Pablo Kawas IB Psychology MR D.

Personal Data Born: 9-January-1878 Birthplace: Greenville, South Carolina Died: 25-September-1958 Location of death: New York City Cause of death: Infection Gender: Male Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Psychologist

Personal Data Nationality: United States Executive summary: Founder of Behaviorism Mother: Emma Watson Father: Pickens Watson Wife: Mary Ickes (Divorced 1920). Wife: Rosalie Rayner (His student). Behaviorism

Early Life Watson was born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina. He entered college at the age of 16 and left it at the age of 21 already with a masters degree. He worked for a year as a principal for grade school and the went to the University of Chicago to study philosophy.

12 Infants “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, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.

12 Infants I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years”. [Behaviorism (1930), p. 82]

12 Infants The past quote states Watson’s ideas of behaviorism very clearly. He thought he could make any enfant, regardless his abilities, where he came from or anything else, and turn him into what ever he wanted to. The quote is often presented without the last sentence, in which he states that he is going “beyond his facts”.

Animal Behavior For several years, Watson researched the physical development of the white rat, correlated with its nervous system. In his work he described the relationship between the brain and the learning system of rats in different ages.

Behaviorism In 1913 Watson published works providing information of his thoughts on psychology and behavior. The article was called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”. In the article he mentioned a new philosophy in psychology, behaviorism.

Behaviorism Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness.

Behaviorism The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation.

Behaviorism What you just read is the first paragraph of Watson article, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”. In it we can clearly notice the main concept, that is that behavior can be controlled or manipulating through proper conditioning.

Little Albert Many consider this experiment, carried out by Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner in 1920 to be very controversial. 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", an 11- month-old boy.

Little Albert The experiment consisted of presenting a small white rat, among other animals, to 11 month old Albert. At first he showed no response, but after several times of presenting the rat with a loud noise, Little Albert cried at the sight of the rat. The fear had been conditioned.

Little Albert The “Little Albert” experiment was and is strongly criticized now a days. The reason for the harsh criticism is it un-ethical nature. An 11 month old baby was put into psychological suffering without its consent, but this part is irrelevant because of the fact that your striking fear into an infant.

Rosalie Rayner Rosalie Rayner was Watson’s assistant for many years. She was her student at John Hopkins University, from which he was asked to leave for holding an affair with her. This caused Watson to divorce his wife, and during the divorce process, many newspapers published information about his romance with Rosalie.

Advertising After his long life as a psychologist Watson roamed in the land of advertising. Thanks to contacts provided by a old colleague, Watson began working for the US advertising agency J. Walter Thompson.

Advertising Watson started as a modest apprentice in the area of advertising, but due to the obvious relationship between advertising and psychology he was promoted to vice-president in less than 2 years. He was making much more money than he did in the past with his academic salary.

After Life Watson retired from writing for the public in 1936 and retired from advertising when he was about 65 years old. He lived his last years in a farm with a female companion. It was rumored that he was an alcoholic, but left it on recommendations of a physician. Watson burned many of his letters and works, limiting historians and psychologists the information about him.

After Life Watson died in 1958 at the age of 80, shortly after receiving a citation from the American Psychological Association for his contributions to psychology. An interesting fact is that he is credited with the concept of “coffee breaks” after a campaign for Maxwell House coffee.

Video on Little Albert

Works Cited B-Watson B-Watson son.htm son.htm tml tml