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Psychology Factsheet
www.curriculum-press.co.uk # 262

The Contribution of BF Skinner

to Psychology
This Psychology Factsheet outlines the contribution BF Skinner
made to the field of psychology. The Factsheet includes Exam
Hints, and the worksheet gives you the opportunity to apply what
you have learned to exam-style questions. Words in bold are
explained in the glossary and there is a reference list at the end.
The examiner will expect you to be able to:
• Outline BF Skinner’s research and the theory of operant
conditioning.
• Apply theories of operant conditioning and reinforcement to
novel scenarios.
• Outline the contribution of BF Skinner to psychology.
• Evaluate the contribution of BF Skinner to psychology.
and that attempts to do so by psychologists such as Wilhelm
Wundt, Sigmund Freud, and others, had only served to hinder
the advancement of psychology. Watson’s manifesto argued
that for psychology to emerge as a true science, it should not
attempt to be a science of the mind and instead, he called for
psychology to enter a new era in which it should focus solely on
the externally visible behaviour of the individual. The approach
was called behaviourist because it considered behaviour to be
the variable through which human activity could be objectively
tested and understood, independent of consciousness or the
concerns of mentalism.

Introduction
Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born in
1904, in the small town of Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania, USA. It wasn’t until the age
of 24 that he began his illustrious career
in behavioural psychology by enrolling
in the psychology department of Harvard
University. It would be a career that would
go on to see him appear in first place on
a list of the most influential psychologists
of the 20th century (Haggbloom et al, 2002). However, Skinner
was not the first to call himself a behavioural psychologist. In calling for these drastic changes in the field of psychology,
When trying to pinpoint a specific moment when the behavioural Watson had been heavily influenced by earlier work conducted
approach to psychology emerged, many would point to a lecture by a Russian physiologist called Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov had spent
given in 1913 at Columbia University (when Skinner was only the large part of his career studying digestion in dogs, but it
a child) by John Broadus Watson, a man whom Skinner would was his observation that the dogs tended to start salivating in
go on to be influenced by as an adult. Watson used the lecture, response to seeing the technician who normally fed them, even
titled ‘Psychology as the behaviourist views it’ (1913), to call for before any food was actually delivered to their mouths, that kick
a drastic revision of the aims and methodology of psychology. started a series of famous experiments into a phenomenon he
According to him, psychology should become ‘an experimental called psychic secretion. Perhaps the most well-known of
branch of natural science’, focused on the study, prediction and these experiments involved Pavlov showing how a dog could
control of behaviour. Published as an article in the Psychological learn to salivate in response to a buzzer even when food was
Review later that year, the lecture became referred to as ‘The not present, provided the buzzer had been sounded at the same
Behaviourist Manifesto’. time as presenting the dog with food on a number of previous
occasions. This work saw him develop the idea of classical
Watson’s address proposed a radical
conditioning which would go on to play a key part in shaping
change of direction for psychology which,
Watson’s behaviourist ideas. Furthermore, Pavlov’s pioneering
until then, had been mainly focused on
findings resulted in him being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904,
what Watson referred to as mentalism
the year BF Skinner was born.
– the study of internal mental processes
such as consciousness, perception and Pavlov’s ground-breaking work represented everything Watson
thought. Watson was convinced that ‘the felt psychology should be focused on. He had uncovered
mind’ could not be studied scientifically, an important psychological principle in the form of classical

© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136 1
Psychology Factsheet
conditioning, which he felt could be applied to explain a wide
range of human behaviours, and he had done so by studying
the externally visible behavioural process of salivation. The
fact that Pavlov had developed his ideas by working with dogs
rather than humans was not a problem for Watson and nor
would it be a problem for Skinner in his later work. For Watson,
behaviourism did not limit itself to human behaviour. He felt
strongly that behaviourist psychology must also include animals,
who he equated with humans, as both were seen to follow
the same behavioural scheme. Even if human behaviour has
become viewed as more complex and elaborate over time, it
is nonetheless seen to be derived from the same fundamental
laws that govern all animal activity. This can be seen clearly in
Skinner’s later work, studying lever-pressing behaviours in rats
and target-pecking behaviours in pigeons, among other things.
Exam Hint: You may already be familiar with the names
Watson and Pavlov. Watson conducted the famous ‘Little
Albert’ experiment to demonstrate how phobias may form in
children and you can include this study as part of outlining the
behavioural explanation of phobias. While Pavlov’s work with
salivating dogs is only briefly mentioned here, you do need
to be able to outline this research, as well as the concept of
classical conditioning, in your exam too.
Skinner’s breakthrough research
Skinner’s early breakthroughs owed much to the hours he spent
in the laboratory at Harvard inventing new apparatus to record
specific animal behaviours. This work ultimately led to two key
inventions: the lever box, which went on to become known as
the Skinner Box, and the cumulative recorder. The design of
the box was simple; if a hungry rat placed inside pressed the
lever, a food pellet would be delivered to the rat via a glass tube.
However, in order to realise this, the rat would first need to press
the lever and it could take a while for this to happen as the rat
explored the new environment. If, by exploring the environment,
the rat happened to press the lever, the food pellet delivered
would reward the lever-pressing behaviour and the rat might
begin to learn that pressing the lever leads to the reward of food.
The cumulative recorder, meanwhile, was a device that would
automatically make a pen-and-ink record of each lever-press on
a sheet of paper that gradually unrolled over a cylinder. Over a
period of time, this record formed a curve to represent the rate at
which the rat pressed the lever; the higher the frequency of the
lever pressing, the steeper the curve produced. This measurement
is called a response rate and it essentially showed how hard the
© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136
262 – The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology
rat was working. Using the apparatus together, Skinner was able
to record remarkably smooth curves; the response rate of the rats
became more and more frequent over time as their lever-pressing
behaviour was rewarded (or reinforced) by the delivery of food.
Under such controlled conditions, the same behaviours could be
repeated again and again enabling Skinner to accurately control
and predict the behaviour of the rat.
Exam Hint: As well as being able to discuss the broader
contribution made by Skinner to psychology as a whole, it is
important for you to be able to outline his research too. While
the description given here should be detailed enough for
most questions, it is useful to be able to explain some of the
variations to this original procedure that he went on to study.
This extra detail, including the addition of an electrified grid
shown in the image, is covered later in this Factsheet.
Operant conditioning
The idea that emerged from Skinner’s (1938) breakthrough
research at Harvard, and that went on to help shape much of
his subsequent experimental and theoretical work, is that of
operant conditioning. In simple terms, operant conditioning can
be defined as the process of learning through reinforcement. For
Skinner, the consequences of our behaviour is what shapes the
way in which we behave in future. Whereas Pavlov and Watson
had focused on classical conditioning (the process of learning to
associate two variables when they are experienced at the same
time), Skinner had discovered a different way in which organisms
such as rats and humans learned to behave when specific
consequences follow a behaviour.
The problem with classical conditioning, for Skinner, was that it
was far too simplistic to be a complete explanation of complex
human behaviour. Observing the behaviour of his laboratory
rats at Harvard, he was convinced that a huge amount of the
behaviours that the rats showed was in no way related to prior
events or pre-existing responses, and that instead, much of
their behaviour was spontaneous. He proposed that organisms,
such as rats and humans, are continually emitting a range of
spontaneous behaviours which are unrelated to any prior events
in the environment. Skinner called these behaviours, which are
unrelated to any prior event, operants. According to his theory of
operant conditioning, operant behaviours have consequences,
and the likelihood of an organism repeating a certain behaviour
in future is dictated by the nature of these consequences. Those
behaviours which have positive consequences (such as enabling
the rat to eat) will be more likely to be repeated, while those
which have negative consequences will diminish. He referred to
the process by which these behaviours (which lead to desirable
consequences) are more likely to be repeated as reinforcement.
In terms of reinforcement, Skinner acknowledged that two types
existed: positive and negative. Positive reinforcement occurs
when a behaviour
Remove or
is followed by the Add or give take away
addition of something something something
pleasant.
The behaviour +R –R
happens Positive Negative
more often reinforcement reinforcement
The behaviour +R –R
happens Positive Negative
less often punishment punishment
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Psychology Factsheet
For example, when rats are conditioned using food pellets.
Negative reinforcement, on the other hand, occurs when a
behaviour is followed by the removal of something unpleasant.
