John B Watson

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Recommended: Significance of behaviorism in psychology

Prior the 1920’s, psychology was defined as “the science of mental health.” (pg4) John B Watson was the first to introduce behaviorism to psychology with his paper “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.” He redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior.” (pg 4) As Myers (pg 4) explains, “You cannot observe a sensation, a feeling, or a thought, they said, but you can observe and record people’s behavior as they respond to different situations.” John B. Watson’s contribution to psychology paved the way for the study of modern psychology. John Broadus Watson was born January 9, 1878, and raised in rural South Carolina to a religious mother and a lenient father (Weiland, n.d.). While his mother expected her …show more content…

According to Myers (2014, p. 241), Ivan Pavlov had given Watson a basis for the idea that emotions and behaviors are a ‘bundle of conditioned responses.’ This experiment was to show how fears might be conditioned, or become a learned response. Working with his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, Watson presented a white rat to an infant of 11 months. Just before Little Albert was to touch the rat, a hammer was struck against metal above the infant's head (Myers, 2014, p. 245.). In Myer’s (2014, p. 245) research, after seeing the rat and the loud noise from the metal, the infant began to cry whenever the rat was presented. Myers (2014, p. 245) also notes that the fear had disseminated to other white objects, such as other small white animals and …show more content…

245). This quote is often said without the last portion. Because Watson admits to not having facts to prove his theory, he explains his material may not be valid (St. Rosemary Educational Institution, 2015). “I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing so for many thousands of years” (State University.com,

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