[18] It was designed to make the early childcare simpler (by greatly reducing laundry, diaper rash, cradle cap, etc.), while encouraging the baby to be more confident, mobile, comfortable, healthy and therefore less prone to cry. (Babies sleep and will sometimes play in aircribs but it's misleading to say they are 'raised' in them. Apart from newborns, most of a baby's waking hours will be spent out of the box.) Reportedly it had some success in these goals.[18] Air-cribs were later commercially manufactured by several companies. Air-cribs of some fashion are still used to this day, and publications continue to dispel myths about, and tout the progressive advantages of Skinner's invention.[citation needed]
A 2004 book by Lauren Slater[19] inadvertedly caused much controversy by mentioning (and then immediately denying the truth of) the common rumours that Skinner had used his baby daughter Deborah in some of his experiments and that she had subsequently committed suicide. At least one book reviewer misread the book and thought it instead asserted the truth of the rumours. Deborah Skinner (now aka Deborah Buzan) then in turn wrote a vehement riposte to such a mistaken review in The Guardian.[20]
Cumulative recorder
The cumulative recorder is an instrument used to automatically record behavior graphically. Initially, its graphing mechanism has consisted of a rotating drum of paper equipped with a marking needle. The needle would start at the bottom of the page and the drum would turn the roll of paper horizontally. Each response would result in the marking needle moving vertically along the paper one tick. This makes it possible for the rate of response to be calculated by finding the slope of the graph at a given point. For example, a regular rate of response would cause the needle to move vertically at a regular rate, resulting in a straight diagonal line rising towards the right. An accelerating or decelerating rate of response would lead to a curve. The cumulative recorder provided a powerful analytical tool for studying schedules of reinforcement.
Operant conditioning chamber
Main article: Operant conditioning chamber
While at Harvard, B. F. Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber to measure responses of organisms (most often, rats and pigeons) and their orderly interactions with the environment. This device was an example of his lifelong ability to invent useful devices, which included whimsical devices in his childhood[21] to the cumulative recorder to measure the rate of response of organisms in an operant chamber. Even in old age, Skinner invented a Thinking Aid to assist in writing.[22]
Teaching machine


The teaching machine, a mechanical invention to automate the task of programmed instruction
The teaching machine was a mechanical device whose purpose was to administer a curriculum of programmed instruction. It housed a list of questions, and a mechanism through which the learner could respond to each question. Upon delivering a correct answer, the learner would be rewarded.[23]
System80
The System80 is another example of a teaching machine that follows Skinner's methods. The System80 elevated Skinner's 5 steps toward educational progression. The automated educational device gave 1) the learner immediate feedback, 2) Broke the task into small steps, 3) Repeat the directions, 4) Work from the most simple to the most complex tasks, 5) Gave positive reinforcement for correct answers to questions.
For example, the System80 would project 5 semi-related pictures onto its visual display. The System80 would then prompt the student with a recorded audio question. Example: "Find the ball that is inside the box". Each picture would vary slightly showing the ball on top of the box, below the box, to the right of the box, left of the box. Only one picture would represent the ball correctly inside the box. As the student depressed the proper button corresponding with the ball "inside the box", he or she would be granted immediate feedback by advancing promptly to the next question. The next question would also refer to spatial relationships, and ask "find the ball on top of the box" using the same 5 pictures. The sequential spatial relationships broke the task of learning space relations into very small steps. Finally, if the student failed to depress the key corresponding with the correct answer, he would be asked the question again and again—thereby forcing the user to hear the directions repetitively. Sequence of tasks follows the student from start at simple before ranging to complex. For example, a ball inside vs. outside of a box would be presented as most simple spatial question before educating the student on the more abstract directional space of right vs. left or north vs. south.
Pigeon-guided missile
Main article: Project Pigeon
The US Navy required a weapon effective against the German Bismarck class battleships. Although missile and TV technology existed, the size of the primitive guidance systems available rendered any weapon ineffective. Project Pigeon[24][25] was potentially an extremely simple and effective solution, but despite an effective demonstration it was abandoned when more conventional solutions became available. The project centered on dividing the nose cone of a missile into three compartments, and encasing a pigeon in each. Each compartment used a lens to project an image of what was in front of the missile onto a screen. The pigeons would peck toward the object, thereby directing the missile.[26]
Skinner complained "our problem was no one would take us seriously."[27] The point is perhaps best explained in terms of human psychology (i.e., few people would trust a pigeon to guide a missile no matter how reliable it proved).[28]
Radical behaviorism

