Charles Ferster

Charles Bohris Ferster was an American behavioral psychologist.

Biography
Ferster was born November 1, 1922 in Freehold, NJ, the second son of Julius B. and Molly Madwin Ferster.

He was married to Elyce Zenoff Ferster, a professor of law at Georgetown University, with whom he had four children.

Ferster died on February 3, 1981 at the age of 58 in Washington, D.C.

Timeline
Education
 * 1940 - 1943 Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ)
 * 1943 - 1946 Military Service
 * 1946 - 1947 Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ) (B.S, 1947)
 * 1947 - 1950 Columbia University (New York, NY) (M.A., 1948; Ph.D, 1950)

Post-Doctoral Professional Affiliations
 * 1950 - 1955 Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) Research Fellow under B.F. Skinner
 * 1955 - 1957 Yerkes Laboratory (Atlanta, GA at Emory University)(Chimpanzee work)
 * 1957 - 1962 Indiana University Medical Center (Indianapolis, IN) (work with autistic children; collaboration with Nurnberger & Brady)
 * 1958 - First Executive Editor, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (JEAB); See Founding of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior
 * 1962 - 1963 Executive Director, Institute for Behavioral Research (Silver Spring, MD)
 * 1963 - 1965 Associate Director, Institute for Behavioral Research (Silver Spring, MD)
 * 1965 - 1968 Senior Research Associate, Institute for Behavioral Research (Silver Spring, MD)
 * 1967 - 1968 Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University (Washington, DC)
 * 1969 - 1981 Professor of Psychology, American University (Washington, DC) (Department Chair, 1970-1973)

Professional Life
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

Application of the Theory

 * Linwood Project
 * Individualized Instruction at Georegetown, American Universities
 * The University Learning Center at American University: The University Learning Center represented a radical experiment in undergraduate, interdisciplinary education in which the principles of operant behavior were directly applied. The center itself -- an open, free-flowing physical space on campus -- was conceived of as the "chamber" in which instruction and learning occurred. The environment adhered in obvious ways to such cornerstone concepts as immediate positive reinforcement, successive approximation, schedules of reinforcement, discriminative stimui and the like. Professors of Psychology, Physics, Anthropology, Psychiatry, Sociology, Philosophy, Mathematics staffed the Learning Center, as did many graduate students in these fields.

Social and Professional Network
Following is a partial list of professional colleagues and friends of Charles Ferster; those interested in behaviorism, operant conditioning, and human behavior more generally may be interested in these people and their work:

Margaret J. Rioch, David McK. Rioch, John L. Cameron, James Dinsmoor, Douglas G. Anger, James E. Anliker, Donald S. Blough, Richard J. Herrnstein, Alfredo V. Lagmay, William H. Morse, Nathan H. Azrin, Ogden R. Lindsley, Lewis R. Gollub, Matthew L. Israel, Harlan L. Lane, George S. Reynolds, A. Charles Catania, Herbert S. Terrace, Neil J. Peterson

Books

 * Schedules of Reinforcement, with B.F. Skinner, 1957 ISBN 0-13-792309-0.
 * An Introduction to the Science of Human Behavior, with Nurnberger, J. I. & Brady, J. P., 1963
 * Behavior Priciples, with Mary Carol Perott, 1968; (Second Edition 1981, with Stuart A. Culbertson)

Papers

 * Arbitrary and Natural Reinforcement 1967, The Psychological Record, 22, 1-16
 * An Experimental Analysis of Clinical Phenomena 1972, The Psychological Record, 22, 1-16 [citation incorrect]
 * Clinical Reinforcement 1972, Seminars in Psychiatry, 4(2), 110-111
 * A Laboratory Model of Psychotherapy 1979, In P. Sjoden (Ed), Trends in Behavior Therapy. New York, Academic Press
 * Psychotherapy from the standpoint of a behaviorist, 1972, In J.D. Keehn (Ed.), Psychopathology in Animals: research and clinical implications. New York, Academic Press
 * The Autistic Child [citation neeeded]
 * Positive Reinforcement and Behavioral Deficits of Autistic Children, Child Development 1961, 32:437-456
 * The use of the free operant in the analysis of behavior, 1953 Psychological Bulletin, 50, 263-274.
 * The Development of Performances in Autistic Children in an Automatically Controlled Environment, Charles B. Ferster, Marian K. DeMyer, Journal of Chronic Diseases 1961 Apr; 13:312-4
 * The control of eating, In J. P. Foreyt (Ed.), Behavioral treatments of obesity (pp. 309-326). Oxford: Pergamon Press. Ferster, C. B., Nurnberger, J. I. & Levitt, E. E. (1977).