AP PSYCHOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) is referred to as the Father of operant conditioning, and his work is frequently cited in connection with this topic. His 1938 book “The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis", initiated his lifelong study of operant conditioning and its application to human and animal behavior.

Detailed explanation-2: -BF Skinner: Operant Conditioning According to this principle, behavior that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and behavior followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated.

Detailed explanation-3: -Although Skinner was the pioneer of the operant conditioning theory, his ideas were based on Thorndike’s law of effect. Skinner also believed that we do have a mind. Therefore it was more productive to study observable behavior rather than internal mental events. Skinner was also an exemplary inventor.

Detailed explanation-4: -B. F. Skinner was one of the most influential of American psychologists. A behaviorist, he developed the theory of operant conditioning–the idea that behavior is determined by its consequences, be they reinforcements or punishments, which make it more or less likely that the behavior will occur again.

Detailed explanation-5: -The term operant conditioning1 was coined by B. F. Skinner in 1937 in the context of reflex physiology, to differentiate what he was interested in-behavior that affects the environment-from the reflex-related subject matter of the Pavlovians.