John Broadus Watson
(1878-1958)
By: Mariah Bossé, Heather,
Amanda Littell, and Chelsea
Schaefer
Background
• Born in Greenville, South
Carolina on 1.9.1878
• He was the 4th of 6 children in
a very poor family
• Emma K. Roe was his very
religious mother. She wanted
John to be a minister.
• Pickens Watson was his father.
He drank a lot and left his wife
and kids when Watson was 13.
• This effected his behavior in
school and was reported to be
violent and drink at a young
age.
Oppositional Defiant Disorder
• Children or teenagers having a persistent pattern
of tantrums, arguing, and angry or disruptive
behaviors toward other people.
• As many as one in 10 children may have
oppositional defiant disorder in a lifetime.
• Some specific symptoms include frequent temper
tantrums, argumentative with adults, blaming
others for misbehavior, anger, resentment,
aggressiveness towards peers, difficulty
maintaining friends, and academic problems.
• Treatment of ODD results in therapy and possibly
medications since it is a mental health condition.
ODD (continued)
• John Watson seemed to show many signs
of having ODD considering he had
academic issues in college, showed
spiteful behavior, was easily annoyed by
people and showed aggressiveness
towards his peers and adults in and out of
school.
Basic Theory
• John Watson thought that behavior was all your
reactions but not what you do or say.
• Watson believed in promoting good behavior and
discouraging bad.
• Watson thought making agreements in teaching was
important as well as consequences, reinforcements and
behavior modifications.
• Watson believed that the teacher lead the classroom not
the students.
• Watson thought work had to be broken down into smaller
pieces.
• Watson saw psychology as the study of people's actions
with the ability to predict and control those actions.
Basic Theory *continued*
• Watson’s views of behaviorism were considered radical
and was known for its extreme anti-mentalism.
• Watson began studying the behavior of children, as well,
concluding that humans were simply more complicated
than animals but operated on the same principles.
• Another method was extinction which is removing the
reactions to whatever the child did.
• Children have three basic emotional reactions: fear, rage
and love.
• Ivan Pavlov influenced Watson about his theory.
Education
• Went to Furman University at 16 years
old. This school was associated with
SC Baptist Convention until 1991.
• Member of the Kappa Alpha fraternity
• Wasn’t the best student he got a few
low grades in psychology classes.
• He wrote a paper on the opposing side
and flunked Gordon Moore’s (his
Furman mentor) psychology class and
had to stay 1 more year.
• Mother died after graduation
• Watson went to pursue psychology
• Attended University of Chicago in 1900
• Went there with hardly any money so
worked as a janitor, waiter, and a rat
caretaker.
Education Continued
• Took psychology classes but
didn’t “understand” his teaching.
• Instead he switched his major to
getting a PhD in experimental
psychology his teacher was
James Rowland Angell.
• Also took animal study classes
and studied rats.
• Graduated 1903 as a Phi Beta
Kappa member and with magna
cum laude (with great praise)
•At that time he was the youngest person to graduate.
•1903-1908 stayed at school as staff and Angell’s assistant.
Achievements
• Married Mary Ickes in 1904 and had two
children with her, Mary and John.
• 1908 became a professor at John Hopkins
University.
• Stayed there for 14 years.
• Published “Psychology as the
Behaviorist Views It” in the
Psychological Review in 1913. This was
considered Watson founding
behaviorism.
• Edited Psychological Review and was a
founding editor of Journal of
Experimental Psychology.
• President of the American
Psychological Association in 1915
Marriage
• John had an affair with Rosalie Rayner his research
assistant.
• Rosalie was 19 he was 42.
• His daughter Polly was the one who found the love
letters and Mary’s brother photocopied them.
• Mary suggested Rosalie go on a tour of Europe until it
blew over but she refused so John and her divorced in
1920.
• He had to resign from his teaching career at Hopkins.
• Married Rosalie and lived on Whippoorwill farm while
he got a job in advertising in 1935.
• Moved from the farm in the 50’s and lived in
Woodbury, CT until he died
Conditioning/Vocabulary
• Based off Ivan Pavlov's ideas
• Unconditioned Stimulus->Unconditioned (automatic) Response->
reflex
• Neutral Stimulus->no reflex response
• Neutral changed to Conditioned
• Conditioned Stimulus->Conditioned (also automatic) Response
• --Behavior Modification- the use of basic learning techniques to alter
human behavior
• --Conditioning- behavior modification where a subject eventually
associates a behavior with a previously unrelated stimulus
• --Methodology- practices, procedures and rules used in an area of
work
Guiding Behavior
Watson's theory..
• can be applied in areas such as behavior
therapy, parenting and teaching
• helps teach simple skills and change
unwanted behavior
• believes temperament, personality and
behavior are based on the environment..
• ..therefore responsibility-->teacher, parent
or counselor
Modifying Behavior-Teaching
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-Learning-->internal but recognized by behavior
-Behaviorists study stimulus-->behavior
-Only focused on conditioning process
experience/practice leads to a relatively permanent
change
environment impacts behavior-->control environment
classical conditioning focuses on emotional behavior
connections between behavior and attitude towards
school, teacher, classroom and the subject
bad connections must be broken-->adult intervention
Modifying Behavior
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Used in parenting and teaching
Contracts--> "I will ___ every day until ___."
Consequences:
--Negative punishment-->take something away, remove
stimulus
--Positive punishment-->give extra responsibilities,
adding unwanted
Negative reinforcement-->take away extra
responsibilities, removing unwanted
Positive reinforcement-->giving (compliments,
encouragement), add stimulus
Extinction-->take away response to behavior, stop
reaction-->time-out
“Little Albert Experiment”
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Watson tried to condition fear into 11-month old Albert-->animals
Starting with rats and then moving farther away in similarities
Albert-->very stable
Used loud sound when Albert touched object-->steel bars to create
fear
Used blocks to test emotional state-->back to normal
Sound always produces fear-->transfers to animals and masks
Transferred to surroundings-->changed room, less fear
Tested after time->less fear
Never touched item with hands, used feet to push away
No opportunity to decondition fear
Work Cited
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