John Broadus Watson Father of Behaviorism 1878-1958

1. John Broadus Watson Father of Behaviorism 1878-1958

2. The Psychological Care of the Infant and the Child Children should be awakened at 6:30 A.M. for orange juice and a pee. Play 'till 7:30. Breakfast should be at 7:30 sharp; at 8:00 they should be placed on the toilet for twenty minutes or less 'til bowel movement is complete. Then follow up with a verbal report. The child would then play indoors 'till 10:00 A.M., after 10:00 outside, a short nap after lunch, then "social play" with others. In the evening a bath, quiet play until bedtime at 8:00 sharp!

3. He argued that institutions like the Boy Scouts and the YMCA could lead to homosexuality. Girls were even in more danger because they held hands, kissed, and slept in the same bed at pajama parties. "Our whole social fabric is woven so as to make all women slightly homosexual."

4. Childhood John, born in 1878, was a fourth child. Mother Emma • main interests were her farm, her children, and her religion.  • Fundamentalist Baptists did not drink, smoke, or danced, but they had long, emotional meetings which sometimes lasted two or three days, and members got up and denounced themselves as wretched sinners. The church emphasized morality and cleanliness. Her children had to be extremely clean.

5. Phobia of the dark Had a nanny who told Watson that the Devil lurked in the dark and if ever Watson went out walking at night, the Evil One might snatch him and take him to hell. Watson never got rid of his phobia. As an adult, he sometimes had to sleep with his light on.

6. His father: Pickens Watson • His parents were wealthy and owned a lot of land • He had 9 siblings who were successful • Ran away from home at age 16 • Drink a lot • Became estranged from his family after marrying Emma.

7. By the time John was born his parents were very isolated from everyone • His father tried to provide but couldn’t stick to one job • When John was 13 his father left for good.

8. Greenville, South Carolina. Rebellious He was intelligent but lazy and insubordinate," Rebellious Mocked teachers, and got low grades. Got the Nick Name “SWATS” Hobby: Beating up blacks He got arrested for fighting and for firing a gun inside city limits.

9. Greensville, 1890

10. Furman University • A Baptist College that had as its main mission turning out Baptist Ministers. • Began at 16, and graduated five years later with a Master's Degree. 

11. Teacher at Batesburg Institute. Watson got his M.A. from Furman at age 21. He wanted to go on for a Ph.D., but had to support his mother who had become very ill. Took a position as teacher in a nearby one-room school house, a small private school for about 20 children, which his resume later represented as "Principal of the Batesburg Institute." While it's true that he was principal, he was also the janitor.

12. University of Chicago ~ 1900 Was admitted to Chicago to study philosophy with his Furman mentor Gordon Moore. He did enjoy a course Gordon Moore taught on the British Associationists. Did not care for most of the philosophy nor for the course on Wilhelm Wundt's psychology he took. Of John Dewey, he later said "I never knew what he was talking about and unfortunately I still don't."

13. Animal Studies Looked at maze problem solving in rats. Learning was not an even process; slow and haphazard followed by sudden insight. Turned to neurology. Killed rats aged from 1 to 30 days and examined the state of their brains at each age.

14. Ph.D. ~1903 • He wrote his dissertation on the relation between behavior in the white rat and the growth of the nervous system. • Received his doctorate and was kept on as an instructor.

15. Beginning of behaviorism While writing up his dissertation in 1902, he found himself thinking, "If you could understand rats without the convolutions of introspection, could you not understand people the same way?" Felt that no reason not to look at people the same objective way he had done with rats. Mechanist (as opposed to a vitalist)

16. Knew this would be considered heresy to his advisor (James Angell). Wanted Angell’s help with degree and his support in getting a position. Did not mention this in his thesis. Angell believed man was a thinking and spiritual being utterly different from rats or any other animal.

17. Emotional Breakdown • Watson held several jobs to support himself, and overwork contributed to an emotional breakdown. • He could not sleep without a light on. • Suffered anxiety attacks that dissipated only after taking ten-mile walks. • Part of this had to do with his being rejected by a young lady.

18. 1904 – Marries Mary Amelia Ickes • Prominent family • Expelled from Northwestern • Studied introductory psychology with the handsome young Dr. Watson. • Doodled on her exam and wrote a love poem.

19. Secret Marriage • Began surreptitiously to date his student, Mary Ickes. • Her Brother Harold got wind of it and sent Mary back home • found out they had already married under fictitious names ~ gave a reception instead!

20. Children • Mary (Polly) Watson born 1905 • John Watson born 1908 Children where brought up according to behaviorism ~ scheduled feeding and no physical affection. JB continued to have not too secret affairs with students!

21. John Hopkins - 1907 • Offered the post of associate professor. • Watson held out until they offered him a full professorship and an extra $1000 salary. • In 1908 Watson became Department Chair and editor of Psychological Review.

22. 1908 JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY Began work with Human Learning

23. Success • Founding editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology • “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”

24. Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It 1913 ~ The Behaviorist Manifesto Behaviorism is a . . . purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is … prediction and control” (p. 158) • Observable (i.e. external) behavior can be objectively and scientifically measured. • Internal events, such as thinking should be explained through behavioral terms (or eliminated altogether).