Main article: Radical behaviorism
Skinner's called his particular brand of behaviorism "Radical" behaviorism.[29] Unlike less austere behaviorisms, it does not accept private events such as thinking, perceptions, and unobservable emotions in a causal account of an organism's behavior:
The position can be stated as follows: what is felt or introspectively observed is not some nonphysical world of consciousness, mind, or mental life but the observer's own body. This does not mean, as I shall show later, that introspection is a kind of psychological research, nor does it mean (and this is the heart of the argument) that what are felt or introspectively observed are the causes of the behavior. An organism behaves as it does because of its current structure, but most of this is out of reach of introspection. At the moment we must content ourselves, as the methodological behaviorist insists, with a persons genetic and environment histories. What are introspectively observed are certain collateral products of those histories.
...
In this way we repair the major damage wrought by mentalism. When what a person does [is] attributed to what is going on inside him, investigation is brought to an end. Why explain the explanation? For twenty five hundred years people have been preoccupied with feelings and mental life, but only recently has any interest been shown in a more precise analysis of the role of the environment. Ignorance of that role lead in the first place to mental fictions, and it has been perpetuated by the explanatory practices to which they gave rise.[30]
It can be seen by the above that this methodological stance is a reaction and predates the current level of advancement, in which mental structures can be observed in operation via technologies such as functional MRI.[citation needed]
Verbal Behavior

Main article: Verbal Behavior (book)
Challenged by Alfred North Whitehead during a casual discussion while at Harvard to provide an account of a randomly provided piece of verbal behavior[31] Skinner set about attempting to extend his then-new functional, inductive, approach to the complexity of human verbal behavior. Developed over two decades, his work appeared as the culmination of the William James lectures in the book, Verbal Behavior. Although Noam Chomsky was highly critical of Verbal Behavior, he conceded that "S-R psychology"[32] was a reason for giving it "a review." Verbal Behavior had an uncharacteristically slow reception, partly as a result of Chomsky's review, paired with Skinner's neglect to address or rebut any of Chomsky's condemnations.[33] Skinner's peers may have been slow to adopt and consider the conventions within Verbal Behavior due to its lack of experimental evidence—unlike the empirical density that marked Skinner's previous work.[34] However, Skinner's functional analysis of verbal behavior has seen a resurgence of interest in applied settings.[35]
Influence on education


This section has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page.
It needs additional references or sources for verification. Tagged since December 2007.
It may require general cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Tagged since December 2007.
Skinner influenced education as well as psychology. He was quoted as saying "Teachers must learn how to teach ... they need only to be taught more effective ways of teaching." Skinner asserted that positive reinforcement is more effective at changing and establishing behavior than punishment, with obvious implications for the then widespread practice of rote learning and punitive discipline in education. Skinner also suggests that the main thing people learn from being punished is how to avoid punishment.
In The Technology of Teaching, Skinner has a chapter on why teachers fail (pages 93–113): Essentially he says that teachers have not been given an understanding of teaching and learning. Without the science underpinning teaching, teachers fall back on procedures that work poorly or not at all, such as..
using aversive techniques. They produce escape and avoidance and undesirable emotional effects.
relying on telling and explaining. "Unfortunately, a student does not learn simply when he is shown or told." p. 103
failing to adapt learning tasks to the student's current level.
failing to provide positive reinforcement frequently enough.
Skinner suggests that any age-appropriate skill can be taught. The steps are
Clearly specify the action or performance the student is to learn to do
Break down the task into small achievable steps, going from simple to complex.
Let the student perform each step, reinforcing correct actions
Adjust so that the student is always successful until finally the goal is reached
transfer to intermittent reinforcement to maintain the student's performance
Skinner's views on education are extensively presented in his book The Technology of Teaching. It is also reflected in Fred S. Keller's Personalized System of Instruction and Ogden R. Lindsley's Precision Teaching. The limitations of Skinner's views can be seen from his argument that it is: 'a step forward' to 'abolish' the 'autonomous inner man'.(Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971) p.215)
See also Albert Bandura
Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity

