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Burrhus Fredrick Skinner

Burrhus Fredrick Skinner was born on March 20, 1904, in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, to respectable, middle-class, Protestant parents. His mother, Grace Burrhus (her middle name became Skinner’s first name) Skinner was something of a beauty. She was musical, but not quite a top professional. Skinner’s father, a lawyer was only moderately prosperous. Grandmother Burrhus, according to Skinner, “read a great deal of fiction” and often reinforced her grandson’s behavior with pie, candy, and letting him win at dominoes. His paternal grandparents also reinforced certain habits in Skinner. Grandmother Skinner tried to indoctrinate her grandson in the terrors of hell. Grandfather Skinner “had absolutely no ambition…. He read the newspapers closely and loved baseball”. All in all Skinner’s childhood was relatively secure.

Details which he remembers nostalgically include the birth of a brother in 1906, his first Teddy Bear, and the family’s purchase of a Ford in 1910. Checkers, dominoes, and a spelling board were favorite games in the Skinner, pre-TV household. Although he and his brother stopped believing in Santa Clause at an early age, they still enjoyed the usual holidays. Skinner remembers “lying awake on New Year’s eve, 1910, regretting the passing of the lovely round number”. 1910 was really the last of the nicely rounded years, to be followed by abrasive years of wars, depression, and social upheavals, all of which endorsed a new moral permissiveness. Skinner remembers that e and his friends “enjoyed a peaceful coexistence”. Apparently he never attacked a schoolmate physically nor was he attacked by others, although he did like to play practical jokes.

Adolescence included scouting, summer camps, and some piano lessons from a local teacher. Young Skinner also showed considerable interest in art, drafting, and writing poetry and stories. His curiosity about life and its many observable complexities kept him alive and healthy. He...