25. People have no free will – a person’s environment determines their behavior. • When born our mind is 'tabula rasa' (a blank slate). • There is little difference between the learning that takes place in humans and that in other animals. Therefore research can be carried out on animals as well as humans.

26. Behavior is the result of stimulus – response (i.e. all behavior, no matter how complex, can be reduced to a simple stimulus – response association). Watson described the purpose of psychology as: “To predict, given the stimulus, what reaction will take place; or, given the reaction, state what the situation or stimulus is that has caused the reaction” 

27. Pavlov’s Influence 1904 – Pavlov Won Nobel Prize “The conditioned reflexes and its place in psychology” 1915 - Watson reads Pavlov’s work.

28. President of the American Psychological Association in 1915. 

29. Major Watson (1917-1919) • U.S. Army during WWI, • Devising a number of perceptual and motor tests for would-be pilots. • Investigated how pilots reacted to oxygen deprivation that existed at high flying altitudes. • gathering data for the development of selection tests for American flight officers.

30. Applied Psychology - 1916 • Worked as a consultant for B&O railroad and for life insurance company. • offering a course on the "Psychology of Advertising” • In 1919, Watson was given a $6,600 grant by the U.S. Interdepartmental Social Hygiene Board to examine the educational effects of a motion picture campaign against venereal diseases (VD).

31. 1920, Watson established an "Industrial Service Corporation" which did personal selection and management • created a program at Johns Hopkins to train Ph.D. students to work in Industrial psychology.

32. ROSALIE RAYNER. • Autumn 1919, new graduate student came to study under Watson. • Vassar Graduate. • Rosalie Works as Watson’s Research Assistant.

33. RYE WHISKEY STUDY ~ 1919 • During Prohibition • Watson convinced the President of Johns Hopkins to get him ten gallons of rye whiskey for a study of the effects of alcohol on performance.

34. WORK WITH CHILDREN AT THE PHIPPS INSTITUTE. Behavioral research on trail and error learning in children

35. “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. 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.”

36. Psychologist as Social Engineers • Society can employ psychology to retrain those of its members who did not conform to civilized standards. • The criminal, the lazy, the drifters, and even the mentally ill could be turned into useful members of society. • And those few criminals whose nervous systems were so askew that they could not be conditioned into decent members of society ought to be "etherized."

37. Affair With Rosalie Polly was 14, only 5 years younger than Rosalie. She warned her mother about the affair. Polly was so shaken that she dropped out of school. Mary gets her revenge!

38. Little Albert Study

39. The Love Letters In late September one of the love letters landed in the "in" tray of the President of Johns Hopkins. Watson John was fired. Mary Divorces Watson.

40. Divorce The divorce came through December 24, 1920. Watson married Rosalie ten days later. Great love of his life. The following June, Polly left school. Had lost interest in school, friends, and life. Never went on to 10th grade.

41. ADVERTISING Titchener was one of the few who maintained a friendship. Wrote Watson a letter of recommendation for the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency . In 1922 Watson wrote, "I know, in my heart, that I owe your more than almost all my other colleagues put together."

42. The Science OF Advertising Testing smokers blindfolded, found that only 2 out of 20 could tell the difference between their brand and others. Originated the concepts of "brand loyalty" . With cigarettes, Watson discovered that people were buying an atmosphere, an idea. For many products, the emotions and associations that went with it were crucial. Became vice president of J. Walter Thompson in 3 years.

43. Life With Rosalie Had two boys, Billy in 1921 & Jimmy in 1923. At 3 months, Watson tried to condition his son's bowel movements. Despondently Rosalie wrote in Feb: "I thought I had succeeded in conditioning bowels to move but it was a false observation." Billy was constipated and had to have laxatives, but still made to "try every morning at the same time."

44. By the time Billy was born, Watson had started to believe that scientific evidence showed that children should get very little hugging and kissing. Freud had shown that many infants were hopelessly fixated on either mother or father. That must be why. Children expected to be very polite to their parents. Rarely ate together as a family. Rosalie thought there was some danger that their sons were not enough part of their lives. Treated their children as young adults and expected the same in return.

45. Child Care Advice •  He published two books Behaviorism (1924) and The Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928) 

46. WHIPPORWILL FARM. • Watson & Rosalie were happy & affectionate and he was completely faithful to her. • Bought 40 acres in Connecticut and had a beautiful estate. • 1936. Rosalie died. • Watson moved to a smaller farm and became a recluse

47. THE END OF THE STORY 1957 -- APA awarded Watson it highest order, the gold medal for distinguished lifetime contribution to psychology. Didn't go to the convention in person, but sent Billy to accept it on his behalf. Drank more and harder. Died in 1958 of cirrhosis of the liver.

48. Billy Billy became a respected, successful Freudian psychiatrist in New York. His first suicide attempt was stopped by younger brother Jimmy. Second attempt, in his mid-30s, was successful.

49. Polly Polly attempted suicide over and over and over and over. He husband committed suicide with a self-inflicted gunshot in 1962 Granddaughter: Mariette Hartley

50. Discussion Questions Many people have questioned the ethical implications surrounding the Little Albert study. What do you see as the ethical issues? Do you think that Watson’s being a mechanist was a factor in his decision to study Albert and other children in the manner that he did.