John Broadus Watson
Father of Behaviorism
1878-1958
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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!
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."
John, born in 1878, was a fourth
child.
Mother Emma
- main interests were her farm, her
children, and her religion.
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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.
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.
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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.
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."
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.
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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.
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)
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.
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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.
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Prominent family
Expelled from Northwestern
Studied introductory psychology with the
handsome young Dr. Watson.
Doodled on her exam and wrote a love poem.
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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!
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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!
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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.
Began work with Human Learning
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Founding editor of the Journal of
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“Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”
Experimental Psychology
Behaviorism is a . . . purely objective
experimental branch of natural science. Its
theoretical goal is … prediction and control” (p.
158)
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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).
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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.
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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”
1904 – Pavlov Won Nobel Prize
“The conditioned reflexes and its place in
psychology”
1915 - Watson reads Pavlov’s work.
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President of the American Psychological
Association in 1915.
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U.S. Army during WWI,
Devising a number of perceptual and motor
tests for would-be pilots.
investigating how the pilots reacted to
oxygen deprivation that existed at high flying
altitudes.
and gathering data for the development of
selection tests for American flight officers.
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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).
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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.
Autumn 1919, new graduate student
came to study under Watson.
 Vassar Graduate.
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Rosalie Works as Watson’s Research
Assistant.
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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.
Behavioral research on trail and error learning
in children
“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.”
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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."
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!
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.
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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He published two books Behaviorism (1924)
and The Psychological Care of Infant and
Child (1928)
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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
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.
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.
Polly attempted suicide over and over and over
and over.
He husband committed suicide with a selfinflicted gunshot in 1962
Granddaughter:
Mariette Hartley