Skinner is popularly known mainly for his books Walden Two and Beyond Freedom and Dignity. The former describes a visit to a fictional experimental community[36] in 1940s United States, where the productivity and happiness of the citizens is far in advance of that in the outside world because of their practice of scientific social planning and use of operant conditioning in the raising of children.
Walden Two, like Thoreau's Walden, champions a lifestyle that does not support war or foster competition and social strife. It encourages a lifestyle of minimal consumption, rich social relationships, personal happiness, satisfying work and leisure.[37]
In Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Skinner suggests that a technology of behavior could help to make a better society. We would, however, have to accept that an autonomous agent is not the driving force of our actions. Skinner offers alternatives to punishment and challenges his readers to use science and modern technology to construct a better society.
Schedules of reinforcement

Main article: Reinforcement
Part of Skinner's analysis of behavior involved not only the power of a single instance of reinforcement, but the effects of particular schedules of reinforcement over time.
The most notable schedules of reinforcement presented by Skinner were interval (fixed or variable) and ratio (fixed or variable).
Continuous reinforcement — constant delivery of reinforcement for an action; every time a specific action was performed the subject instantly and always received a reinforcement. This method is impractical to use, and the reinforced behavior is prone to extinction.
Interval (fixed/variable) reinforcement Fixed — reinforcement followed the first response after a set duration. Variable — time which must elapse before a response produces reinforcement is not set, but varies around an average value.
Ratio (fixed or variable) reinforcement Fixed — a set number of responses must occur before there is reinforcement. Variable - number of responses before reinforcement is delivered differs from the last, but has an average volue.
Political views
Skinner's political writings emphasized his hopes that an effective and humane science of behavioral control – a technology of human behavior – could help problems unsolved by earlier approaches or aggravated by advances in technology such as the atomic bomb. One of Skinner's stated goals was to prevent humanity from destroying itself.[38] He comprehended political control as aversive or non-aversive, with the purpose to control a population. Skinner supported the use of positive reinforcement as a means of coercion, citing Jean-Jacques Rousseau's novel Emile: or, On Education as an example of freedom literature that "did not fear the power of positive reinforcement".[2] Skinner's book, Walden Two, presents a vision of a decentralized, localized society, which applies a practical, scientific approach and futuristically advanced behavioral expertise to peacefully deal with social problems. Skinner's utopia, like every other utopia or dystopia, is both a thought experiment and a rhetorical piece. In his book, Skinner answers the problem that exists in many utopian novels – "What is the Good Life?" In Walden Two, the answer is a life of friendship, health, art, a healthy balance between work and leisure, a minimum of unpleasantness, and a feeling that one has made worthwhile contributions to one's society. This was to be achieved through behavioral technology, which could offer alternatives to coercion,[2] as good science applied correctly would help society,[3] and allow all people to cooperate with each other peacefully.[2] Skinner described his novel as "my New Atlantis", in reference to Bacon's utopia.[39] He opposed corporal punishment in the school, and wrote a letter to the California Senate that helped lead it to a ban on spanking.[40]
When Milton's Satan falls from heaven, he ends in hell. And what does he say to reassure himself? 'Here, at least, we shall be free.' And that, I think, is the fate of the old-fashioned liberal. He's going to be free, but he's going to find himself in hell.
—B. F. Skinner, from William F. Buckley Jr, On the Firing Line, p. 87.
Superstition in the pigeon

