Burrhus Skinner - week 5

Burrhus Skinner (more commonly known as B.F Skinner) was an American scientist who held the post of Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology at Harvard university from 1958-1974. Skinner considered free will an illusion and said that human action depended on consequences of previous actions, but it is the Skinner box that he created in the 30s that we will look at in depth. 

Skinner designed his operant conditioning box to study behaviour training by teaching an animal to respond to stimuli. He tried to strengthen behaviour responses through both positive and negative reinforcements. 


Your task this week is to really consider the ethics behind animal behaviour studies, focusing on Skinner's box. To do this, you need to research the Skinner box, how it works and the research outcomes it can generate. It may be easy here to list lots of negatives, but remember that you must include positives as well. Write the summary of your thoughts in the comments section below.

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