Reference
Opening Skinner’s Box
- Lauren Slater
Opening Skinner’s Box
- Lauren Slater
Summary
Opening Skinner’s Box does begin with B. F. Skinner’s famous rat experiments that expanded on Pavlov’s K9 conditioning experiments, but this is merely where the book begins. Throughout the book, Slater touches on 10 different and very important psychological advancements in science and the understanding of human beings in general. The chapters are usually a combination of explaining the experiments of the main people behind and some background on the people themselves to give a better perspective of where they came from and what might have led to their train of thought in their discoveries. Slater also offers her own insight into the research and sometimes even partakes in her own experiments to see if the results have stood the test of time.
Opening Skinner’s Box does begin with B. F. Skinner’s famous rat experiments that expanded on Pavlov’s K9 conditioning experiments, but this is merely where the book begins. Throughout the book, Slater touches on 10 different and very important psychological advancements in science and the understanding of human beings in general. The chapters are usually a combination of explaining the experiments of the main people behind and some background on the people themselves to give a better perspective of where they came from and what might have led to their train of thought in their discoveries. Slater also offers her own insight into the research and sometimes even partakes in her own experiments to see if the results have stood the test of time.
Each one of the chapters seemed to build upon the last and continue the progression throughout innovations in psychological sciences. In some cases, a later chapter could even point out holes in a previous set of research presented in a previous chapter. A good example of this was presented during the discussion of Leon Festinger’s experiments regarding cognitive dissonance. Earlier on, Skinner proposed that surroundings influenced the behavior of animals and humans. However, Festinger’s research showed that this is not necessarily the case. A person’s beliefs can greatly affect their behavior far more than their surroundings. This is powerful enough to even lead to completely illogical decisions and actions.
There are many other experiments within the book, ranging from reliability of memory to factors that lead to varying vulnerabilities with addiction to the progression and usefulness of lobotomy as a valid medical procedure. Overall, Slater successfully combined thorough explanations of key experiments in scientific history along with helpful explanations and discussions of her own.
Discussion
The insights that Slater offers are both interesting and very through-provoking. I had never really heard of any of the experiments discussed in her book, but it was fantastic learning about them and hearing what she had to say about them. Quite often her extra information provided a fresh look at the research and results of the work of the key people discussed. She set out to find the most accurate meanings and validity of each experiment. Sometimes this meant there was no clear answer. This was the case with the study on addiction. On one side, environment and availability of key necessities of life should keep people from addiction. On the other side, she met a woman who was an absolute contradiction to this rule. In the end she determined that there is no clear answer for what makes a person more prone to addiction than another. It’s simply too complicated of a situation to have a clear answer. It was discussions and conclusions like this one that led me to thoroughly enjoy reading this book and gain a better insight into how the human mind and people operate.
The insights that Slater offers are both interesting and very through-provoking. I had never really heard of any of the experiments discussed in her book, but it was fantastic learning about them and hearing what she had to say about them. Quite often her extra information provided a fresh look at the research and results of the work of the key people discussed. She set out to find the most accurate meanings and validity of each experiment. Sometimes this meant there was no clear answer. This was the case with the study on addiction. On one side, environment and availability of key necessities of life should keep people from addiction. On the other side, she met a woman who was an absolute contradiction to this rule. In the end she determined that there is no clear answer for what makes a person more prone to addiction than another. It’s simply too complicated of a situation to have a clear answer. It was discussions and conclusions like this one that led me to thoroughly enjoy reading this book and gain a better insight into how the human mind and people operate.
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