One of Skinner's experiments examined the formation of superstition in one of his favorite experimental animals, the pigeon. Skinner placed a series of hungry pigeons in a cage attached to an automatic mechanism that delivered food to the pigeon "at regular intervals with no reference whatsoever to the bird's behavior." He discovered that the pigeons associated the delivery of the food with whatever chance actions they had been performing as it was delivered, and that they subsequently continued to perform these same actions.[41]
One bird was conditioned to turn counter-clockwise about the cage, making two or three turns between reinforcements. Another repeatedly thrust its head into one of the upper corners of the cage. A third developed a 'tossing' response, as if placing its head beneath an invisible bar and lifting it repeatedly. Two birds developed a pendulum motion of the head and body, in which the head was extended forward and swung from right to left with a sharp movement followed by a somewhat slower return.[42][43]
Skinner suggested that the pigeons behaved as if they were influencing the automatic mechanism with their "rituals" and that this experiment shed light on human behavior:
The experiment might be said to demonstrate a sort of superstition. The bird behaves as if there were a causal relation between its behavior and the presentation of food, although such a relation is lacking. There are many analogies in human behavior. Rituals for changing one's fortune at cards are good examples. A few accidental connections between a ritual and favorable consequences suffice to set up and maintain the behavior in spite of many unreinforced instances. The bowler who has released a ball down the alley but continues to behave as if she were controlling it by twisting and turning her arm and shoulder is another case in point. These behaviors have, of course, no real effect upon one's luck or upon a ball half way down an alley, just as in the present case the food would appear as often if the pigeon did nothing—or, more strictly speaking, did something else.[42]
Modern behavioral psychologists have disputed Skinner's "superstition" explanation for the behaviors he recorded. Subsequent research (e.g. Staddon and Simmelhag, 1971), while finding similar behavior, failed to find support for Skinner's "adventitious reinforcement" explanation for it. By looking at the timing of different behaviors within the interval, Staddon and Simmelhag were able to distinguish two classes of behavior: the terminal response, which occurred in anticipation of food, and interim responses, that occurred earlier in the interfood interval and were rarely contiguous with food. Terminal responses seem to reflect classical (rather than operant) conditioning, rather than adventitious reinforcement, guided by a process like that observed in 1968 by Brown and Jenkins in their "autoshaping" procedures. The causation of interim activities (such as the schedule-induced polydipsia seen in a similar situation with rats) also cannot be traced to adventitious reinforcement and its details are still obscure (Staddon, 1977).[44]
Negative criticism

J.E.R. Staddon
As understood by Skinner, ascribing dignity to individuals involves giving them credit for their actions. To say "Skinner is brilliant" means that Skinner is an originating force. If Skinner's determinist theory is right, he is merely the focus of his environment. He is not an originating force and he had no choice in saying the things he said or doing the things he did. Skinner's environment and genetics both allowed and compelled him to write his book. Similarly, the environment and genetic potentials of the advocates of freedom and dignity cause them to resist the reality that their own activities are deterministically grounded. J. E. R. Staddon (The New Behaviorism, 2001) has argued the compatibilist position, that Skinner's determinism is not in any way contradictory to traditional notions of reward and punishment, as he believed.[45]
Noam Chomsky
Perhaps Skinner's best known critic, Noam Chomsky, published a review of Skinner's Verbal Behavior two years after it was published. The review (1959) became better known than the book itself.[4] Chomsky's review has been credited with launching the cognitive movement in psychology and other disciplines. Skinner, who rarely responded directly to critics, never formally replied to Chomsky's critique. Many years later, Kenneth MacCorquodale's reply[46] was endorsed by Skinner.
Chomsky also reviewed Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity, using the same basic motives as his Verbal Behavior review. Among Chomsky's criticisms were that Skinner's laboratory work could not be extended to humans, that when it was extended to humans it represented 'scientistic' behavior attempting to emulate science but which was not scientific, that Skinner was not a scientist because he rejected the hypothetico-deductive model of theory testing, and that Skinner had no science of behavior.[47] The fields of Relational Frame Theory and ACT Therapy are currently attempting to deal with most of these suggestions.[citation needed]
Anthony Burgess
Some see Anthony Burgess's novel, A Clockwork Orange, as criticizing Skinner's theories as being immoral, claiming that moral choice is a necessary part of one's humanity. The novel's protagonist, Alex, believes he can be released from prison early by participating in an Ivan Pavlov inspired rehabilitation program referred to as the "Ludovico technique", which conditions criminals to become nauseous from the mere thought of violence. This stimulus/response approach is claimed to be at odds with Skinner's operant model and his findings that punishment is unlikely to alter behavior. As Skinner was the key behavioural psychologist working at the time of the book's release, he has been included in some discussions of the book's critique. Indeed within the narrative, the prison chaplain warns against the program, declaring that an action is only good if derived from good intentions rejecting any conditioning, other than that based on moral beliefs, as dehumanizing and oppressive.
List of awards

