The American Dream Trying to figure out why humans do what they do has been around as long as humans themselves. Psychology is simply the study of human actions and reactions. John B. Watson made great strides in psychology but was a subpar person. John Broadus Watson was born to Pickens and Emma Watson in 1878. The family was from Greenville, South Carolina.Pickens drank and cheated on his wife, which caused Pickens to leave the family in 1891. GoodTherapy’s article on John Watson says, “He had a troubled adolescence, getting arrested for fighting and disorderly behavior twice, and performed poorly academically”(GoodTherapy). John received his masters degree at the age of 21 from Furman University, in South Carolina. When John went to University …show more content…
Later in 1920, Watson’s theory was accepted and became the dominant psychology system, along with its counterpart neobehaviorism, for four decades. Watson believed that humans are formed by their environment and not their family or their sexual desire. Watson’s approach to psychology was purely scientific, which seemed to give reason to his actions. R. Eric Landrum said, “Watson’s beliefs directly fed into the great American dream of the 19290’s(freedom, liberty, and hope)” (Landrum). The American dream was to have a family but Watson barely had a true …show more content…
He used his knowledge of human behavior to succeed in this field. Emily Watson said this about his motive for advertising, “He wanted to use his scientific theories of behaviorism and the emotions of fear, rage, and love to improve the effects of advertising on the “animal” or what we know as consumers” (Watson). Behaviorism is still used in ads today. The techniques are used to encourage consumers to buy products.
In 1928, Watson published his child development book, Care of Infant and Child. Watson believed children should not be coddled or receive excessive comfort. He said children would be needy and dependent as adults. GoodTherapy said, “Watson’s behaviorism has had a long-lasting impact on the nature-versus-nurture debate, and his work illuminated the strong role early experiences play in shaping personality”(GoodTherapy). His wife then publish an article called “I am a Mother of Behaviorist Sons” , in which she went against Watson’s teaching. Later his granddaughter, Mariette Hartley, famous actress, argued that she developed psychological problems as a result of being raised according to behaviorist principles.
John Watson’s beliefs and teachings are widely used and rejected in many fields of study, business, and life. Though he was a great experiment psychologist, his personality was lacking. Watson’s scientific outlook on human behavior lead to his failed
Inspiration. Although John Watson made tremendous waves in the study of behavioral psychology, he was not the first to explore it. Much of his inspiration was drawn from the ideas of Ivan Pavlov, one of his most known achievements being the conditioning of dogs. In the experiment, Pavlov was testing to see if he could make dogs, which would salivate in the presence of food, salivate over the sound of a bell by ringing it in the once the dogs were to be fed (How to Train a Brain, 2014).
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.
Inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov, Watson conducted his own experiment, with the help of his assistant Rosalie Rayner, to show classical conditioning in humans. Watson and Rayner wanted to show that the principles of classical conditioning could be applied to emotions, such as fear. Watson believed that when children reacted to loud noises, it was because of fear, and that this fear was an unconditioned reflex.
His most famous experiment is the Little Albert experiment. He gave a little boy by the name of Albert a white furry rat. He let Albert love and play and get attached to the rat. Later on, he would give the rat to Albert and when he went to touch it, Watson would play a loud sound, frightening the child. He continued this until one day he gave Albert the rat without playing a loud noise. Albert was still frightened of the rat. This is the same thing they did to the children in Brave New World to condition them to not like or want books or nature.
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
Psychology is an applied as well as an academic field that studies both the human mind and behavior. The research in psychology attempts to explain and understand behavior, emotion and thought. The subject of psychology was created when Wilhelm Wundt opened up the very first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany. Wilhelm Wundt believed that individuals who are appropriately trained would most likely be able to recognize the mental processes that are accompanied with feelings, thoughts and sensations (Wagner , 2009).
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
John B. Watson’s behaviorism theory states that children are “products of their environment, pieces of clay” and children are shaped by their parents and society. In his 1928 book on raising children,
John Watson was born January 9, 1878 and he died September 25, 1958. He grew up in South Carolina (Cherry, 2014). John Watson grew up in a poor and dysfunctional family. His mother was Christian and she, therefore, wanted to raise him to be Christian. His father, on the other hand, was a bad man. He did drugs and got in trouble. In Watson’s teenage years, he had an affair and left his family. Although Watson’s mother’s intentions were to raise him to be a good Christian man, Watson ended up being a very violent kid. Watson even found himself in trouble with the law, just as his dad did. Later in
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.
John Watson a theorist who rejected the idea of introspection and every part of the psychodynamic theory, suggested the Behaviourist view is an
John B. Watson was born in 1878 in a rural area outside of South Carolina. Watson had formal religious training
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
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.