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John B. Watson's Legacy: Learning and Environment

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John B. Watson's Legacy: Learning and Environment Developmental Psychology Copyright 1992 by the American Psychological Association, Inc. 1992, Vol. 28, No. 3, 360-367 OOL2-1649/92/$3.0O John B. Watson's Legacy: Learning and Environment Frances Degen Horowitz Graduate School and University Center City University of New \brk John B. Watson's contribution is evaluated in relation to his own time, with respect to his historical influence, and in light of current issues in developmental psychology. A survey of a nonrandom sample of current developmental psychologists revealed no consensus with respect to Watson's legacy to developmental psychology. The influence of Watson's insistence on an objective methodol- ogy in psychology remains, although is not necessarily acknowledged. His extreme environmental- ism has been rejected. His concern to understand the principles of learning is reflected in the subsequent work of the Hullians and the Skinnerians. The influence of his underlying premise about the importance of environment and of learning is to be found in such work as studies of the effects of intervention programs. I question the possible costs to the field of the continued rejection of a Watsonian emphasis on learning as an important process in development and behavior. In his time, John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) was contro- felt he had ignored biological variables, but the remainder versial. So he remains. In preparation for this reflective essay tended to disagree with that characterization. on his legacy to developmental psychology, I sent a question- Diversity of opinion is rife in developmental psychology to- naire to a nonrandom sample of mostly senior developmental day, but when asked to evaluate the theoretical and methodolog- psychologists.1 The 45 respondents ranged widely in their per- ical contributions of Baldwin, Binet, Darwin, Freud, Gesell, ceptions of Watson's contributions and in their evaluations. Hall, Lewin, Piaget, and Vygotsky, this same group of respon- Watson's name, it appears, can still elicit strongly negative reac- dents showed much more consensus. This was true even for the tions. For example, in relation to his contribution to develop- figures in the list whose active careers had ceased around the mental psychology and psychology in general, Watson was de- same time as or before Watson's. For example, the theoretical scribed as "an embarrassment," "harmful," "very important, contributions were strongly and positively acknowledged for but mostly a negative influence." One respondent said his Darwin, Freud, Lewin, Piaget, and Vygotsky. There was also a "main contribution was obfuscation," another that "he had lit- general consensus about the methodological contributions of tle lasting effect," and yet another that the "long-term effect of Binet, Lewin, and Piaget. Watson was harmful." Evaluating John B. Watson's legacy to developmental psychol- Other comments were more positively valenced, such as, that ogy thus appears to involve a considerably more complex set of his "biggest contribution was balancing the scales between na- considerations than is the case for other major figures. Indeed, ture and nurture by overstating the case," his "major contribu- some of the respondents objected to identifying Watson as a tion was to establish behavior as an important phenomenon in developmentalist, claiming that he was, at best, a psychologist its own right," his "thoroughgoing empirical orientation was of concerned only with defining psychology as a natural science the greatest import," and his "methodological behaviorism is to and, at worst, a dogmatist who went far beyond his data to be found in neobehaviorism, behavior analysis and much of popularize his beliefs about development. If there was any con- cognitive psychology." One person wrote, "Contemporary sensus to be found, it was that Watson's tireless championing of developmental psychology would not be the same had not Wat- behaviorism as the only acceptable way of looking at behavior son contributed to this field." succeeded in making his point of view the dominant one for John B. Watson died more than 40 years ago. His active con- many years. tributions to the field of psychology ceased more than 50 years To be sure, there were balanced evaluations: Some of them ago, and an evaluation of him and his work still evokes strong were thoughtful and lengthy, pointing out that Watson had to be reactions and little consensus about his legacy. About half of the respondents rated Watson on the positive side in agreeing that 1 his main contribution was in the area of methodology; the 1 wish to acknowledge the following people, who responded to the survey: Donald Baer, Harry Beilin, Sidney Bijou, Andy Collins, John other half shaded to the disagreeing side. A few more than half Colombo, Cynthia Deutsch, John Flavell, Norman Garmezy, Roberta Golinkoff, Charlie Greenbaum, John Hagen, Willard Hartup, Aletha Huston, Dick Jessor, Jerome Kagen, William Kessen, Claire Kopp, The original draft of this article was written