20/03/1904 – Skinner is born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania to William, a lawyer and Grace, a housewife. Skinner had one younger brother, Edward, nicknamed “Ebbie.”3
1914 – At ten years old, Skinner invents a machine to help him hang up his pajamas. A hook with a string connected to a hanging sign which read, “hang up pajamas.” When pajamas were placed on the hook, the sign would rise out of view.3
1922 – Skinner graduates Salutatorian of his high school, and his father gets a new job in Scranton, moving his family with him. Skinner is accepted at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York to pursue writing.1
07/04/1923 - Skinner's brother, Ebbie, dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 16.1
1924 – Skinner reads Jacques Loeb’s Physiology of the Brain and Comparative Psychology, which would influence his career choice to pursue behaviorism over writing.1
1926 – Skinner graduates salutatorian of Hamilton College with a major in English.1,3
Summer through winter of 1926 (“The Dark Year”) – Skinner’s grandfather dies after a botched surgery, pushing Skinner into an existential crisis. Skinner is struck by the realization that laws of the universe are determined (death is inevitable), but the actions within are seemingly accidental (“a botched surgery”). Skinner reads an issue of The Dial, a journal which featured articles by John B. Watson and Bertrand Russell, both of which would have profound impacts on Skinner’s life. Skinner is unsuccessful finding a job after college and loses his passion for creative writing.1
1927 – Skinner adopts a daily routine of waking up at 5am to write until at least 7am, a routine which he would obey for the rest of his life.1,3
1928 – Skinner is accepted to attend Harvard University.1
Harvard Graduate Years (1928 - 1936)
September 1928 – Skinner starts his first day as a graduate student at Harvard.1
Spring 1929 - Skinner almost chose physiology over psychology as a Ph.D. but was influenced to choose psychology after a semester of animal psychology and animal research. Skinner’s decision to pursue psychology was cemented after receiving the Thayer fellowship which, “came with a good-sized office.”1
July 1929 – Skinner completes first experiment with rats. Skinner had previously done experiments with squirrels.1
Late 1929 / Early 1930 – Skinner accidentally invents the “cumulative record,” a measurement apparatus which graphs the rate of an organism’s behavior. This was very quickly combined with a lever pressing mechanism in a box, resulting in the invention of the first “Skinner Box.”1
1930 – Skinner publishes his first paper titled “The progressive increase in the geotropic response of the ant Aphaenogaster.”2 Skinner begins writing his dissertation titled, "On the concept of the Reflex." It was an attempt to operationally define a reflex as a behavior of the whole organism as a response to the outside environment rather than a synapse from within the organism. It was critiqued for being "reflexology" by Harvard’s then Director of Psychology, Edwin G. Boring. Skinner was denied approval multiple times.1
1931 – Skinner’s dissertation is approved. He applies for a fellowship to continue performing lab work at Harvard until the summer of 1936.1
20/03/1933 – Skinner receives the Junior Fellowship, allowing him to focus on research instead of teaching.1
1935 – The verbal summator is invented.1
Wartime Years (1936 - 1945)
Summer 1936 – Skinner marries Yvonne Blue and relocates to Minnesota to begin his first teaching job.1
1937 – “Operant” is first used to define the lever-pressing behavior of a rat which had no identifiable eliciting stimuli.1
28/04/1938 – Skinner’s first daughter, Julie, is born.1,3
May 1938 – The Behavior of Organisms, Skinner’s first book, is published.2
1940 – Skinner is assigned to “project pigeon” by the US military. He receives funding to work on “pigeon-guided missiles.”1
October 1944 – Project pigeon is discontinued.1
1944 – Skinner’s second daughter, Deborah, is born. Skinner invents the “baby tender” (later the “aircrib”), a crib suspended in the air acting as an unrestrictive living space which a baby could be raised in.1
June 1945 – Skinner starts writing Walden Two.1
Harvard Faculty Years (1948 - 1974)
Spring 1948 – Skinner returns to Harvard as faculty. He was granted his own lab and operant equipment.1
1948 – Walden Two is published.2
1953 – Science and Human Behavior is published.2
1957 – Verbal Behavior is published.2 Skinner produced his first teaching machine which was nicknamed “sliding machine” since it used “slides” with typed arithmetic problems.1
April 1958 – Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior goes into circulation as the first journal dedicated to operant behavior analysis.1
1958 – Skinner promotes “Didak,” his first teaching machine designed for public use. Skinner is appointed as the Edgar Pierce Professor of Psychology for the Harvard psychology department.1
April 1968 – first volume of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis is published.1
1962 – Skinner’s daughter Julie marries Ernest Vargas.1,3
1966 – Skinner’s first granddaughter, Lisa, is born.1
1970 – Skinner’s second granddaughter, Justine, is born.1
1971 – Beyond Freedom and Dignity is published.2
1972 – The Humanist Society names Skinner the “Humanist of the Year.”1
1973 – Skinner’s daughter Deborah marries Barry Buzan. Los Horcones, a commune following the principles of the commune found in Walden Two is founded in Sonora, Mexico.1
1974 – About Behaviorism is published.2 Volume I of Skinner’s autobiography, Particulars of my Life, is published.2 Skinner retires from Harvard.1
Autumn Years (1974 - 1990)
1978 – Reflections on Behaviorism and Society is published.2
1979 – Volume II of Skinner’s autobiography, The Shaping of a Behaviorist, is published.2 Skinner stars in a PBS "Nova" special called "A World of Difference: B. F. Skinner and the Good Life."1
1981 – A cancerous lesion is found in Skinner’s head. Skinner begins radiation therapy, and the tumor was removed.1
1984 – Volume III of Skinner’s autobiography, A Matter of Consequences, is published.2 The total page count for all three volumes is over 1300 pages.1 Skinner receives a beddoe as a gift from Japan. The beddoe was an enclosed sleeping space combined with a timer and stereo system.1
1987 – Upon Further Reflection is published.2
1989 – Skinner is diagnosed with leukemia.1 Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior is published.2
18/08/1990 – Skinner dies in Cambridge, Massachusetts of Leukemia.1
Works Cited:
Bjork, D. W. (1997). B. F. Skinner: A life. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/10130-000
Smith, N. G., & Morris, E. K. (2014). An expanded bibliography of the published primary-source works of B. F. Skinner: With references to works reprinted in Skinner's collections and texts. Unpublished manuscript, available at: http://bfskinner.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/SmithMorrisBibliography.pdf
Vargas J. S. (2004). A daughter's retrospective of B. F. Skinner. The Spanish journal of psychology, 7(2), 135–140. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1138741600004832