John Watson

When you think of behaviorism, one of the first people you think of is probably John Watson. Born in 1878, he is considered to be the founder of this sector of psychology. Though he was born into poverty in South Carolina, he was able to educated himself fully and attend Furman University, a college not too far away from his hometown. Because his father was an alcoholic and was not really there to see Watson grow up, his mother because his biggest support system and hoped that after college he would become a Baptist Minister. When he finally graduated with his master’s degree, he was as school principal for a short time. However, his mother fell ill and died, which of course was devastating to Watson.

Her death, though tragic, released him from his obligation of becoming a Baptist Minister and he was free to explore other opportunities outside of his home state. He applied to the University of Chicago and enrolled in 1900. Originally, he believed he would study and pursue a career in philosophy, but he was deterred from that path when he studied under John Dewey. Then, under the direction of James Rowland Angell, he pursued a career in psychology and forged a path that hadn’t been explored before; behaviorism. 

John Watson became well known for his publication of what he called “The Behaviorist Manifesto”. This manifesto was a letter that basically denounced all of psychology up until that point. He motioned to move away from the study of consciousness, and study the effects and cause of everyday human behavior. Using the ideas discovered by Pavlov and his dogs just years prior he decided to study the effects of behavior on children. This work translated into the famous study known as “Little Albert”. In this study, a young infant was conditioned to associate fear with objects not normally known to induce fear (i.e. fluffy objects).  In the study, Watson paired a white rat object with a loud noise to induce such fear.

Little Albert was removed from the study before he could before he could be de-condition of his fear of furry objects. The whereabouts of Little Albert today remain a mystery. Several people have attempted to locate to boy or even his mother. Some claim that he has been identified, but died at the age of six. Others claim that he is still alive today. The fact is that we will probably never truly know what ever happened to him, and if he kept the fear of white fluffy objects with him his whole life.

By Ben and Rebecca

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTrmSyJ0jzI - Clip of the Little Albert Experiment

King’s Chambers at the Tower of London