1926 A.B., Hamilton University; 1930 M.A., Harvard University; 1930-1931 Thayer Fellowship; 1931 Ph.D., Harvard University; 1931-1932 Walker Fellowship; 1931-1933 National Research Council Fellowship; 1933-1936 Junior Fellowship, Harvard Society of Fellows; 1936-1937 Instructor, University of Minnesota; 1937-1939 Assistant Professor, University of Minnesota; 1939-1945 Associate Professor, University of Minnesota; 1942 Guggenheim Fellowship (postponed until 1944-1945); 1942 Howard Crosby Warren Medal, Society of Experimental Psychologists; 1945-1948 Professor and Chair, Indiana University; 1947-1948 William James Lecturer, Harvard University; 1948-1958 Professor, Harvard University; 1949-1950 President of the Midwestern Psychological Association; 1954-1955 President of the Eastern Psychological Association; 1958 Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, American Psychological Association; 1958-1974 Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology, Harvard University; 1964-1974 Career Award, National Institute of Mental Health; 1966 Edward Lee Thorndike Award, American Psychological Association; 1966-1967 President of the Pavlovian Society of North America; 1968 National Medal of Science, National Science Foundation; 1969 Overseas Fellow in Churchill College, Cambridge; 1971 Gold Medal Award, American Psychological Foundation; 1971 Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr., Foundation for Mental Retardation International award; 1972 Humanist of the Year Award, American Humanist Society; 1972 Creative Leadership in Education Award, New York University; 1972 Career Contribution Award, Massachusetts Psychological Association; 1974-1990 Professor of Psychology and Social Relations Emeritus, Harvard University; 1978 Distinguished Contributions to Educational Research Award and Development, American Educational Research Association; 1978 National Association for Retarded Citizens Award; 1985 Award for Excellence in Psychiatry, Albert Einstein School of Medicine; 1985 President's Award, New York Academy of Science; 1990 William James Fellow Award, American Psychological Society; 1990 Lifetime Achievement Award, American Psychology Association; 1991 Outstanding Member and Distinguished Professional Achievement Award, Society for Performance Improvement; 1997 Scholar Hall of Fame Award, Academy of Resource and Development
Honorary degrees
Skinner received honorary degrees from: Alfred University, Dickinson College, Hamilton College, Harvard University, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Johns Hopkins University, Keio University, McGill University, North Carolina State University, Ohio Wesleyan University, Ripon College[disambiguation needed], Rockford College, Tufts University, University of Chicago, University of Exeter, University of Missouri, University of North Texas, Western Michigan University, University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
Bibliography

The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis, 1938. ISBN 1-58390-007-1, ISBN 0-87411-487-X.
Walden Two, 1948. ISBN 0-87220-779-X (revised 1976 edition).
Science and Human Behavior, 1953. ISBN 0-02-929040-6. A free copy of this book (in a 1.6 MB .pdf file) may be downloaded at the B. F. Skinner Foundation BFSkinner.org.
Schedules of Reinforcement, with C. B. Ferster, 1957. ISBN 0-13-792309-0.
Verbal Behavior, 1957. ISBN 1-58390-021-7.
The Analysis of Behavior: A Program for Self Instruction, with James G. Holland, 1961. This self-instruction book is no longer in print, but the B. F. Skinner Foundation web site has an interactive version. ISBN 0-07-029565-4.
The Technology of Teaching, 1968. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts Library of Congress Card Number 68-12340 E 81290
Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis, 1969. ISBN 0-390-81280-3.
Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1971. ISBN 0-394-42555-3.
About Behaviorism, 1974. ISBN 0-394-49201-3, ISBN 0-394-71618-3.
Particulars of My Life: Part One of an Autobiography, 1976. ISBN 0-394-40071-2.
Reflections on Behaviorism and Society, 1978. ISBN 0-13-770057-1.
The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part Two of an Autobiography, 1979. ISBN 0-394-50581-6.
Notebooks, edited by Robert Epstein, 1980. ISBN 0-13-624106-9.
Skinner for the Classroom, edited by R. Epstein, 1982. ISBN 0-87822-261-8.
Enjoy Old Age: A Program of Self-Management, with M. E. Vaughan, 1983.
A Matter of Consequences: Part Three of an Autobiography, 1983. ISBN 0-394-53226-0, ISBN 0-8147-7845-3.
Upon Further Reflection, 1987. ISBN 0-13-938986-5.
Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior, 1989. ISBN 0-675-20674-X.
Cumulative Record: A Selection of Papers, 1959, 1961, 1972 and 1999 as Cumulative Record: Definitive Edition. This book includes a reprint of Skinner's October 1945 Ladies' Home Journal article, "Baby in a Box," Skinner's original, personal account of the much-misrepresented "Baby in a box" device. ISBN 0-87411-969-3 (paperback)
See also