while the author was at Michael Lamb, Jonas Langer, Lewis Lipsitt, Bob McCall, Neal Miller, the University of Kansas. Edward Morris, David Palermo, Anne Pick, Herb Pick, Robert Siegler, Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Hayne Reese, Carolyn Rovee-Collier, Arnold Sameroff, Irving Sigel, Frances Degen Horowitz, President, Graduate School and University Charles Spiker, Joe Spradlin, Harold Stevenson, Sheldon White, Mont Center, City University of New York, 33 West 42nd Street, New York, Wolf, John Wright, plus eight other respondents, who chose not to New York 10036-8099. provide their name. 360 APA CENTENNIAL: JOHN B. WATSON'S LEGACY 361 evaluated in the context of his time, that his extreme views were Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorist in 1919 (which necessary to establish behaviorism, and that the field was the had second and third revised editions in 1924 and 1929, respec- better for it in the long run even as less dogmatic perspectives tively), he was applying behavioristic analyses to development came to pass. There was also consensus, among those who and using the analyses to explain the acquisition of behavior. chose to comment on it, that the extreme nature of his environ- The basic principles he asserted in the 1919 publication were mentalism as it was translated into popular child rearing advice repeated in his 1924 publication Behaviorism (Watson, 1924/ was regrettable. 1970) and are relevant to my discussion. First, Watson exhib- It will be useful, in examining Watson's legacy to developmen- ited a healthy respect for the biological functions of the human tal psychology, to consider his contributions in his own time, organism, discussing at length what was then known about his influence in the years after he ceased to be a contributor, genes, the nervous system, and the human muscular system. and his current and perhaps future impact. He recognized the human body as an extremely complex organ- ismic system that was highly integrated with the behavioral system. He was wont to stress, again and again, that the body In His Own Time acts as a whole and that behavior is rooted in and roots the The opening sentences of Watson's (1913) manifesto, "Psy- organism. chology as the Behaviorist Views It," declare clearly and un- The second observation is that Watson clearly believed that equivocally that "psychology as a behaviorist views it is a purely learning was almost entirely responsible for behavioral develop- objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical ment but also acknowledged the role of structural change. In goal is the prediction and control of behavior" (Watson, 1913, p. fact, in discussing the motor behaviors that develop in the in- 158). He was, as everyone notes, sounding the charge against fant and young child, he used italics to stress the point: introspection, establishing a purely American position in the field, and, interestingly enough, in a somewhat anti-Darwinian In the great majority of these later activities [i.e., crawling, standing, spirit, suggesting there was no necessary relationship between sitting up, walking, running, jumping] it is difficult to say how much of the act as a whole is due to training or conditioning. A the laws governing animal behavior and human behavior. considerable part is unquestionably due to the growth changes in Seven years later Watson was deeply embroiled in the nature- structure, and the remainder is due, we believe, to training or condi- nurture controversy. He had claimed the principles of learning tioning. (Watson, 1924/1970, p. 135-136) as the central and practically only variable controlling the ac- quisition of human behavior. He had come to focus his atten- A third observation involves the strategies and program Wat- tion largely on the application of behaviorism to the study of son advocated for developmental research. He stressed the need the behavior of infants and young children. And he was soon to to study infants, he focused heavily on the central role of emo- leave his academic position at Johns Hopkins University and tions, and most obviously, he was relentless in his insistence on take up employment in the field of advertising even though he learning as the major mechanism for explaining behavior and would continue to write about behaviorism and to engage in the development. He had already used the experimental method to popularization of his ideas in magazines and on the radio for show learning as the basis for the acquisition of emotional re- almost 20 years (Buckley, 1989; Nance, 1970). sponses in the young infant. The particular experiment for It is not easy to separate the impact of Watson's ideas about which Watson is most known purported to demonstrate how behavior and development in his own time from Watson's per- emotional reactions in a young child could be conditioned and sona. By all accounts he was a man given to opportunism, to to suggest, by implication, that this was the model for the ac- making extreme statements, to evincing strong ego needs for quisition of most emotional responses (Watson & Rayner, visibility and notoriety, and to displaying a cold and imperious 1920).
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