Aug 20 2024 74 mins 6
Have you ever tried to build a new habit? Ever find yourself reaching for your phone even when it’s not in your pocket? Ever thought about whether free will actually exists? Yeah, that last one got deep, but that’s just how we roll here at This Was A Thing. Because this week, we’re talking all about a man who devoted his life to studying whether or not humans have a say in how they behave. His conclusion? We’re all pretty much rats pressing levers.
Daniel teaches Ray and Rob about B.F. Skinner, the psychologist, writer, and inventor whose ideas about free will and shaping behaviors made him famous and infamous; how Skinner bucked the trend of Pavlov and Freud to try to take a quantitative and objective approach to sudying human behavior; Skinner’s belief that pigeons could be the next big thing in missile technology; why Skinner’s book Beyond Freedom and Dignity earned him a spot on Noam Chomsky’s sh*& list; the real origin story of Splinter from TMNT; and how B.F. Skinner continues to influence everything from modern psychology to teaching technologies.
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TEAM
ARTICLES, BOOKS, AND ADDITIONAL LINKS
Preschoolers: Box-Bred Babies - TIME
BABY IN A BOX (Article by BF Skinner)
“Skinner Air Crib” Article by Nick Joyce and Cathy Faye
I was not a lab rat | Deborah Skinner Buzan | The Guardian
B. F. Skinner | Department of Psychology
A Science Odyssey: People and Discoveries: B.F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) | Mount Auburn Cemetery
B. F. Skinner: Biography of the Influential Behaviorist Skinner’s Operant Conditioning: Rewards & Punishments
B.F. Skinner | Biography, Facts, & Contributions | Britannica
Operant Conditioning In Psychology: B.F. Skinner Theory
Skinner Box: What Is an Operant Conditioning Chamber?
Classics in the History of Psychology – Skinner (1948) Episode 21: Being BF Skinner’s Daughter: Deborah Buzan Dispels The Myths - Annie Grossman, Dog Trainer
Watch B.F. Skinner: A Fresh Appraisal | Prime Video
EPISODE CLIPS
Jim’s Best Pranks Against Dwight - The Office US
An Interview with BF Skinner, 1971
B. F. Skinner: A Fresh Appraisal With Murray Sidman, Ph.D.
BF Skinner Foundation - Pigeon Ping Pong Clip
ADDITIONAL MUSIC & SOUND EFFECTS
“This Was A Thing” Theme Songs composed by Billy Recce
“Happy Bee” and “Big Rock” • Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
• Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0
• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Additional Sound Effects from Final Cut Pro, iLife, and Logic Pro
