Behaviorism: Life of John WatsonJohn B. WatsonJohn WatsonSlide 4Slide 5The Development of BehaviorismSlide 7Speaking of big love…An Affair to RememberA New LifeAdvertising TechniquesWatson’s BehaviorismChild-Rearing PracticesBringing Up BabyFrom the Horse’s MouthNot Everyone is On BoardHow Did Everyone Turn Out?Winding Down WatsonSlide 19Watson’s Program for PsychoLogyWatson’s Program for PsychologyDiscussion QuestionsSlide 23DISCUSSION QUESTIONSMONDAY, MARCH 16TH, 2015BEHAVIORISM: LIFE OF JOHN WATSONJOHN B. WATSON•https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vyrrdUfk6MJOHN WATSON•Terrible student from a broken home in Greenville, SC•Once was told he would fail an exam if he turned it in backwards, so he did, and he failed!–This was falsified later, and yet this was a story Watson often told. This demonstrates a bias in the way he presented himself, revealing his “ambivalence toward success” (Buckley, 1989, p. 11)•Studied to be a minister since he promised his mother he would, but abandoned that avenue when she diedJOHN WATSON•So he went to Chicago to do graduate work with John Dewey, but found him super boring•Became inspired by James Rowland Angell and worked his way through graduate school, where he studied biology and physiology with Jacques Loeb,•This is how he learned about mechanism!•Was intensely jealous of Helen Bradford Thompson Woolley, whose dissertation his was compared to•Ended up marrying one of his students, Mary IckesJOHN WATSON•Throughout his career, he hated using human subjects and was no good at introspection•Instead of getting better at it, he decided that he was going to need to make his own research methodology•Moved from Chicago to Johns Hopkins at age 31, where he became chair of the psych department and editor of Psychological Review•Was voted most handsome professor! (swoon)THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORISM•Watson started thinking about a more objective psychology in 1903 and talking about one in 1908•Published a very famous article in Psychological Review, launching his behaviorist ideals (Watson, 1913)•In his book (Behaviorism: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology), he argued for the utility of animal subjects in psychological research•“[Watson’s behaviorism] shook the foundations of traditional European-bred psychology, and we welcomed it…It pointed the way from armchair psychology to action and reform and was therefore hailed as a panacea” (Mary Cover Jones, 1974, p.582)•Old people tended to reject it (of course)THE DEVELOPMENT OF BEHAVIORISM•Watson was elected to the presidency of the APA just two years after his famous article was published•Advocated for the practical utility of psychology, particularly in industrial/organizational psychology and the psychology of adverstising•Did mental testing and aided in personnel selection, in addition to some of his own original research during WWI•Still his big love was for behavioral research, the principles of which can be found in his 1919 book Psychology from the Standpoint of a BehavioristSPEAKING OF BIG LOVE…•Remember how he married that student of his?•After two kids, a lot of cheating, and a generally unhappy marriage, Watson fell in love with his graduate student Rosalie Rayner–“Every cell I have is yours, individually and collectively. My total reactions are positive and toward you. So likewise each and every heart reaction. I can’t be more yours than I am, even if a surgical operation made us one.” (Watson, quoted in Pauly, 1979, p. 40)AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER•In an event that “almost certainly altered the history of American psychology,” (Benjamin et al., 2007, p. 131), Watson was terminated from Johns Hopkins•He couldn’t find work elsewhere because his reputation had been so spoiled, and many of his colleagues, including Angell, publicly criticized him•The only emotional support he seemed to get, strangely enough, was from TitchenerA NEW LIFE•Decided to become an applied psychologist in advertising, where he quickly climbed the corporate ladder•Made $25,000/year, which was FOUR TIMES as much as he was making as an academic•Still every bit as objective, he regarded consumers as machines that could be predicted and controlledADVERTISING TECHNIQUES•Felt that a good technique would be to make consumers feel that what they had wasn’t good enough and that they could improve their lives with something new•Credited with inaugurating the use of celebrity endorsements•Advocated the use of playing off of human emotionWATSON’S BEHAVIORISM•Since he was only very indirectly involved in academia, if at all, he needed a new audience for behaviorism•Wrote in magazines, spoke on the radio and at public lectures•His clear writing style and acceptance by the public made him even more loathsome to academia•Published Behaviorism in 1925 and again in 1930, which was based on a lot of his public lecturesCHILD-REARING PRACTICES•“Parents today are incompetent. Most of them should be indicted for psychological murder” (quoted in Hulbert, 2003, p. 123)•He held a strong “tabula rasa” idea with a lot of credit given to the environment a child is raised inBRINGING UP BABY•Parents should be regulatory, not permissive•According to Watson, parents should never “hug and kiss them, never let them sit on your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say goodnight. Shake hands with them in the morning. Give them a pat on the head if they have made an extraordinarily good job out of a difficult task…you will find how easy it is to be perfectly objective with your child and at the same time kindly. You will be utterly ashamed at the mawkish, sentimental way you have been handling it” (1928, pp. 81-82)FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH•Watson’s son James would later say about receiving such techniques…•“[Watson was] unresponsive, emotionally uncommunicative, unable to express and cope with any feelings or emotions of his own, and determined unwittingly to reprieve, I think, my brother and me of any kind of emotional foundation. He deeply believed that any expression of tenderness or affection would have a harmful effect on us. He was very rigid in carrying out his fundamental philosophies as a behaviorist. We were never kissed or held as children; we were never shown any kind of emotional closeness. It was absolutely verboten in the family. When I went to bed at night, I recall shaking
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