John B. Watson. John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism. Watson promoted a change in psychology through his address Psychology as the Behaviorist
Behaviorism
Behaviorism (or behaviourism) is a systematic approach to the understanding of human and animal behavior. It assumes that the behavior of a human or an animal is a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment, together with th…
Columbia University
Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university in Upper Manhattan, New York City. Established in 1754, Columbia is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. It is one of nine colonial colleges f…
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What was John B. Watson theory?
Watson's behaviorist theory focused not on the internal emotional and psychological conditions of people, but rather on their external and outward behaviors. He believed that a person's physical responses provided the only insight into internal actions.
What did John B. Watson accomplish?
John B. WatsonKnown forFounding behaviorism Methodological behaviorism Behavior modificationScientific careerFieldsPsychologyDoctoral advisorJ. R. Angell9 more rows
What is Watson's theory of child development?
Based on the results from his “Little Albert” study, Watson concluded that caregivers can shape a child's behavior and development simply by taking control of all stimulus-response associations.
Who is the father of behaviourism in psychology?
John B. WatsonWhy Is John B. Watson Considered the Founder of Behaviorism? Given the many past and present tributes to John B. Watson, we might fairly ask why he is uniquely revered as the father of behavior analysis.
What did John Watson do to Little Albert?
Watson and Raynor presented Little Albert with a white rat and he showed no fear. Watson then presented the rat with a loud bang that startled Little Albert and made him cry.
What did the Little Albert experiment prove?
The Little Albert Experiment demonstrated that classical conditioning—the association of a particular stimulus or behavior with an unrelated stimulus or behavior—works in human beings. In this experiment, a previously unafraid baby was conditioned to become afraid of a rat.
What did John Watson contribution to psychology?
Watson believed that psychology should primarily be scientific observable behavior. He is remembered for his research on the conditioning process. Watson is also known for the Little Albert experiment, in which he demonstrated that a child could be conditioned to fear a previously neutral stimulus.
What is Watson behaviorism?
Watson vs. He thought of psychology as an objective branch of natural science: “Its goal, the prediction, and control of behavior.” Like his fellow behaviorists, he believed that intelligence, temperament, and personality are determined by the environment in which the child is raised.
What was John Watson's intention in founding the school of behaviorism?
Watson's 1913 “Behaviorist Manifesto” viewed psychology as a natural science with the goal of prediction and control of behavior, an appreciation of environment as a determinant of behavior, and the great potential to improve society through application of empirically-derived principles of behavior (Logue, 1994).
What made Watson's work valuable?
Watson's most influential and well-known work was his study of emotions. Watson was particularly interested in studying the way that emotions could be learned. Watson believed that emotions were merely physical responses to external stimuli and that rage, fear, and love were all yet to be learned at birth.
What is Watson's classical conditioning?
In simple terms, two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal. John Watson proposed that the process of classical conditioning (based on Pavlov's observations) was able to explain all aspects of human psychology.
What was John B. Watson's most famous quote?
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, ...
What was John B. Watson’s childhood like?
John B. Watson grew up in a poor farming family. His father drank heavily, was prone to violence, and was frequently absent; he finally left the fa...
Where was John B. Watson educated?
As a young child, John B. Watson was educated in a one-room schoolhouse and at a modest private academy in Travelers Rest, South Carolina. He enter...
What did John B. Watson write?
John B. Watson wrote, among other works, Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology (1914); Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behavioris...
Why is John B. Watson famous?
John B. Watson is famous for having founded classical behaviourism, an approach to psychology that treated behaviour (both animal and human) as the...
What did Watson do to help people?
Watson set the stage for behaviorism, which soon rose to dominate psychology. While behaviorism began to lose its hold after 1950, many of the concepts and principles are still widely used today. Conditioning and behavior modification are still widely used in therapy and behavioral training to help clients change problematic behaviors and develop new skills.
Where did Watson teach psychology?
Career. Watson began teaching psychology at Johns Hopkins University in 1908. In 1913, he gave a seminal lecture at Columbia University titled "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," which essentially detailed the behaviorist position. 1 According to Watson, psychology should be the science of observable behavior.
