Biography Of John B. Watson

In Spite of Watson. Most Rogers’s achievements can be seen as a result of Watson’s “negative” view on psychology. After observation had been established, Carl Rogers decided to take a more optimistic approach,

In this essay I am looking at where Psychology as a discipline has come from and what affects these early ideas have had on psychology today, Psychology as a whole has stemmed from a number of different areas of study from Physics to Biology,

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian psychologist who inadvertently discovered classical conditioning; a way to view the functioning of the nervous system, this remains his greatest psychological contribution

John B Watson the “father of behaviorism once quoted “ Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed and my own specified world to bring them up in and I will 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 pendants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors. Watson had a plan as to what he wanted to accomplish. He new what his goals were. He had a plan as to how he wanted to conduct the Little Albert Experiment and Classical Conditioning. Watson believed that psychology shoed be seen as a purely objective experimental branch of natural science, he wanted to see the prediction and control of behavior not just the understanding of the mind (Mcleod, 2008).

Watson’s theory was based on the ideas of classical conditioning of Ivan Pavlov who used animals for research and believed that they could be taught anything by watching and copying others. Watson further developed the theory applying it on people’s behaviour, based on the conditioning and training of behaviour and on the belief that anyone could be taught anything as we are all born with the same abilities, disregarding feelings and emotions.

Psychology explores human behavior and the human mental process figuring ways to improve the thinking and attitude of an individual’s existence. Sometimes, different techniques are used and tried to properly resolve the problem within the multitude of possible behavioral issues. Moreover, Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist, developed many theories, psychodynamic therapy, for clinically treating people with mental health problems through their unconscious mind; Then, Sigmund Freud’s theories or therapy, rather, diverged into other types of therapies such as Biological Psychology or Cognitive Psychology. No doubt, there are various perspectives, both strong and weak, in the field of Psychology using different techniques on different

Many ideas were shared between Watson, Tolman, and Skinner who all played a role in the forming of behaviorism. They did, however, differ on some of their beliefs as well as their methods of study. At this time, methods of studying psychology as well as psychology in general were in the developing stages. Watson was largely credited with the foundation of behaviorism, however, he was by no means the only one to make contributions. There has been some debate as to whether Watson’s contributions were enough to make him the “founder of behaviorism.” It is important to examine contributions from several of the early

Pavlov was a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist who contributed a great deal to the field of psychology. His research into the process of the conditioned reflex is considered a milestone discovery in behavioral psychology as well as modern physiology. Pavlov focused on digestion studies which then would lead him to the act of learning and the discovery of conditioned reflexes.

Ivan Pavlov was born in a difficult time in history, Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 in Ryzan, in the rise of communism in Russia. Although today that Pavlov was known more as a Physiologist than a Psychologist, due to Pavlov’s father being a priest, Pavlov’s early studies was in the church to eventually become a priest like his father, although the plan to become a priest diminished after Pavlov read a book that Charles Darwin wrote about the origins of species and another book by George Lewes called “The physiology of Common Life” after finding so much interest in these books, Pavlov decided to pursue a profession in Physiology. (Todes, 2000).

Behaviorism is “the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes” (Myers, 2011, p. 6). John Watson believed that science is based upon observation. Therefore, Watson developed behaviorism based upon the idea that while you cannot observe a feeling or thought of a person, you can observe their reactions

THe Behavioral perspective believes that our behavior is the result of the environment we are in. Behaviorists believe that psychologists should rely on the stimuli in the environment and our response to the stimuli. There perspective was that our behaviors are the result of our upbringing and environment. The behavioral perspective works on the molecular level to understand an individual 's behavior. They developed research generated evidence. John Watson was the founder of American behaviorism. Watson advocated that psychology is a science and it should be limited to observable, measurable behaviors. Watson studied babies and how they learned everything from their environment. He advocated that nurture was stronger than nature. Watson was famous for his experiment with Baby Albert and a white rat. Baby Albert did not fear the white at at first but began to fear it once it was associated with a loud sound. Watson proved through his experiments that parents should take

He was born in 1849 in Ryazan, Russian Empire. He graduated and received a degree of Candidate of Natural Sciences from the University of St. Petersburg. Pavlov was interested in how digestion worked in animals. Thus, began to observe and record information on what triggered his dogs to salivate. His research led to the understanding that animals salivate because they use saliva to help them break down the food. Therefore, when food was presented the dogs would drool. However, he made an even deeper discovery, Pavlov noticed that his assistants wore long coats. Every time an assistant would be in the lab even if they did not have food the dogs would salivate. (Pavlov, 1927) Pavlov could not understand why dogs would drool at ordinary lab coats. He decided to run an experiment in which he would ring a bell each time he fed the dogs. After a period of time he would just ring the bell and his dogs would immediately salivate. This experiment is what helped develop his theory of classical conditioning a learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired, a response that is at first caused by the second stimulus is eventually produced by the first stimulus alone. Pavlov explained classical conditioning; there is a neutral stimulus (bell) by itself, it will not produce a response, like salivation. There is another stimulus (food), which produces an unconditioned response

Psychology is not just philosophical speculation and reasoning over the years it has evolved and it is now also recognised as a science, to understand what psychology is all about it is necessary to know it’s origins and the theorist who brought it out of obscurity, Sigmund Freud. He developed the Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytical perspective to enable better understanding of human behaviour these concepts will be discussed further later in this study. After Freud opened the gateway other perspectives and approaches have been developed, now with five main areas of psychology - Cognitive, Behaviourist, Biopsychology and Humanist approaches. For a comparison with the Psychodynamic theory, Behaviourist Theory will be discussed.

Although Watson was not the first to suggest an empirical and objective approach to psychological research he was the first to offer a coherent and organized program, and is often viewed as the catalyst for behaviorism, especially among American psychologists (Bewsbury, 2013). Perhaps the most famous behaviorist is B.F. Skinner (b.1904-d.1990). Skinner’s approach almost completely disregarded anything outside of observable behaviors, and his strict approach to looking at anything other than observable behaviors resulted in the development of the term radical behaviorism (Feist et al., 2013).

     John B. Watson was an early psychologist that didn't agree with many other psychologist's ideas about learning only relating to consciousness and thought processes. As the founder of behaviorism, Watson studied learning in a behavioral perspective, an approach that emphasizes the relationship between outwardly observable behaviors and environmental events, rather than mental processes.