Back to Freedom and Dignity
Behaviorism
Applied behavior analysis
References

^ Smith LD; Woodward WR (1996). B. F. Skinner and behaviorism in American culture. Bethlehem, PA: Lehigh University Press.
^ a b c d B. F. Skinner, (1948) Walden Two. The science of human behavior is used to eliminate poverty, sexual oppression, government as we know it, create a lifestyle without that such as war.
^ a b Skinner, B. F. (1972). Beyond freedom and dignity. New York: Vintage Books. ISBN 0-553-14372-7. OCLC 34263003.
^ a b B. F. Skinner, (1970) "On 'Having' A Poem" talks about the poem, its publication, and contains the poem and a reply to it as well. Real Audio mp3 Ogg
^ Muskingum.edu
^ B. F. Skinner, About Behaviorism
^ See Verbal Behavior for research citations.
^ B. F. Skinner, (1938) The Behavior of Organisms.
^ C. B. Ferster & B. F. Skinner, (1957) Schedules of Reinforcement.
^ Review of General Psychology, June, 2002, pp. 139-152.
^ Lafayette.edu, accessed on 5-20-07.
^ BFSkinner.org, Smith Morris Bibliography
^ "Within a year I had gone to Miss Graves to tell her that I no longer believed in God. 'I know,' she said, 'I have been through that myself.' But her strategy misfired: I never went through it." B.F. Skinner, pp. 387-413, E.G. Boring and G. Lindzey's A History of Psychology in Autobiography (Vol. 5), New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, 1967.).
^ Bjork, D.W. (1993). B.F. Skinner, A Life. New York: Basic Books
^ Skinner, B.F (31 July 1981). "Selection by Consequences". Science 213 (4507): 501–504. doi:10.1126/science.7244649. PMID 7244649. Retrieved 14 August 2010
^ A photograph of one is in an archive here
^ Picture taken from the LHJ article
^ a b Snopes.com "One Man and a Baby Box", accessed on 12-29-07.
^ Slater, L. (2004) Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological Experiments of the Twentieth Century, London, Bloomsbury
^ "I was not a lab rat" (Guardian)
^ B. F. Skinner, (1984) Particulars of My Life. Devices included a potato shooting machine and a perpetual motion machine, as well as a device to separate ripe from unripe berries.
^ Skinner B. F. (1987). "A Thinking Aid". Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 20 (4): 379–380. doi:10.1901/jaba.1987.20-379. PMC 1286077. PMID 16795707.
^ "Programmed Instruction and Task Analysis". College of Education, University of Houston.
^ Skinner, B. F. (1960). Pigeons in a pelican. American Psychologist, 15, 28-37. Reprinted in: Skinner, B. F. (1972). Cumulative record (3rd ed.). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts,pp. 574-591.
^ Described throughout Skinner, B. F. (1979). The shaping of a behaviorist: Part two of an autobiography. New York: Knopf.
^ "Nose Cone, Pigeon-Guided Missile". National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
^ "Skinner's Utopia: Panacea, or Path to Hell?". TIME Magazine. September 20, 1971.
^ Richard Dawkins. "Design for a Faith-Based Missile". Free Inquiry magazine 22 (1).
^ About Behaviorism Ch. 1 Causes of Behaviour § 3 Radical Behaviorism B. F. Skinner 1974 ISBN 0-394-71618-3
^ ibid. pp. 18-20 of the paperback edition which had the redacted typo s/it/is/.
^ B. F. Skinner, (1957) Verbal Behavior. The account in the appendix is that he asked Skinner to explain why he said "No black snake is falling on this table."
^ A. N. Chomsky, (1957) "A Review of BF Skinner's Verbal Behavior." in the preface, 2nd paragraph
^ Richelle, M. (1993). B. F. Skinner: A reappraisal. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
^ Michael J. (1984). "Verbal Behavior". Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 42 (3): 363–376. doi:10.1901/jeab.1984.42-363. PMC 1348108. PMID 16812395.
^ The Analysis of Verbal Behavior (Journal)
^ B. F. Skinner, (1968). "The Design of Experimental Communities", International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences (Volume 16). New York: Macmillan, 1968, pages 271-275.
^ Ramsey, Richard David, Morning Star: The Values-Communication of Skinner's Walden Two, Ph.D. dissertation, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, December 1979, available from University Microfilms, Ann Arbor, MI. Attempts to analyze Walden Two, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, and other Skinner works in the context of Skinner's life; lists over 500 sources.
^ see Beyond Freedom and Dignity, 1974 for example
^ A matter of Consequences, p. 412.
^ Asimov, Nanette (1996-01-30). "Spanking Debate Hits Assembly". SFGate (San Francisco Chronicle). Retrieved 2008-03-02.
^ ECON 252, Lecture 8 by Professor Robert Schiller at Yale University
^ a b Skinner, B. F. "'Superstition' in the Pigeon," Journal of Experimental Psychology #38, 1947.
^ Classics in the History of Psychology — Skinner (1948)
^ Timberlake & Lucas, (1985) "JEAB"
^ Staddon, J. (1995) On responsibility and punishment. The Atlantic Monthly, Feb., 88-94. Staddon, J. (1999) On responsibility in science and law. Social Philosophy and Policy, 16, 146-174. Reprinted in Responsibility. E. F. Paul, F. D. Miller, & J. Paul (eds.), 1999. Cambridge University Press, pp. 146-174.
^ On Chomsky's Review of Skinner’s Verbal Behavior
^ A. N. Chomsky, (1972) "The Case Against B. F. Skinner."
Further reading