What was the name of the experiment that conditioned a child to fear a white rat?
The "Little Albert" Experiment. In his most famous and controversial experiment, known today as the "Little Albert" experiment, John Watson and a graduate assistant named Rosalie Rayner conditioned a small child to fear a white rat. They accomplished this by repeatedly pairing the white rat with a loud, frightening clanging noise.
What did Merritte suffer from?
In 2012, researchers proposed that Merritte suffered from neurological impairments at the time of the Little Albert experiment and that Watson may have knowingly misrepresented the boy as a "healthy" and "normal" child.
What did Watson discover about the conditioning process?
Watson is also known for the Little Albert experiment, in which he demonstrated that a child could be conditioned to fear a previously neutral stimulus. His research also revealed that this fear could be generalized to other similar objects.
Where did John Watson grow up?
Early Life. John B. Watson was born January 9, 1878, and grew up in South Carolina. He entered Furman University at the age of 16. After graduating five years later with a master's degree, he began studying psychology at the University of Chicago, earning his Ph.D. in psychology in 1903.
Where did Watson live after he retired?
He spent his last years living a reclusive life on a farm in Connecticut.
Who is John Watson?
John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school. Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.
What did Watson do?
Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial " Little Albert" experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915.
What did Watson do at Furman University?
There, he would complete a few psychology courses, though never excelling. He would also consider himself to be a poor student, holding a few jobs on campus to pay for his college expenses. Others thought him as quiet, lazy, and insubordinate, and, as such, he continued to see himself as "unsocial," making few friends. Nevertheless, being a precocious student, Watson would leave Furman with a master's degree at the age of 21.
How does Watson explain how a child learns to read words?
Lastly, Watson explains how a child learns to read words: a mom points at each word and reads in a patterned manner, and eventually, because the child recognizes the word with the sound, he or she learns to read it back. This, according to Watson, is the start of memory.
What did Mary I discover about Watson?
In searching Rayner's bedroom, Mary I discovered love letters Watson had written to his paramour. The affair became front-page news during divorce proceedings in the Baltimore newspapers. The publicity would result in Johns Hopkins University asking Watson to leave his faculty position in October 1920.
When did Watson publish his behaviorist manifesto?
In 1913, Watson published the article "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (also called "The Behaviorist Manifesto"). In the "Manifesto", Watson outlines the major features of his new philosophy of psychology, behaviorism, with the first paragraph of the article concisely describing Watson's behaviorist position:
Where was John Broadus Watson born?
Early life. John Broadus Watson was born in Travelers Rest, South Carolina on 9 January 1878. His father, Pickens Butler Watson, was an alcoholic and left the family to live with two Indian women when John was 13 years old—a transgression which he never forgave. His mother, Emma Kesiah Watson ...
Where was John Watson raised?
He was raised in South Carolina by a mother with strict religious standards and an alcoholic father who abandoned John and his mother when John was only 13 years old. Watson struggled academically and was arrested twice during high school.
What was Watson's most famous experiment?
The Little Albert Experiment. In his most famous and controversial experiment, Watson put his theory on conditioning to the test. The experiment became known as the 'Little Albert' experiment.
Why was Little Albert's experiment unethical?
In looking back, psychologists today view Watson's experiment as unethical because of the fear he instilled in the child in conducting the experiment and his lack of effort to undo the conditioned fear. Ethical guidelines in place today would never permit such an experiment to be performed.
Why did Watson think Little Albert was afraid of animals?
Over time, they conditioned 'Little Albert' to be afraid of the animals. Watson believed that this proved that emotions could become conditioned responses. Unfortunately, Watson did not remove the conditioning he instilled in 'Little Albert' and many wondered how the experiment affected the boy as he grew up.
What is Watson's theory of behavior?
Watson is best known for taking his theory of behaviorism and applying it to child development. He believed strongly that a child's environment is the factor that shapes behaviors over their genetic makeup or natural temperament. Watson is famous for saying that he could take a 'dozen healthy infants... and train any one of them to become any type of specialist he might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief.' In other words, he believed that you can expose the child to certain environmental forces and, over time, condition that child to become any type of person you want. As you might imagine, this was radical thinking and a type of behavioral control that many people were not comfortable with at that time.
