Psychologist watson and behaviorist psychology

Give me a dozen healthy children, if they are brought up in an environment under my control, whatever the talents, hobbies, tendencies, abilities, occupations, and races of their predecessors, I guarantee that any one of them will be trained as I choose Experts of any kind - doctors, lawyers, artists, wealthy merchants, even beggars and thieves - Watson

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1. The Rebellious Teenage Covenant

John Broadus Watson (1878~1958) was born in a peasant family outside Greenville, South Carolina, USA. Of the five children, Watson was the second. Hua Sheng was very naughty when he was a child, and he often fought with his classmates when he was in elementary school. The Watson family moved to Greenville in 1890, where Watson attended public school and completed middle and high school.

2. The humble scholar

In 1894, Watson was admitted to Furman University in Greenwell. During college, Watson's courses were packed, including biblical studies, Greek, Latin, mathematics, and philosophy including psychology. Despite his good grades, Watson downplays his performance in his autobiography, recounting that in fourth grade he was the only student who could pass the Greek exam, but only because he memorized it before the exam. . (Scholars love modesty, and they can’t believe what they say (╬▔ dish▔) convex)

3. The young doctor

In 1903, Watson received his doctorate with the article "The Education of Animals" (at the age of 25, he was the youngest doctorate graduate from the University of Chicago), and stayed on to teach. In the same year, Watson and Ikes married and had a daughter and a son. In the autumn of 1908, Watson became a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Psychology at Hopkins University, engaged in teaching and research. In 1908, Watson presented the behaviorist view for the first time in a speech at Yale University. In 1913, Watson published an influential paper, "Psychology in the Eyes of Behaviorists," in the journal Psychological Review, which he edited. Officially announced the birth of behaviorist psychology.

4. Falling off the peak and parting ways with psychology

In 1920, due to a sensational divorce case, Watson was dismissed from Hopkins University, and his brilliant academic career came to an abrupt end (the peachy story about Watson Oppa is also very exciting, does anyone want to know? Cough cough ...). After that, Watson joined the business world and used his knowledge of psychology to develop business for an advertising company. He also achieved great success (earned a lot of money~). Watson retired from business in 1947 to spend his later years on a farm in Connecticut. In 1957, in recognition of Watson's outstanding contributions to psychology, the American Psychological Association awarded him the Gold Medal, praising him for "launching a revolution in psychological thought, and his writings have become enduring and rich. The starting point of the research line of the results.”

On September 25, 1958, the founder of behaviorism passed away at the age of 80.

2. Important Contributions

1. Watson's Behaviorist Manifesto

In 1913 Watson published Psychology in the Eyes of a Behaviorist, intending to force psychologists to choose between his behaviorism and the old ideas of psychology.

Watson claimed that before Wundt, there was no psychology; after Wundt, there was only confusion, controversy, and conflict. (He felt that only he could lead psychology out of the darkness)

First of all, Watson believes that the biggest failure of psychology in the fifty years since its birth is the failure to develop into a natural science, which is caused by focusing attention on the structure and function of consciousness.

For Watson, consciousness is neither a clearly definable term nor a useful concept.

Second, Watson firmly believes that introspection is a false and flawed method, and that psychologists must replace introspection with objective experimental methods.

Third, psychology must become a science of behavior, whose goal is to observe, predict, and control behavior. It is necessary to study both animal and human behavior, he believes that there is no dividing line between human behavior and the behavior of other animals, both engage in behavior and thus provide useful material for behaviorists.

2. Conditioning and the Little Albert Experiment

In 1920, Watson and his experimental assistant Rainer (later married Watson, 10,000 words omitted here) used the experiment of little Albert and the white rat (one of the most famous and controversial experiments in the history of psychology) to prove that A: Abnormal behavior is learned through conditioning.

In conditioning experiments, Pavlov found that animals showed a large number of individual differences in the speed and intensity of conditioning.

Some dogs develop conditioned reflexes quickly, some slowly; some dogs fade quickly, some slowly; some dogs generalize easily, while others rarely generalize.

Albert was a little boy who was only 11 months old at the time. Before the experiment started, little Albert was not afraid when he played with a white rat, but after implementing the conditioning, whenever the white rat appeared, a loud noise was introduced at the same time. After only seven matches, even if there was no sound, Albert cries and crawls away when he sees a rat.

After five days, he showed a strong fear response to rats, rabbits, dogs, cotton balls, and sealskin coats (conditioned fear had generalized).

After another five days, his reaction became so mild that Watson and Rayner again presented it with a loud noise to "enhance the reaction."

Thirty-one days later, Albert was given a final test and found he displayed a fear of Santa Claus masks, sealskin coats, white mice, rabbits and dogs.

At this point Albert's mother took him out of the hospital, so he was never tested again. (There are many misrepresentations and misinterpretations about this story, and the descriptions in the textbooks are also somewhat fictitious.) Therefore, Watson believes that the infant's abnormal fear of rats can be explained by conditioned reflexes. Furthermore, it is believed that many seemingly irrational fears develop in a similar pattern.

3. Brief Comments on Characters

Watson proposed behaviorist psychology, which is an important revolution in the history of psychology and has indelible historical significance. He once said that the purpose of behaviorist psychology is to predict and control human behavior. The current breadth and scope of psychology's application is due in part to the vigorous promotion of the usefulness of psychology by behaviorism.

However, Watson's complete denial of consciousness and instinct, devaluation of the role of physiology and heredity, one-sided emphasis on the role of environment and education, and ignoring of people's subjective initiative have been criticized by many psychologists. His life can be described as extraordinary, with great achievements as well as personal and professional tragedies. If Watson had a full academic career, what would the history of psychology look like?