1. John B. Watson ( )
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggarman and thief.

2. American Behaviorism John B. Watson (1878-1958)
Attacked the psychology of his day:
Arbitrary divisions of consciousness (How many colors can you name? Really?)
Too human centered (Animals can be valuable.)
Unreliable methods (Introspection?)
“…a purely objective experimental science" with the goal of "predicting and controlling behavior."

3. John B. Watson (1878-1958) His Mission
Watson credited the work of others as originators of behaviorism, but…
Saw himself as bringing together the emergent ideas
Goal: to found a new school

4. Watson’s Youth - Podcast
Born near Greenville, South Carolina
Delinquent behavior in youth
Poor relationship with his father
1899: Promised Mom he’d enter the Baptist ministry
Mother died
1894: Enrolled at Furman University: studied Philosophy, Math, Latin, Greek

5. At Furman

6. University of Chicago
1900: enrolled at the University of Chicago (Princeton required Greek and Latin)
Planned to pursue graduate degree in philosophy with Dewey – Couldn’t understand him
Attracted to psychology through work with Angell
Studied biology and physiology with Loeb

7. Watson’s Psychology Maze learning at Chicago (1908)
Systematically deprive rats of sensory input
Rats could learn the maze without eyes, ears, whiskers and numb feet
Maze learning through kinesthetic information only!

8. John B. Watson ( )
1908: offered professorship at Johns Hopkins university
Reluctant to leave university of Chicago
Angell was a valuable mentor
New job offered promotion, salary raise, and opportunity to direct the psychology laboratory

9. Watson’s Psychology Breaking from Structuralism and Introspection
Structuralism: Subject has to be a trained observer
Behaviorism: Subjects are almost irrelevant.
Anyone can behave!!: Children, non-verbal people, pigeons, rats, etc.
Reinforced man-as-machine model (or brain-as-computer model)

10. James Mark Baldwin ( )
Offered the Johns Hopkins’s job to Watson
A founder with Cattell of Psychological Review
Brothel raid
At Johns Hopkins, Watson was free to develop a school independent of his mentor, Angell

11. Watson’s Ascent 1909: Chair of psychology department
1909: Editor of Psychological Review
1912: Presented ideas for a more objective psychology in lectures at Columbia
1913: Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It published in Psychological Review - Launched Behaviorism
Angell was disappointed: “I shall be glad to see him properly spanked…”

12. The Psychology of War Served as a consultant during WWI (1917-1919)
Pigeons and propaganda

13. Developing Behaviorism
Focus on practical applications (like Functionalists)
1918: experimental research on children
1919: Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist
Most complete account of behaviorism to date
Argued methods and principles of animal research are appropriate for study of humans

14. Scandal Ends his Academic Career
Fell in love with Rosalie Rayner, graduate assistant
Wife found his love letters
Published in Baltimore Sun
Forced to resign from J.-H.
Married Rosalie but still banished from academia
Titchener one of the few academics who reached out to comfort him

15. A Second Career
Conducted surveys, clerked at Macy’s, sold coffee to learn.
“…tell the consumer something that will stir up fear, rage, or love…strike at a deep emotional need.”
Make the consumer dissatisfied with what he has
Promoted celebrity endorsements
Ponds, Maxwell House
Raced speedboats

16. The Behaviorist’s View
1928: Psychological Care of the Infant and Child
Strong environmentalist position
Recommended perfect objectivity in child-rearing Had the greatest impact of all his work
A purely objective experimental branch of natural science
Both animal and human behavior are studied
Discard all mentalistic concepts
Use only behavior concepts
Goal: prediction and control of behavior

17. Through the 1920s University courses in Behaviorism
The word “Behaviorist” appeared in journals
McDougall: issued a public warning against behaviorism
Titchener: complained of its force and extent
Other forms of behaviorism emerging

18. Watson-McDougall Debate (1924)
William McDougall ( )
Behavior is driven by instincts, but free will exists (creativity, bettering society)
Why try to prevent war or improve society if all of our actions are determined by past experience?
These themes will reemerge in the Humanistic movements of the 1950s-60s

19. Instincts 1914: Watson described 11 instincts
1925: eliminated the concept of instinct
Seemingly instinctive behavior is actually a socially conditioned response
Psychology can only be applied if behavior can be modified
Children can become anything one desires

20. Emotions
Fear, love, and rage are unlearned emotional response patterns to stimuli
Loud noises or sudden lack of support lead to fear
Restriction of bodily movements leads to rage
Caressing, rocking, patting lead to love

21. Mary Cover Jones Peter and the Rabbit Treatment method
Involve Peter in eating
Introduce rabbit at a distance
Each day, decrease the distance
Peter could eventually touch the rabbit without exhibiting fear
A forerunner of behavior therapy
Generalized fear also eliminated
1968: Jones given G. Stanley Hall award for her outstanding work

22. Can you think without Behaving?
Traditional View
Thinking occurs in the absence of muscle movements
Not accessible to observation and experimentation
Watson’s View
Thinking is implicit motor behavior
Reduced it to sub vocal talking
Same muscular habits as used for overt speech
Thinking = silent talking to oneself

23. Pavlov Catches On Adopted in 1915
Watson responsible for its widespread use in U.S. Research
Conditioning is stimulus substitution
Selected because it is an objective method of behavior analysis
Reflected reductionism and mechanism
Designation of the participant changed from “observer” to “subject”
Experimenter became the observer

24. What did Watson Bring to Behaviorism?
Made psychology more objective in methods and terminology
Stimulated a great deal of research
Surmounted earlier positions and schools
Objective methods and language became part of the mainstream