This may be equally rewarding, in the sense that we are relieved
that the negative experience has stopped. For example, putting on
a coat in bad weather is reinforcing as it removes the unpleasant
experience of getting cold or wet. A later adaptation of the Skinner
box incorporated an electrified grid in the floor which, when turned
on, would cause the rats to feel an uncomfortable electric current
through their feet. In this situation, pressing the lever would turn
off the electric current. Hence the rats were negatively reinforced
to press the lever to avoid the unpleasant electric current. Both
positive and negative reinforcement result in similar outcomes –
they both strengthen behaviour by increasing the chances of that
behaviour being repeated in future. The difference between the
two types of reinforcement is whether they strengthen behaviour
via the application of something positive (positive reinforcement)
or the removal or avoidance of something negative (negative
reinforcement).
Exam Hint: You may be asked to apply the idea of operant
conditioning, including positive and negative reinforcement, to
a novel scenario so it is important to practice this. Try to think
up some examples of your own. The more you practise, the
easier it will be to apply these ideas to an unseen scenario in
your exam.
In the same way that reinforcing a hungry rat’s behaviour using
food pellets increased the rate of lever-pressing in a highly
predictable manner, Skinner also found that this process could
be reversed by halting the delivery of food pellets. The rats’ lever-
pressing would diminish in a similarly predictable way. This loss
of a previously conditioned behaviour is referred to as extinction
and the rate at which lever-pressing ‘dies out’ is called an
extinction rate. In the same way Skinner found the cumulative
recorder produced a smooth curve when the rats’ lever-pressing
behaviour was being positively reinforced by food pellets, he also
found an equally smooth curve in the opposite direction when
food dispensation was halted, and their lever-pressing behaviour
was gradually extinguished.
As well as the two types of reinforcement, another possible
consequence of an operant behaviour is punishment. Like
reinforcement, Skinner proposed that punishment can occur
in one of two ways, also referred to as positive and negative.
Positive punishment occurs when a behaviour is followed by
the addition of something negative (being told off by a teacher
for talking in class). While negative punishment occurs when
a behaviour is followed by the removal of something positive
(e.g. taking away your phone). Both types of punishment weaken
behaviour by decreasing the chances of it being repeated
in future.
Exam Hint: When answering questions on operant conditioning
and the types of reinforcement, students often mix these ideas
up, particularly the concepts of negative reinforcement and
punishment. Remember that both types of reinforcement
(positive and negative) refer to desirable consequences and so
even though negative reinforcement has the word ‘negative’ in
the term, it is actually referring to a form of reward. The easiest
way of remembering this is just by remembering ‘reinforcements
are rewarding’ (both words begin with the letter ‘r’).
© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136
262 – The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology
The contribution of BF Skinner to psychology
Throughout his lifetime, Skinner conducted a huge number of
experiments and produced data on an extremely large scale,
achieving some of the most predictable and trustworthy results
ever seen in psychology.
His initial discovery that the response of rats to positive
reinforcement was predictable and controllable was soon
followed by an enormous number of subsequent findings which
demonstrated clearly how reinforcing behaviour at different times
and in different ways could shape the behaviour of rats (and later
pigeons) in different ways. These discoveries have been used in
a huge range of situations to control the behaviour of animals and
humans. For example, his ideas were taken on by Breland and
Breland, a husband and wife team of behavioural psychologists
who had both trained under Skinner, to develop humane animal
training methods. Furthermore, Skinner’s ideas are still widely
used in a vast array of settings from special educational needs
and therapeutic settings through to prisons.
Skinner’s view that psychology should not shy away from
being used in the real-world to shape people’s behaviour was
unwavering. He even wrote a novel called Walden Two (1948) in
which he laid out in detail a vision of an intentional community
that set up their daily lives according to principles of operant
conditioning in order to maximise their productivity at work and
also their broader happiness.
While Skinner’s theories shared a great deal in common with
Pavlov and Watson before him, he went beyond his predecessors
in a number of ways, not simply in offering an explanation for
behaviours (called operants) which did not arise from pre-
existing responses, but also in trying to explain internal mental
processes, such as thinking, that had been rejected by Watson
for being the focus of unscientific mentalism. In these respects,
Skinner was able to broaden the scope of behaviourism and help
create a more comprehensive field of study.
Both during his lifetime and since his
death in 1990, Skinner has remained
a controversial figure. His attempts
to explain human language were the
subject of a highly influential critique by
Noam Chomsky (1959) in an exchange
that many feel helped to drive a shift in
psychology towards a more cognitive
approach. This serves as just one
example of how Skinner influenced others in powerful ways,
whether they agreed with his ideas or not.
Exam Hint: When an exam question asks you to outline
Skinner’s contribution to psychology, the phrase ‘contribution
to psychology’ implies that you should outline what he brought
to the field of psychology in a broader sense. For the highest
marks, it is helpful to be able to demonstrate how Skinner’s work
differed from the other behaviourists as well as how he influenced
other forms of psychology (such as the cognitive approach).
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Psychology Factsheet 262 – The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology

Evaluation of BF Skinner’s contribution to Summary

psychology One reason Skinner became such a well-known and influential
Skinner’s insistence on strict scientific methods where research psychologist came from his uncompromising approach to
was conducted objectively and under controlled conditions explaining human behaviour. For him, all human behaviour,
helped raise the scientific status of psychology and the credibility including the way we think, is ultimately determined by our
of the field as a whole. However, many have argued that Skinner’s environment and if everyone was able to accept this uncomfortable
focus on research with animals such as rats and pigeons, means truth and embrace the fact science had the power to determine
the theories he developed may be of limited usefulness when the way we behave, then we might have the power to create a
trying to understand human behaviour. happier, greener, and more peaceful world. Skinner would take
no credit for the contributions he made to psychology, nor would
Skinner’s opponents have suggested that, while his reductionist he claim that his perseverance in communicating his ideas to the
approach to learning, focused on stimulus-response, may world in the face of strong criticism was in any way courageous.
be useful in understanding certain basic laws of learning that In the same way rats had responded to the reinforcement of
humans may share with animals, they might struggle to explain food in the Skinner box, his behaviour as scientist had also been
the more complex aspects of human behaviour and the broader reinforced by his environment. Throughout his life and his work,
meaning of behaviour in a social context. he was merely an organism like any other, responding to his
Nonetheless, Skinner’s ideas environment.
have been applied in a wide
range of real-world settings.
Exam Hint: Many of the points covered here in evaluation
For example, he wrote
of Skinner’s contribution to psychology can be used in other
extensively about education
sections of the exam. For example, in questions on issues and
and how his findings from
debates in psychology, such as reductionism versus holism,
research into operant
or determinism versus free will. This is another reason why
conditioning could be used
a good understanding of Skinner’s contribution is so helpful
to greatly improve education
when preparing for psychology exams.
in schools. He even created
a teaching machine,
capable of providing instant
feedback (or reinforcement)
in response to answers given
by students and it could be
References
argued his vision of personalised education and reinforcement Chomsky, A. Noam (1959) ‘A Review of Skinner’s Verbal
in the classroom has been realised with the invention of tablets Behavior’. Language, 35 (1).
and other devices which operate on a similar basis to Skinner’s
Haggbloom, S. J, Warnick, R, Warnick, J. E, Jones, V. K,
early teaching machines. Additionally, an adaptation of Skinner’s
Yarbrough, G. L, Russell, T. M, Borecky, C. M, McGahhey,
work in the form of token economies have been used widely in
R, Powell, J. L, Beavers, J, Monte, E. (2002) ‘The 100 most
both the management of mental illness and offender behaviour.
eminent psychologists of the 20th century’. Review of General
This suggests Skinner has contributed a great deal to a variety
Psychology, 6, pp. 139–152.
of different real-world settings. However, Skinner’s view that the
majority of human behaviours are a direct result of environmental Skinner, B. F. (1938) The Behaviour of Organisms: An
stimuli (environmental determinism) disregards the view held experimental analysis. New York: Appleton-Century.
by many than human beings have free will and the capability
Skinner, B. F. (1948) Walden Two. New York: Macmillan.
to make choices and decisions for ourselves. Furthermore,
many critics have questioned the ethics of Skinner’s ideas. His Watson, J. B. (1913) Psychology as the Behaviourist Views It.
strong advocacy of the use of conditioning in any number of Psychological Review, 20, pp. 158-177.
human settings has been criticised for being at odds with the
values of freedom and democracy in Western society. Many feel
that, while science has played an important role in developing
medicine and technology that can enhance the wellbeing and
freedom of individuals in society, there are areas of human life
that should be free from scientific control. This was not a feeling
shared by Skinner who argued strongly that all aspects of society
and human life could be improved through the use of carefully
designed environments. This debate over the role science should
play in our daily lives continues to this day.

© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136 4
Psychology Factsheet
Glossary
Behavioural psychology: A systematic approach to
understanding the behaviour of humans and other animals
based on the assumption that much of that behaviour is a result
of environmental learning.
Behavioural scheme: The repertoire of behaviours and
behavioural responses shown by animals, either spontaneously
or in response to events in their environment.
Behaviourist: a type of psychologist who conducts behavioural
psychology.
Classical conditioning: A process of learning by association,
whereby an individual animal or human learns a new behavioural
response having learned (or been ‘conditioned’) to associate two
previously unrelated stimuli.
Cognitive approach: A systematic approach to understanding
human behaviour focused on internal mental processes, such as
thinking, perception, and memory.
Cumulative recorder: A device that makes a pen-and-ink record
on the paper every time a lever is pressed.
Environmental determinism: The view that all behaviour is
caused by features of the environment that we cannot control.
Ethics: The moral principles that govern a given field of study,
such as psychology.
Extinction: The loss of a previously conditioned (learned)
behaviour.
Extinction rate: The speed at which a previously learned
response is lost (measured as the time taken between behaviours,
such as lever-presses).
Free will: The power to consciously control and make choices
about our thoughts and behaviour.
Holism: Explaining complex behaviour as a whole including all of
its constituent parts interacting as one.
Intentional community: A planned or designed residential
community in which the inhabitants live and work according to
a specific set of rules or principles that enable them to achieve a
shared vision of daily life.
Mentalism: Any approach to psychology based on studying and
explaining human behaviour through the processes of the mind,
such as thinking and perception.
Negative punishment: The removal of something pleasant
which serves the function of decreasing the likelihood of the
behaviour occurring again.
Negative reinforcement: The removal of something unpleasant
which serves the function of increasing the likelihood of the
behaviour occurring again.
Acknowledgements: This Psychology Factsheet was researched and written by Tom Buxton-Cope, edited by
Jeanine Connor and published in January 2021 by Curriculum Press. Psychology Factsheets may be copied free of
charge by teaching staff or students, provided that their school is a registered subscriber. No part of these Factsheets
may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any other form or by any other means, without the
prior permission of the publisher.
© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136
262 – The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology
Objectively: The process of performing an activity (e.g. scientific
research) in an unbiased manner.
Operants: Behaviours that are initially spontaneous rather than
being the result of prior learning or a response to a prior stimulus.
Operant conditioning: A process of learning by reinforcement
and punishment whereby the consequences of behaviour
determine the likelihood of that behaviour occurring again in
future.
Positive punishment: The addition of something unpleasant
which serves the function of decreasing the likelihood of the
behaviour occurring again.
Positive reinforcement: The addition of something pleasant
which serves the function of increasing the likelihood of the
behaviour occurring again.
Psychic secretion: Salivation in response to a stimulus which
did not previously produce that response (e.g. the sound of a
buzzer).
Punishment: Any consequence of a behaviour which decreases
the likelihood of that behaviour occurring again (i.e. weakens the
behaviour).
Reductionist: Explaining a complex phenomenon (e.g. behaviour)
in terms of its most basic parts (e.g. individual variables).
Reinforcement: Any consequence of a behaviour which
increases the likelihood of that behaviour occurring again.
Reinforced: A consequence which increases the likelihood of
behaviour occurring again.
Response rate: The speed at which a new response which did
not previously exist is acquired.
Skinner box: A controlled chamber equipped with apparatus
through which the behaviour of an animal inside can be reinforced
or punished to shape its behaviour.
Stimulus-response: A form of learning through which specific
environmental events can be seen to determine clear and
immediate behavioural reactions.
Teaching machine: A device used to educate individual learners
by providing immediate feedback on educational tasks.
Token economies: Systems of behaviour modification whereby
target behaviours can be reinforced through the provision
of tokens which can be exchanged for desirable objects or
privileges.
Variable: A feature or factor that is liable to vary or change, such
as independent variable or dependent variable.
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Psychology Factsheet 262 – The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology

Worksheet: The Contribution of BF Skinner to Psychology

Name:

1. Outline the procedure and findings of one example of Skinner’s research.

2. Outline Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning. Refer to both positive and negative reinforcement in your answer.

3. To improve the performance of the pupils in her class, a teacher decides to trial some new teaching strategies. One strategy she
introduces is to give a certificate every week for the pupil that performs the best. Another strategy is to give one fewer homework
tasks to the pupil who completes all their classwork to the highest standard. She also introduces a break time detention for any
pupils who fail to complete their homework.

4. Identify the teacher’s new strategies in terms of positive and negative reinforcement.

5. Briefly evaluate the contribution of BF Skinner to psychology.

© Curriculum Press 2021 Psychology Factsheets, 2020/21 Series, Issue 2 of 3, January 2021. ISSN: 1351-5136 6