Chiesa, M. (2004).Radical Behaviorism: The Philosophy and the Science ISBN
Epstein, R. (1997) Skinner as self-manager. Journal of applied behavior analysis. 30, 545-569. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on: June 2, 2005 from ENVMED.rochester.edu
Pauly, Philip Joseph (1987). Controlling Life: Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-504244-1. Retrieved 14 August 2010
Sundberg, M.L. (2008) The VB-MAPP: The Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program
Basil-Curzon, L. (2004) Teaching in Further Education: A outline of Principles and Practice
Hardin, C.J. (2004) Effective Classroom Management
Kaufhold, J. A. (2002) The Psychology of Learning and the Art of Teaching
Bjork, D. W. (1993) B. F. Skinner: a life
Dews, P. B. (Ed.)(1970) Festschrift For B. F. Skinner.New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Evans, R. I. (1968) B. F. Skinner: the man and his ideas
Nye, Robert D. (1979) What Is B. F. Skinner Really Saying?. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall.
Sagal, P. T. (1981) Skinner's Philosophy. Washington, D.C.: University Press of America.
Skinner, B. F. (1976) Particulars of my life: Part 1 of an Autobiography
Skinner, B. F. (1979) The Shaping of a Behaviorist: Part 2 of an Autobiography
Skinner, B. F. (1983) A Matter of Consequences: Part 3 of an Autobiography
Smith, D. L. (2002). On Prediction and Control. B. F. Skinner and the Technological Ideal of Science. In W. E. Pickren & D. A. Dewsbury, (Eds.), Evolving Perspectives on the History of Psychology, Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
Wiener, D. N. (1996) B. F. Skinner: benign anarchist
Wolfgang, C.H. and Glickman, Carl D. (1986) Solving Discipline Problems Allyn and Bacon, Inc
External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner homepage
National Academy of Sciences biography
B.F. Skinner profile, NNDB
I was not a lab rat, response by Skinner's daughter about the "baby box"
Audio Recordings Society for Experimental Analysis of Behavior
Youtube Video Skinner and Teaching Machine
Superstition in the Pigeon by B.F. Skinner (Full Text)
"B. F. Skinner", NNDB
"B.F.Skinner: Behavioral Psychologist", SNTP Gene Zimmer, 1999
[show]v • d • ePsychology
[show]v • d • eUnited States National Medal of Science laureates
Categories: 1904 births | 1990 deaths | American atheists | American philosophers | Social philosophers | American psychologists | Behaviourist psychologists | Educational psychologists | Ethologists | Guggenheim Fellows | Deaths from leukemia | National Medal of Science laureates | Harvard University alumni | Harvard University faculty | Hamilton College alumni | People from Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania | People from Minnesota | University of Minnesota faculty | Cancer deaths in Massachusetts | Behaviorism
Log in / create accountArticleDiscussionReadView sourceView history
Operant conditioning chamber
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Skinner box


