John Watson (1878-1958)

Professional Life
John B. Watson was born on January 9, 1878. He received his formal education in South Carolina at Furman University. Watson entered college early and graduated with his master’s degree by the time he was 21. He enrolled in the University of Chicago and studied philosophy. It was at the University of Chicago that Watson began to explore behaviorism. Based on experimental physiology, Watson examined all aspects of behavior and was heavily influenced by Vladimir Bekhterev and Ivan Pavlov. In 1903, Watson presented his dissertation at the University of Chicago and remained there as a research professor, focusing on learning and sensory input in birds.

Watson practiced psychology and researched child development for most of his academic career. He later entered the field of advertising, rising to an executive position in only two years. He spearheaded many enormously successful advertising campaigns, including ads for Ponds Cold Cream and Maxwell House Coffee. Watson received a distinguished honor of recognition for his contributions to his field by the American Psychological Association shortly before his death in 1958.

Contribution to Psychology
Watson published his groundbreaking article on behaviorism in 1913, often referred to as “The Behaviorist Manifesto.” But because there was little evidence of a specific behavior mechanism in his theory, his colleagues did not accept his beliefs as evidentiary. It wasn’t until decades later that the manifesto became widely accepted in academia and mainstream psychology. Watson’s theory focused not on the internal emotional and psychological conditions of people, but rather on their external and outward behaviors. He believed that the physical responses of a person provided the only insight into their internal actions.

Watson published Psychological Care of Infant and Child in 1928, and received broad criticism on his child rearing opinions. Views regarding good-night kisses, stroking a child, or even permitting a child to sit on a parent’s lap, were highly debated as a result of the book. These viewpoints eventually became known as radical behaviorism. Self-admittedly, Watson did not have the expertise to provide adequate professional advice or commentary on the topic of child rearing at the time he published the book. However, Watson did incorporate his behaviorist theories into the book, along with his beliefs that strong childhood attachment could lead to dependency in adulthood. The book was what many believe to be the beginning of the behavior analysis of child development throughout psychology.

Watson conducted several experiments exploring child development and nature versus nurture. One of his most famous experiments was the Little Albert experiment, which explored classical conditioning using an eight month old baby boy. The experiment was highly controversial and was even considered unethical by many, but nonetheless, demonstrated the effects a parent’s attitude and behavior can have on a child’s development. Eventually, Watson devoted all of his time to the study of child psychology. His research helped pioneer much of the work completed by his predecessors in the field, including G. Stanly Hall, who was contemporized for his beliefs on the effects of childhood behaviors on adolescent development.