Why did Watson reject the concept of unconsciousness?
Watson's behaviorism rejected the concept of the unconscious and the internal mental state of a person because it was not observable and was subject to the psychologist's subjective interpretation. For example, Freud would ask his patients to tell him their dreams.
What was the name of the lecture that Watson gave to Freud?
Watson made his most memorable declaration against Freud's theory at a lecture he delivered in 1913 at Columbia University titled 'Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.'. This lecture established Watson as a pioneer of a new school of thought that would later become known as behaviorism.
Who is John Watson?
John B. Watson was an American psychologist who conceptualized the idea of methodological behaviorism which laid the foundation for the psychological school of behaviorism. He was the editor of 'Psychological Review' from 1910 to 1915.
Where was John Watson born?
Childhood & Early Life. John Broadus Watson was born on January 9, 1878, in Travelers Rest, South Carolina, as the fourth of six children of Pickens Butler and Emma Kesiah Watson. His father, an alcoholic who had affairs with Native American women, left the home when he was 13.
How did Watson strained his relationships with his family members?
He strained his relationships with his family members by applying his behaviorist studies on his children. His daughter Mary and two of his sons, William and James, had attempted suicide, with William dying in 1954. According to sources, Watson was devastated and became an alcoholic when his second wife died in 1935.
What school did John Dewey go to?
He graduated at 21, and spent a year at a one-room school that he had named Batesburg Institute, where he was the principal, janitor, as well as the handyman. After being recommended to study philosophy under John Dewey, he successfully petitioned to the president of the University of Chicago for admission.
Why did John Watson accept the Gold Medal?
While he did attend the event, he sent his son to accept the award out of fear that he might break down in front of the public .
Who was John Watson's first wife?
John B. Watson met his first wife, Mary Ickes, a sister of politician Harold L. Ickes, in graduate school, and married her in 1901. They had two children, John and Mary Ickes Watson. Mary later became the mother of 'Emmy Award'-winning character actress Mariette Hartley, who established the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
Who argued that language, speech, and memory can be conditioned or taught through imitation or by associating feelings?
Major Contributions. In his 1930 book 'Behaviorism', John B. Watson argued that language, speech and memory can be conditioned or taught through imitation or by associating feelings and behaviors with situations, objects, and symbols.
Who was John Watson?
John B Watson, Dark Psychologist. John Broadus Watson was born in 1878, the fourth of six children. His father, Pickens Butler Watson, had fought for the Confederates in the Civil War and had never really settled down afterwards. He spent most of his time away from home, leaving his children to be raised by their mother Emma on their small farm.
What did Watson do in 1908?
In 1908 Watson left Chicago to take up a full professorship at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. He received an unexpected promotion when the department’s head, James Baldwin, was caught by the police during a raid on a brothel. Though his position meant that no charges were brought, he was forced to resign. As a result Watson wound up effectively the head of the department. In 1910 he co-founded the Journal of Animal Behaviour, [1] a research journal that backed up his position that experimental psychology on animals was crucial to understanding human psychology. From this, he began to redefine psychology and to draw up his own model for how to approach it – based on the earlier work of Pavlov, among others. In 1913, in a series of lectures at Columbia University, Watson laid out the essentials of his new approach.
How did psychology help the army?
The initial application of psychology in the US Army came in the form of selecting candidates from the enlisted men for officer training. These were the first aptitude tests, and they proved hugely useful in helping the army automate the process of personnel selection . Watson was sent to Europe to study British aviators, in order to develop aptitude tests for US airmen. This was frustrated when a large portion of the men he’d been sent to study were killed in battle, and he had to go through shelling in Paris and air raids in London for nothing. His criticisms of the Army over this nearly got him court-marshalled, and though he avoided this he was deeply unimpressed by the armed forces. His Southern sensibilities were equally outraged by another development – the aptitude tests didn’t discriminate on race, and the sight of black officers was something he found very disquieting.
How old was Watson when Rosalie came to study at John Hopkins?
