ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about Burrhus Frederic Skinner and the principles of operant behavior. Skinner began life on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania. He continued to live in the same house there in which he was born until the year he went to college. The Skinner home had a good collection of books, supplementing those of the town library and school. School had an unusual appeal for the young Skinner. In the fall of 1922, Skinner began his work at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He entered college with a great desire to study and learn. Skinner had taken no course in psychology at Hamilton College. Despite his limited background in psychology, Skinner's hard work and interest in the great variety of opportunities at Harvard soon bore fruit. Skinner was active in research centers all over America, and "the experimental analysis of behavior" became a phrase describing their studies of operant behavior.
