B. F. Skinner

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) was an American psychologist and author. He conducted pioneering work on experimental psychology and advocated behaviorism, which seeks to understand behavior as a function of environmental histories of reinforcement. He also wrote a number of controversial works in which he proposed the widespread use of psychological behavior modification techniques (primarily operant conditioning) in order to improve society and increase human happiness.

Rumors

One often-repeated story claims that Skinner ventured into human experiments by raising his daughter Deborah in a Skinner box, which led to her life-long mental illness and a bitter resentment towards her father.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In fact, the Air-Crib, Skinner's term for his version of the baby crib, was heated, cooled, had filtered air, allowed plenty of space to walk around in, and was much like a miniature version of a modern home. It was designed to make the baby more confident, more comfortable, less sick, less prone to cry, and so on. Reportedly it had some success in these goals.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Psychologist and author Lauren Slater wrote a book, "Opening Skinner's Box", in 2004 which mentioned claims that Deborah unsuccessfully sued her father for abuse and later committed suicide. The book then immediately pointed out that the reality was rather different. However, at least one reviewer misread the book and reported it as making the claims without correcting them. In response, Deborah Skinner herself came forward to publicly denounce the story as nothing more than hearsay and presumably to vouch for her own continued existence. She blasted Lauren Slater's book for repeating this urban legend, as being vicious and harmful; she was presumably relying on someone else's inaccurate depiction of the book's contents. See "I was not a lab rat" in the Guardian Unlimited Friday March 12, 2004 for the full text of Deborah's denunciation. http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/healthmindandbody/story/0,6000,1168052,00.html

Related Topics:
Lauren Slater - Deborah Skinner

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

As much as anything, this episode showed how rumours come into being - even now, journalists still write articles as if the Slater book was in support of, rather than against, the original rumours about Skinner's treatment of his children.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~