John Watson
Punishment is a word which ought never to have crept into our language.
Summary
John Broadus Watson (1878 - 1958) was an American psychologist who founded a branch of psychology called Behaviourism, after doing research on animal behavior.
He is known for having claimed that he could take any 12 healthy infants and, by applying behavioural techniques, create whatever kind of person he desired. He also conducted the controversial Little Albert experiment.
Later he went on from psychology to become a popular author on child rearing, and an acclaimed contributor to the advertising industry.
His work attacked the doctrine of instincts and maintained that behaviour is organised entirely through learning (see Psychological Aspects of Biodanza).
Ideas
- Watson's ideas became a whole branch of psychology - Behaviourism ,
- He studied the biology, physiology, and behavior of animals, inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov,
- Later he studied the behavior of children, as well and concluded that humans were simply more complicated than animals but operated on the same principles,
- He believed that all all animals were extremely complex machines that responded to situations according to their wiring (nerve pathways) that were conditioned by experience.
See Also
Burrhus Frederic Skinner: American psychologist who invented the Operant Conditioning Chamber, innovated his own philosophy of science called Radical Behaviorism, and founded his own school of experimental research psychology - the experimental analysis of behavior.
Carl Gustav Jung: Swiss psychiatrist and founder of Analytical Psychology, emphasising understanding the psyche through exploring the worlds of Dreams, art, Mythology, world religion and philosophy
Charlotte Buhler: German psychologist considered to be one of the founders of Developmental Psychology.
Claudio Naranjo: anthropologist and psychiatrist who is noted for his inter-disciplinary work with mind-altering substances as well as the Enneagram of Personality and Gestalt Psychotherapy.
Erich Fromm: psychoanalyst and social psychologist and also an important representative of 20th century Humanism.
Ernest Hilgard: psychologist famous for his research on Hypnosis, also proposed the theory of Neodissociationism, to re-explain earlier ideas of Disassociation and Automatism
James Hillman: psychologist, considered to be one of the most original of the 20th century, he developed Archetypal Psychology (Polytheistic myth as psychology)
Jean Piaget: philosopher, natural scientist and Development Psychologist, known for his work studying children, his theory of Cognitive Development and for his epistemological view called Genetic Epistemology.
John Bowlby: Development Psychologist in the Psychoanalytic tradition, notable for his pioneering work in Attachment Theory.
Sigmund Freud: neurologist and the founder of the Psychoanalytic school of psychology, best known for his theories of the Unconscious Mind and the defense mechanism of Sexual Repression.
Stanley Krippner: psychologist who spent the last several decades investigating the field of human consciousness, conducting research in such areas as Dreams, Hypnosis, Shamanism, and Disassociation.
Wilhelm Reich: Austrian psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, best known for his studies on the link between Human Sexuality and Neuroses
William McDougall: psychologist who particularly important in the development of the Theory of Instinct and of Social Psychology.
Links
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Watson
Psychology History: http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/watson.htm
His Life in Words and Pictures: http://alpha.furman.edu/~einstein/watson/watson1.htm
Behaviourism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behaviorism
Classical Conditioning: http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
John Watson, Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it
: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm
John Watson, Studying the Mind of Animals
, The World Today, 12, 421-426, 1907:
"http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/Animals/index.htm
John Watson and Rosalie Raynor, Conditioned Emotional Reactions
, Journal of Experimental
Psychology, 3(1), 1-14, 1920: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/emotion.htm
John Watson, Behaviour and the Concept of Mental Disease
, Journal of Philosophy, Psychology,
and Scientific Methods, 13, 589-597: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/mental.htm