Watson was forty-two years old when Rosalie (around half that age) came to study at John Hopkins. She was from a powerful family – her uncle was a US senator – and so when they began an affair he initially disguised it as an attempt to cultivate her family as a useful connection. But his wife wasn’t fooled.
What is the theory of behavior that Watson proposed?
Watson described his approach to psychology as “behaviourism” – the idea that observable behaviour is all that is required to understand the psychology of a person or animal. [2] .
What was Watson's position on animal behavior?
In 1910 he co-founded the Journal of Animal Behaviour, [1] a research journal that backed up his position that experimental psychology on animals was crucial to understanding human psychology.
How much did Watson make in a year?
His salary was twenty five thousand dollars a year – four times what he had made as an academic.
Who supported Watson's behaviorism?
Not many paid attention in 1913 and for several years thereafter (Samelson 1994), but as 1920 approached, behaviorism was taking hold, partly because authoritative people like future Nobel laureate Bertrand Russell2and Harvard neorealist philosopher Ralph Barton Perry generally supported Watson’s program. Others, like Walter Hunter at Brown, welcomed Watson’s revolution and tried to explain behaviorism to many uncomprehending readers (Hunter 1922). A few years later, Woodworth referred to “the outbreak of behaviorism in 1912–14” (1931, p. 45) and described it as a “youth movement” (p. 59). But he quoted the New York Timesopinion, that Behaviorism“marks an epoch in the intellectual history of man,” as well as the Tribune, which hailed it “as the most important book ever written” (1931, p. 92).
Who was the strongest advocate for applied behavioral methods?
It is true that Watson was the strongest and most vocal possible advocate for applied behavioral methods and that he wrote “there was never a worse misnomer” than “practical” or “applied” psychology, since that is the only kind there is (1914, p. 12).
What did Freud do in America?
The Freud we knew in America showed an exclusive emphasis on application. Freud, like Watson, had been a biological researcher, but once his efforts had shifted toward the understanding of psychopathology, his work was wholly applied.8Psychology in America, at least under Titchener, was irrelevant to and dead set against application. (Freud thus contributed to paving of the way for applied psychology in general.
What is the Bain method?
James described Bain’s method as theway to change behavior, ranging from the time that you get up in the morning to breaking a troublesome “opium habit.” You should (a) go cold turkey if you can stand it – don’t taper off; (b) arrange circumstances to re-enforce the actions you want and avoid circumstances that oppose them; (c) take a public pledge; (d) never allow an exception to occur; and (e) seize the first opportunity to act because action is absolutely essential (James 1890, vol. 1, pp. 122–125). [This approximates good behavioral advice and James’s summary precedes Watson’s (1913) manifesto by more than 20 years.]
Who was the first person to argue for behaviorism?
Among others, William Carpenter, Alexander Bain, and (early) Sigmund Freud held views compatible with twentieth-century behaviorism. Thus, though Watson was the first to argue specifically for psychology as a natural science, behaviorism in both theory and practice had clear roots long before 1913.
Who is the founder of behaviorism?
The origin of behaviorism has long been linked to John B. Watson, about whom much has been written and many talks given, especially during 2013, the centennial of his well-known Columbia lecture, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.” I want to commemorate that event and argue that Watson provided an important impetus to behaviorism, but that many others had prepared the way. Todd’s (1994) report suggests that recent textbook presentations lead the reader to assume that Watson actually created behaviorism and one might further conclude that his absence would have meant that psychology during the rest of the twentieth century would have been far different. In fact, Watson might well have taken a different path in life. For example, he could have gone into medicine and devoted his energies to the study of endocrinology or otorhinolaryngology. What if Watson hadgone to medical school after graduating with a master’s degree from Furman University at the age of 21? In 1916, he hinted that it had been a possibility, perhaps later regretted, when he gave an example of a “Freudian slip” in an article praising Freud’s findings and therapy:
Was Watson a crystallizer?
No matter, because Watson was not alone and given the contributions of others, especially during the late nineteenth century, he was dispensable, serving not as an originator, but as a “crystallizer,” the label he used to describe himself (Burnham 1968, p. 150; Watson 1919, p. vii).
