Transcript HOP10

John B. Watson (1878-1958)
Give me a dozen healthy infants,
well-formed, and my own specified
world to bring them up and I'll
guarantee to take any one at
random and train him to become
any type of specialist I might
select—doctor, lawyer, merchantchief, and yes, even beggarman
and thief.
American Behaviorism
• John B. Watson (1878-1958)
– Attacked the psychology of his day:
• Arbitrary divisions of consciousness
(How many colors can you name?
Really?)
• Too human centered (Animals can
be valuable.)
• Unreliable methods (Introspection?)
– “…a purely objective experimental
science" with the goal of "predicting
and controlling behavior."
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• His Mission
– Watson credited the work
of others as originators of
behaviorism, but…
– Saw himself as bringing
together the emergent ideas
– Goal: to found a new
school
Watson’s Youth - Podcast
– Born near Greenville, South Carolina
– Delinquent behavior in youth
– Poor relationship with his father
– 1899: Promised Mom he’d enter the
Baptist ministry
– Mother died
– 1894: Enrolled at Furman University:
studied Philosophy, Math, Latin, Greek
At Furman
University of Chicago
• 1900: enrolled at the University of Chicago
(Princeton required Greek and Latin)
– Planned to pursue graduate degree in
philosophy with Dewey – Couldn’t
understand him
– Attracted to psychology through work with
Angell
– Studied biology and physiology with Loeb
Watson’s Psychology
Maze learning at Chicago (1908)
• Systematically deprive rats of sensory input
• Rats could learn the maze without eyes,
ears, whiskers and numb feet
• Maze learning through kinesthetic
information only!
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• 1908: offered professorship at
Johns Hopkins university
– Reluctant to leave university of
Chicago
– Angell was a valuable mentor
– New job offered promotion, salary
raise, and opportunity to direct the
psychology laboratory
Watson’s Psychology
Breaking from Structuralism and Introspection
– Structuralism: Subject has to be a trained
observer
– Behaviorism: Subjects are almost
irrelevant.
– Anyone can behave!!: Children, nonverbal people, pigeons, rats, etc.
– Reinforced man-as-machine model (or
brain-as-computer model)
James Mark Baldwin (1861-1934)
• Offered the Johns Hopkins’s job to
Watson
• A founder with Cattell of
Psychological Review
• Brothel raid
• At Johns Hopkins, Watson was
free to develop a school
independent of his mentor, Angell
Watson’s Ascent
• 1909: Chair of psychology department
• 1909: Editor of Psychological Review
• 1912: Presented ideas for a more objective
psychology in lectures at Columbia
• 1913: Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It
published in Psychological Review - Launched
Behaviorism
• Angell was disappointed: “I shall be glad to see
him properly spanked…”
The Psychology of War
• Served as a consultant during WWI (1917-1919)
– Pigeons and propaganda
Developing Behaviorism
– Focus on practical applications (like
Functionalists)
– 1918: experimental research on children
– 1919: Psychology from the Standpoint of a
Behaviorist
• Most complete account of behaviorism to date
• Argued methods and principles of animal research
are appropriate for study of humans
Scandal Ends his Academic Career
• Fell in love with Rosalie Rayner,
graduate assistant
• Wife found his love letters
• Published in Baltimore Sun
• Forced to resign from J.-H.
• Married Rosalie but still
banished from academia
• Titchener one of the few
academics who reached out to
comfort him
A Second Career
• Conducted surveys, clerked at
Macy’s, sold coffee to learn.
– “…tell the consumer something that
will stir up fear, rage, or love…strike
at a deep emotional need.”
– Make the consumer dissatisfied with
what he has
– Promoted celebrity endorsements
• Ponds, Maxwell House
• Raced speedboats
The Behaviorist’s View
• 1928: Psychological Care of the Infant and Child
– Strong environmentalist position
– Recommended perfect objectivity in child-rearing Had the
greatest impact of all his work
• A purely objective experimental branch of natural
science
• Both animal and human behavior are studied
• Discard all mentalistic concepts
• Use only behavior concepts
• Goal: prediction and control of behavior
Through the 1920s
• University courses in Behaviorism
• The word “Behaviorist” appeared in journals
• McDougall: issued a public warning against
behaviorism
• Titchener: complained of its force and extent
• Other forms of behaviorism emerging
Watson-McDougall Debate (1924)
• William McDougall (1871-1938)
– Behavior is driven by instincts, but free
will exists (creativity, bettering society)
– Why try to prevent war or improve
society if all of our actions are
determined by past experience?
– These themes will reemerge in the
Humanistic movements of the 1950s-60s
Instincts
• 1914: Watson described 11 instincts
• 1925: eliminated the concept of instinct
• Seemingly instinctive behavior is actually a
socially conditioned response
• Psychology can only be applied if behavior can
be modified
– Children can become anything one desires
Emotions
Fear, love, and rage are
unlearned emotional
response patterns to stimuli
– Loud noises or sudden lack
of support lead to fear
– Restriction of bodily
movements leads to rage
– Caressing, rocking, patting
lead to love
Mary Cover Jones
• Peter and the Rabbit
• Treatment method
– Involve Peter in eating
– Introduce rabbit at a distance
– Each day, decrease the distance
– Peter could eventually touch the rabbit
without exhibiting fear
– A forerunner of behavior therapy
• Generalized fear also eliminated
• 1968: Jones given G. Stanley Hall award
for her outstanding work
Can you think without Behaving?
• Traditional View
– Thinking occurs in the absence of muscle movements
– Not accessible to observation and experimentation
• Watson’s View
– Thinking is implicit motor behavior
– Reduced it to sub vocal talking
– Same muscular habits as used for overt speech
– Thinking = silent talking to oneself
Pavlov Catches On
• Adopted in 1915
• Watson responsible for its widespread use in
U.S. Research
• Conditioning is stimulus substitution
• Selected because it is an objective method of
behavior analysis
• Reflected reductionism and mechanism
• Designation of the participant changed from
“observer” to “subject”
• Experimenter became the observer
What did Watson Bring to Behaviorism?
• Made psychology more objective in
methods and terminology
• Stimulated a great deal of research
• Surmounted earlier positions and schools
• Objective methods and language became
part of the mainstream