John Watson Vs. Carl Rogers

What is Watson’s Classical Conditioning? Classical Conditioning was found by Dr. Ivan Pavlov. Watson’s research was influenced by Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory. Watson made a research on children’s emotions using the Classical Conditioning model. According to Watson, love, fear, and anger are the three kinds of emotions inherited by humans (Hall 1988). He believed these emotions could be learned through conditioning. He formed his hypothesis and carried out an experiment. John B. Watson’s classical condition experiment was on a child named Little Albert. This experiment was while a child was playing with a rabbit, smashing two bars to make a loud noise behind the child’s head. After hearing the loud noise the child

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.

Watson believed that psychology had failed to become a natural science, due to the focus on consciousness which he thought of as very unscientific and subjective. He believed that theories should be supported by careful scientific study of observable behaviour through laboratory studies.

Pavlov and Watson are both associated with classical conditioning which is when you are taught to act a certain way by association and instruction. We do not use this in practice today but it helps us to understand phobias such as a child being scared of spiders because mummy is and always screams when she sees one.

“Rogers is seen by many as one of the foundational thinkers in the development of human psychology,

According to the famous “Rats maze” experiment, Watson began by challenging the underlying assumption of instinct (Berntson and Cacioppo, 2000). Watson and Morgan (1917) are considered to be

John B. Watson (1878-1958), not to be confused with John H. Watson from Sherlock Holmes’ fame, left an indelible mark on the field of psychology. Prior to Watson, psychologists and philosophers theorized about internal, or mental, processes and consciousness. Myers (2013) states, “Watson urged his colleagues to discard reference to inner thoughts, feelings, and motives” (p. 268), and instead, “limit ourselves to things that can be observed…[i.e.] behavior—what the organism does or says” (Watson, as cited in Berger, 2014, p. 42). Watson’s views, along with Pavlov’s and Bechterev’s, would launch the behavioral school of psychology. The radical behaviorism Watson believed would not allow him to study or theorize about internal experiences such as emotions and their influence on thinking and behavior.

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

History and Systems of Psychology is a course requirement offered to Psychology majors and minors. This course is used to provide majors and minors with the foundation and the evolution of the field of psychology. Within this class, many scholars of discussed. Two scholars that stood out to me in this course would be John Watson and Max Wertheimer. These two particular scholars are responsible for two of the most influential and famous schools of thought, behaviorism and Gestalt psychology. These two schools of thought are responsible for changing the field of psychology and introducing the field to new theories and ways of thinking. Although the two schools of thought are similar in being influential but they are different in many ways. The two schools of thought are even said to be contradictory of one another and one is even said to be the cause of the fading out of the other.

John Watson’s life began in Greenville, South Carolina on January 9th 1878 whose parents were Emma and Pickens Watson. His mother Emma was very religious, so religious in fact that she named John after a Baptist minister, but his father on the other hand was not as religious as his wife. His father drank, had multiple affairs, and finally left his wife and son in 1891. During Watson’s childhood he was a student who did poorly in school and got in fights on a regular basis. “By all accounts he seemed destined to follow his father 's model of violence and recklessness. But he had ambition, certain courage, and considerable skill at self-promotion: He entered Furman University at age 16” (www.pbs.org). At the age of 21 he graduated with his master’s degree. After getting his degree at Furman University he went to the University of Chicago and majored in psychology and philosophy. “Along the way, he dropped the philosophy and received his PhD in psychology in 1903” (www.pbs.org). While attending the University of Chicago, Watson met a girl named Mary Ikes and eventually married her. The couple had two children, John and Mary. Watson and his wife later divorced after finding a love note from his student, Mary gave Watson t he choice to either end the relationship with his student or leave, and he chose the option of leaving. Rosalie was one of Watson’s graduate students at the Johns Hopkins University. After word got out

John Watson pioneered a new approach to viewing psychology. By making known an underutilized approach to studying psychology, John Watson opened a whole new door to researching how and why people behave the way they do. John Broadus Watson left a huge impression on the world of psychology with his new and unconventional approach of behaviorism and his Little Watson experiment.

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).

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).

“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