John B. Watson: Article Analysis

After Joe Watson had been told he was deathly allergic to the sun and his frail lungs would not allow him breathe the outside air, also not to mention his high level of paranoia for potential of getting robbed outside at night, he decided that he would never leave his home for the rest of his life. He had done everything right—he went to a liberal arts college, got a salary job at a local car manufacturer, married a beautiful woman he loved, started a family, and continued to work hard. But after his health issues arose during his retirement and his wife had passed, the time to stay inside was now.

One of the most famous American Psychologists, John B. Watson, conducted numerous experiments that helped establish a clearer understanding of how the human brain associates response to certain situations. In one of his more famous experiments, Watson tested the conditioned emotional response of a small child. This child, Albert, was eleven months old and was one of “the most developed youngsters ever brought to the hospital” (Watson, 1). It was noted that he never presented fear in any situation, and rarely ever cried. For this reason, Albert was a strong subject for testing throughout the conditioned response experiment. Ultimately, Watson hoped to answer the research question: “Are reactions and behaviors of humans a result of conditioning, or are they naturally implemented in humans from birth?”. However, before Watson began the experiment, he hypothesized that all behaviors are a result of conditioning. Similar to previous observations made, Watson’s goal was to implement stimuli, triggering an emotional response while a certain object was in the child’s possession. If Watson’s hypothesis was correct, a fear reaction would be triggered when the same object was shown to Albert.

In 1913 Watson gave a lecture called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”. It was in this speech that Watson proposed the idea of an objective psychology of behavior called “behaviorism”. John saw psychology as the study of people’s actions and their ability to predict and control their actions. This became known as the behaviorist’s theory. During the next few years, different ideas about behaviorism was studied. (Muskingum.edu) Behaviorism came to be widely accepted among psychologists and the general public, becoming a popular field of study in the 1920’s through the 1960’s. It was a huge contradiction to the views of the eugenics movement, which claimed that heredity was the primary force determining a person’s potential and behavior. Behaviorism, with its promise of the possibility of change, and even improvement. (A science Odyssey, published by

Watson’s readings also relate to change; changes in publishing, art, literature and even education. Literature was impacted by the wave of new talented writers from different diverse backgrounds, as well as the fee market. The biggest impact was seen in the universities. Levine's disagreement with Allan Bloom’s analysis rests upon the paradigm that the U.S. is a multicultural society; Levine argues that opening the academic canon to cultures beyond Western civilization is a natural thing to do due to the increasing diversity of America. Culture wars are reactions to globalization. The minority groups that migrated to this country along with black Americans that wanted to be included wanted to add to the narrative it to reflect their own experiences

Psychology could not convince people of its usefulness and practical problem and the founder of behaviorism John Watson believed that both structuralism and functionalism were subjective and introduced behaviorism as objective. (Moore ,2011) which was considered to be a transformation from one phase of science to another . (Gardner ,1985)

Next we will look at Watson. Watson coined the term behaviorism. This means it is referring to the school of thought that proposed limiting psychology to the study to overtly operable behavior. He and his assistant conducted a study that proved fear could be classically conditioned. He used a toddler to perform these experiments. In doing so, his testing has causes the American Psychological Association to have new standards in place to watch the safety of humans and animals alike when participating in experiments. Watson’s studies and research are utilized today in some therapies that help unlearn phobias. He also concluded that over a person’s lifetime, their fears will persist and modify.

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

“Why don’t we make what can be observed the real field of psychology” (Watson, 1929). Watson (1878-1958) was born into a poor family in South Carolina. His mother was a religious woman, and his father drank a lot and had multiple affairs (Watson, 1999). Watson himself married twice, having two children in each marriage. He didn’t seem to have good relationships with his children – it is said that one of the main reasons for this may be because he used his children throughout his research. He studied in the University of Chicago where he later became known as the founder of Behaviourism. He wrote an essay in 1914 titled “Psychology as the Behaviourist views it” where he stated that behaviourism is an objective experimental branch of natural science (Watson, 1914). Behaviourism is a theory of learning that argues that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning (Carver & Scheier, 2012). Behaviourists believe

John Watson is known as the creator of behaviorism. Behaviorism is a branch of psychology that focuses on a person’s behavior that’s caused by external factors. Behavior, according to Behaviorism, “can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness” (Behaviorism. In learning Theories). In 1920 John Watson conducted what can be considered his greatest experiment. In 1920 john Watson along with Rosaline Rayner began their study of “Little Albert”. Little Albert, as Watson called him, was a healthy child that he attempted to condition. This experiment was conducted over the course of four months. Watson utilized classical conditioning to make little Albert fear a white rat. This was revolutionary. A human being

Of the entire amazing scientist that changed our understanding of what we know, James Watson was one of those scientists. James Watson, born on April 6th, 1928, discovered important unknown facts about genes.

Psychologists have been focused on observing and understanding human behavior for centuries, dating back to the Greek philosophers when psychology and philosophy were considered one.Today, Psychology is the study of human behavior, beginning before birth and lasting until death. It is clear that the observance human behavior is a vast and profound source of data for psychologists. Early philosophers relied on methods of observation and logic. A physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt in the 1800’s began using scientific research methods in his study of mental processes. However, the situation was totally different in the beginning of 20th century when psychology still struggled to be regarded as a separate discipline with practical value(Mastering,2011). Psychologists had only begun to be accepted as a science. It was John B. Watson who established the school of Behaviorism and inspired many other psychologists to study patterns of human behavior and their mechanisms. Watson 's contribution to psychology is important not to underestimate; he studied animal and human behavior to come up with a methodology that would give Psychology a respected status among other scientific disciplines. This essay will focus on the biography and works of John B. Watson with a purpose to show why his works are important for Psychology today(Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013).

James D. Watson was born in 1928 on April 6th in Illinois, Chicago. He attended Horace Mann Grammar school and South shore High School and spent most of his childhood there. After he won a scholarship and enrolled at the age of 15 to the University of Chicago. He then attended the Indiana University in Bloomington after receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology. Then he received his PhD in zoology in 1950.

John B. Watson or John Broadus Watson was born on January 9th, 1878. He spent his childhood in South Carolina. This psychologist was competent from a young age attending Furman University at the age of 16. He graduated at the age of 21 and acquired a master’s degree. His academic course did not just stop there. He got accepted into the University of Chicago to study psychology. In 1903, he proudly graduated with a Ph.D. in psychology. Many say that he’s “one of the most influential psychologists” of the 20th century. Watson is famous for inventing and developing the term behaviorism. In fact, he was a major influence on B.F. Skinner’s radical or operant behaviorism. Skinner’s work dramatically impacted the US education systems. Other factors like the Little Albert Experiment and the Dozen Healthy Infants quote are responsible for Watson’s fame.

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).

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