The Life of Skinner

Skinner was brought up under strict parenting in Pennsylvania. He spent hours constructing mechanical devices such as wagons, seesaws, carousels, slingshots, model airplanes, and a steam cannon that shot carrots and potato plugs over neighboring houses. He as interested in animal behavior and trained pigeons to play ping-pong.

Skinner majored in English and became a novelist in which he was not successful. He decided to study human behavior by the methods of science rather than the methods of fiction. Skinner studied psychology at Harvard, taught there until 1936 and also taught at the University of Minnesota and Indiana University.

Skinner returned to writing and projected his emotional and intellectual discontent onto the protagonist of a novel, Walden Two, letting the character vent his personal and professional frustrations. This book has sold over 2 million copies and it describes a society in which all aspects of life are controlled by positive reinforcement. Skinner worked well into his 80’s.