Assignment 1 Name: Student No: Subject
Assignment 1
Name:
Student No:
Subject: Psychology 1102:03.
Lecturer:
Tutor:
Tutorial: /
Topic: Famous Psychologists of the 29 ' Century.
Due: Monday September 6' John Broadus Watson and Behaviourism - + + t a + ^^ Page 1 - Tt^,e ° of e^^c- Pack Biographical information: etova5 -v +o 6 vcc,, . '> t r ^ hc^ GO 3 rte/ ^^l Irk ^f +.,.c r odd (7da e- ' John Broadus Watson was born on the 9' of January, 1878 near ` }reenville in South
Carolina. His time as a child may be described as unstable, as his father was a violent, aberrant man who eventually "abandoned his wife and [five children] ... when Watson was thirteen years old"
(Hothersall,1984). As Watson's upbringing took place in the latter part of the Industrial Revolution, this was a time of social and racial tension as well as considerable poverty for the working class of
South Carolina to which the Watson family belonged. Despite the turbulence of his formative years, as well as earning a poor reputation at school and with the police, at the age of fifteen Watson was accepted into the then Baptist Furman College after arranging a personal interview with its president. According to Hothersall, "Perhaps [Watson] saw a collage education as a means of escaping his past" (1984). However, it may have been the influence of his mother, she was a religious woman and had hoped John would become a Baptist minister.
At the outset of his academic career, Watson studied under George B. More and was introduced to Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener, and William James. After realising his interest in psychology and graduating from Furman College with a Master's degree in 1900, Watson commenced post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago. There, his interest in behaviour was influenced while studying under Jacques Loeb, and later at Johns Hopkins University by James
Rowland Angell, Robert Yerkes, and Sergius Morgulis, of whom the latter two introduced Ivan
Pavlov's work to Watson and American psychology (Hothersall, 1984). In 1903, Watson completed his comparative research on the behaviour and neurological development of rats and received the first Ph.D. degree to be awarded by the school of psychology at the University of Chicago. In 1915,
Watson became the president of the American Psychological Association, by which time he had become dissatisfied with functionalism for its lack of objectivity, and had set about bringing behaviourism to the fore. John Broadus Watson and Behaviourism Page 2
Contributions:
DiClemente and Hantula (n.d.) describe Watson's work as having "spanned the field from
comparative psychology. [naturalistic observational studies of water birds], experimental
psychology.. . [kinesthetic and organic sensations in laboratory rats], sensory psychology.
[colour vision in monkeys], to behavioural psychology.. [conditioned emotional reactions]."
During his academic career, Watson's efforts to establish psychology as an objective experimental
discipline were met with discrepant opposition by the functionalists. However, the publication of
Watson's book Psychology from the Standpoint ofa Behaviourist established Behaviourism as a
formal school of psychology in 1919 (Carlson, Martin, & Buskist, 2004). One of the best-known 2
experiments in the history of psychology is Watson's experiment with "Little Albert" and the white
rat, from which was concluded "that fears could be conditioned and .. that most fears are acquired
in this way" (Hothersall, 1984). After leaving Johns Hopkins University in 1920, Watson became
involved in advertising and:
''studied such concepts as brand loyalty and the central and peripheral route to
persuasion, decades before they became industry standards[,] ... pioneered much
of the work in selecting successful sales people and argued for personality testing
in personnel selection before "The Big Five" were introduced to contemporary"
research. (DiClemente & Hantula, n.d)
Modern outcomes:
Watsonian Behaviourism established a standardised, objective approach to research and experimental methods that has continued through to modem psychology. Furthermore, the contributions made by Watson to organisational psychology have likewise endured. The development of radical behaviourism between 1930 and 1960 saw Edward Tolman, Clark Leonard
Hull, and Burrhus Frederic Skinner pursue Watson's ideas and develop them further (Carlson et al., John Broadus Watson and Behaviourism Page 3
2004). In 1957, Watson was awarded the Americ an Psychological Association's gold medal for his
contributions to psychology: "To John B. Watson, whose work has been one of the vital
determinants of the form and substance of modem psychology. He initiated a revolution in ^- psychological thought and his writings have been the point of departure for continuing lines of
fruitful research" (Hothersall, 1984).
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John Broadus Watson
Died, Woodbury, N.Y., September 25, 1958 References
Carlson, N., Martin, G., Buskist. W. (2004) Psychology: Second European Edition, Pearson ()
Education, Harlow.
DiClemente, Diane F., Hantula, Donald A. (n.d.) I-0 Psychology: Temple University. Retrieved
August 31, 2004, from http://www.psv.ndx.edu/PsiCafe/KeyTheo rists/Watson.htm - CV' e- L1 &L`S G
3 G Y l ov th +V)e Hothersall, D. (1984). History ofPsychology. Random House, Inc., 201 East 50 Street, New York, uV' ^L,, t . 10022.
Watson, J.B. (1929). Behaviourism the Modern note in Psychology. Retrieved August 31, 2004, c V from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/Battle/watson.htm 4- ' 'A o c.- space .
Watson, J.B. (n.d.) Photo. Retrieved August 31, 2004, from
http://www.barnesandnoble. com/?sourceid ' 00297978246069371429&bfdate=09-01-
2004+00:22:2
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