Early Life
Career
- Watson began teaching psychology at Johns Hopkins University in 1908. In 1913, he gave a seminal lecture at Columbia University titled "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It," which essentially detailed the behaviorist position.1 According to Watson, psychology should be the science of observable behavior. "Psychology as the behaviorist views it ...
Leaving Academia
- Watson remained at Johns Hopkins University until 1920. He had an affair with Rayner, divorced his first wife, and was then asked by the university to resign his position. Watson later married Rayner and the two remained together until her death in 1935. After leaving his academic position, Watson began working for an advertising agency where he stayed until he retired in 1945. Durin…
Contributions to Psychology
- Watson set the stage for behaviorism, which soon rose to dominate psychology. While behaviorism began to lose its hold after 1950, many of the concepts and principles are still widely used today. Conditioning and behavior modification are still widely used in therapy and behavioral training to help clients change problematic behaviors and develop new skills.
Achievements and Awards
- Watson's lifetime achievements, publications, and awards include: 1. 1915—Served as the president of the American Psychological Association(APA) 2. 1919—Published Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist 3. 1925—Published Behaviorism3 4. 1928—Published Psychological Care of Infant and Child 5. 1957—Received the APA's Award for Distinguished Sci…
Selected Publications
- Here are some of Watson's works for further reading: 1. Watson JB. Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review. 1913;20(2):158-177. doi:10.1037/h0074428 2. Watson JB, Rayner R. Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology. 1920;3(1):1-14. doi:10.1037/h0069608
Famous Quote
- "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going bey…
Overview
John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school. Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It. Through his behaviorist approach, Wat…
Biography
John Broadus Watson was born in Travelers Rest, South Carolina on January 9, 1878. His father, Pickens Butler Watson, was an alcoholic and left the family to live with two Indian women when John was 13 years old—a transgression which he never forgave. His mother, Emma Kesiah Watson (née Roe), was a very religious woman who adhered to prohibitions against drinking, smoking, and dancing, naming her son John after a prominent Baptist minister in hopes that it w…
Education
Watson understood that college was important to his success as an individual: "I know now that I can never amount to anything in the educational world unless I have better preparation at a real university." Despite his poor academic performance and having been arrested twice during high school—first for fighting, then for discharging firearms within city limits—Watson was able to use his mother's connections to gain admission to Greenville's Furman University at the age of 16. Th…
Behaviorism
In 1913, Watson published the article "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (also called "The Behaviorist Manifesto"). In the "Manifesto", Watson outlines the major features of his new philosophy of psychology, behaviorism, with the first paragraph of the article concisely describing Watson's behaviorist position:
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural scien…
Use of children
One might consider the experiment Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner carried out in 1920 to be one of the most controversial in psychology. It has become immortalized in introductory psychology textbooks as the Little Albert experiment. The goal of the experiment was to show how principles of, at the time recently discovered, classical conditioning could be applied to condition fear of a white rat into "Little Albert", a 9-month-old boy. Watson and Rayner conditione…
Advertising career
Thanks to contacts provided by E. B. Titchener, an academic colleague, Watson subsequently began working late in 1920 for U.S. advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. He learned the advertising business' many facets at ground level, including a stint working as a shoe salesman in an upscale department store. Despite this modest start, in less than two years Watson had risen to a vice-presidency at Thompson. His executive's salary, plus bonuses from various successful …
Selected works
• 1907. "Kinaesthetic and Organic Sensations: Their Role in the Reactions of the White rat to the Maze."
• 1908. "The Behavior of Noddy and Sooty Terns."
• 1913. "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It."
Further reading
• Buckley, Kerry W. 1994. "Misbehaviorism: The Case of John B. Watson's Dismissal from Johns Hopkins University." In Modern Perspectives on John B. Watson and Classical Behaviorism, edited by J. T. Todd & E. K. Morris. Greenwood Press.
• Coon, Deborah J. 1994. "'Not a Creature of Reason': The Alleged Impact of Watsonian Behaviorism on Advertising in the 1920s." In Modern Perspectives on John B. Watson and Classical Behaviorism, edited by J. T. Todd & E. K. Morris. …