Skinner box with 2 respond levers, 2 cue lights, 1 electrified floor, 1 house light and 1 speaker are above the cage
An operant conditioning chamber (also known as the Skinner box) is alaboratory apparatus used in the experimental analysis of behavior to study animal behavior. The operant conditioning chamber was created by B. F. Skinner while he was a graduate student at Harvard University (Masters in 1930 and doctorate in 1931). It is used to study both operant conditioning and classical conditioning.
Structure
The structure forming the shell of a chamber is a box large enough to easily accommodate the organism being used as a subject. (Common model organismsused include rodents—usually lab rats—pigeons, and primates). It is often sound-proof and light-proof to avoid distracting stimuli.
Operant chambers have at least one operandum (or "manipulandum"), and often two or more, that can automatically detect the occurrence of a behavioral response or action. Typical operanda for primates and rats are response levers; if the subject presses the lever, the opposite end moves and closes a switch that is monitored by a computer or other programmed device. Typical operanda for pigeons and otherbirds are response keys with a switch that closes if the bird pecks at the key with sufficient force. The other minimal requirement of a conditioning chamber is that it has a means of delivering a primary reinforcer or unconditioned stimulus like food (usually pellets) or water. It can also register the delivery of a conditioned reinforcer, such as an LED (see Jackson & Hackenberg 1996 in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior for example) as a "token".
Despite such a simple configuration, one operandum and one feeder, it is possible to investigate many psychological phenomena. Modern operant conditioning chambers typically have many operanda, like many response levers, two or more feeders, and a variety of devices capable of generating many stimuli, including lights, sounds, music, figures, and drawings. Some configurations use an LCD panel for the computer generation of essentially any stimulus.
Operant chambers can also have electrified nets or floors so that electrical charges can be given to the animals; or lights of different colors that give information about when the food is available. Although the use of shock is not unheard of, approval may be needed in some countries to avoid unnecessary harmful experimentation on animals. Skinner's work did not focus on punishment, and involved a "paw slap" which caused him to conclude, incorrectly, that punishment was ineffective. Works by Azrin, Sidman and others in the 1960s and 1970s showed this was not the case.
Research impact
Skinner's operant chamber allowed him to explore the rate of response as a dependent variable, as well as develop his theory of schedules ofreinforcement. The first operant chambers were attached to cumulative records on drums producing characteristic pauses, scallops, and other lines. Operant conditioning chambers have become common in a variety of research disciplines including behavioral pharmacology, and whose results inform many disciplines outside of psychology such as behavioral economics.
Popular 'extensions'
Slot machines and online games are sometimes cited[1][2] as examples of human devices that use sophisticated operant schedules of reinforcement to reward repetitive actions.[3]
Skinner Box


Students using the Skinner box, at National University of San Marcos in Lima, Perú.
Skinner is noted to have said that he didn't want to be an eponym.[4] The term Skinner Box is considered by some[who?] to be pejorative, and is probably most commonly used by those who are not in the discipline of Experimental analysis of behavior or in psychology[citation needed].
References
^ Hopson, J. (April 2001). "Behavioral game design". Gamasutra.
^ Extra Credits (November 2010). "The Skinner Box". Escapist Magazine.
^ Dennis Coon (2005). Psychology: A modular approach to mind and behavior. Thomson Wadsworth. pp. 278–279. ISBN 0534605931.
^ Skinner, B. F. (1959). Cumulative record (1999 definitive ed.). Cambridge, MA: B.F. Skinner Foundation. p 620