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In Search of Deborah Skinner: Did B. F. Skinner Treat His Daughter Like Lab Rat?
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2020 Aug 17, 1:39am 449 views 3 comments
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1
Ceffer
2020 Aug 17, 2:35am
Ceffer
2020 Aug 17, 2:35am
Deborah Skinner was known to howl with hunger and agitation whenever a piece of cheese was held out of her reach. She could always find a parking space, and preferred traveling down back alleyway short cuts rather than streets. When she achieved a goal, she would wrinkle up her whiskers in glee, which some people around her could find disconcerting.
She was a great champion of lab animal intersectionality.
She was a great champion of lab animal intersectionality.
2
Malcolm
2020 Aug 17, 9:07am
Malcolm
2020 Aug 17, 9:07am
Only based on my life experience, I would say that I would think it almost impossible that Skinner wouldn't have tried out some ideas on behavior modification on his own child. Almost all parents try some sort of behavior modification and aren't even aware of it. Spanking a child, or a reward for a good grade are commonplace. Skinner didn't discover rewards and punishments, he simply took those concepts to a new level to demonstrate that animals are receptive to reinforcements and will change behaviors and even do very complicated behaviors for a reward. Pretty much, all modern animal shows exist because of Skinner.
Based on Opening Skinner’s Box
I’m so political, a friend recently told me all I talk about is politics and it makes me uptight and angry. You should read something else beside the news, he said and made a suggestion. The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison: I told my friend I AM reading a book, and you suggested it to me: remember? “Opening Skinner’s Box” by Lauren Slater?
I was writing something on his daughter, Deborah Skinner. Like a lot of people, I thought she was treated like one of Mr. Skinner’s test subjects and Deborah was brought up in a box, like a lab rat, on which Mr. Skinner conducted scientific experiments with long lasting psychological effects, which perhaps led to Deborah’s early demise at the end of a rope. Was it true?
Without a doubt, she was confined inside a climate controlled box, with padded walls, set at the perfect temperature for baby to be naked and not develop diaper rash. Really quite humane when you consider some of the details. It had a plexiglass window, so mother could see in and keep an eye on baby. She spent about 3 hours a day in what Skinner called, the “baby tender”, while his wife did the housework. This was in 1945. (1)
So it wasn’t even called the Skinner Box, and what’s more, the "baby tender" is safer for babies than a crib. The “baby tender” solves the problem of babies getting their head stuck between the slats of the crib and dying.
No kidding. SEE: https://healthfully.com/144870-safety-of-crib-slats.html
The QUESTION: Is being isolated from your mothers’ warm body for hours on end, enough to have long term psychological effects? Was bouncing off the padded walls and being separated from your world by a plexiglass sheet of plastic enough to make you want to kill yourself?
Without citing a single source, Snopes says: “…by all accounts” Deborah Skinner is fine and in good mental health, but if you prefer a well researched book, by a woman who spoke to a close relative of Deborah, then let’s see what Lauren Slater had to say in her book.
SEE: https://mojomorning.blogspot.com/2020/08/in-search-of-deborah-skinner.html
Will Powers.