1.+Important+People

Important People

** Edward Lee Thorndike **

E. L. Thorndike was not really considering part of the Behaviorism movement. If anything he was part of a thinly veiled movement called the Functionalism Movement, which was the study of the utility and function of behavior (Fancher, 2012). However he was one of the major influencing factors that helps set the ground work with William James for the Behaviorism movement, especially for B. F. Skinner and his operant conditioning experiment. At 17 years old Thorndike attended Wesleyan University and then attended Harvard University for graduate school studying English and French Literature. After two semester of taking classes with Psychologist William James he became inspired and switched his focus to Psychology. He eventually moved on to Colombia University to complete his Ph.D. and focus on his dissertation with a puzzle box to demonstrate the trial and error of behavior that lead to the Law of Effect. He finished his Ph.D. and dissertation fairly quickly studying under James McKeen Cattell. He went on to study the effect of his work in “transfer of training method”. He then became elected APA president in 1912 and wrote several successful textbooks. ___________________________________________________________________________

** Burrhus Fredric Skinner **

B. F. Skinner is a major staple in the behaviorism movement. He envisioned behavior not just being a passive act but also being more active like in nature, introducing a new form of behavioral analysis. As a young boy he was very talented he played multiple instruments and had a poem he wrote published by the age of 10. He eventually went on to be the first of his family to attend college Majoring in English. After graduation he went through a dark period of depression and writers block. But after reading a review of John B Watson’s work by his favorite writer Bertrand Russell, as well as further readings on Pavlov, he became inspired to go back to school to study Behavioral Psychology (Fancher, 2012). He applied and successfully got admitted to Harvard University where he attend there and achieved his Ph.D. between the years 1928-1936. There he laid the ground work for operant conditioning taking Thorndike’s previous experiments to the next level to not only to produce a form of trial and error but also to shape the behavior of animals. He also created an invention with an incased air controlled baby crib. And went on to write several successful pieces of work and named one of //The 100 Most Important People in the World// and in a 1975 was listed as one of the most well-known scientist in the United States (Fancher, 2012).