John B. Watson
John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school.[2] Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.[3] Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial "Little Albert" experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915.[4] A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Watson as the 17th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.[5]
John B. Watson
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
He was born on January 9, 1878.[2][6] His father, Pickens Butler Watson, was an alcoholic and left the family to live with two Indian women when John was 13 years old—a transgression which he never forgave.[7] His mother, Emma Kesiah Watson (née Roe), was a very religious woman who adhered to prohibitions against drinking, smoking, and dancing,[2][6] naming her son John after a prominent Baptist minister in hopes that it would help him receive the call to preach the Gospel. In bringing him up, she subjected Watson to harsh religious training that later led him to develop a lifelong antipathy toward all forms of religion and to become an atheist.[i][ii][8]
In an attempt to escape poverty, Watson's mother sold their farm and brought Watson to Greenville, South Carolina,[2] to provide him a better opportunity for success.[8] Moving from an isolated, rural location to the large urbanity of Greenville proved to be important for Watson, providing him the opportunity to experience a variety of different types of people, which he used to cultivate his theories on psychology. However, the initial transition would be a struggle for Watson, due to his limited social skills.
Marriage and children[edit]
Watson married Mary Ickes, sister of politician Harold L. Ickes, while he was in graduate school.[9] They had two children, also named John and Mary Ickes Watson,[10][8] the latter of whom attempted suicide later in life.[11] Young Mary and her husband, Paul Hartley, had a daughter, Mariette Hartley, an actor who suffered from psychological issues that she attributed to her being raised according to her grandfather's theories.[12][13]
Watson's wife later sought divorce due to his ongoing affair with a student, Rosalie Rayner (1898–1935).[9] In searching Rayner's bedroom, Mary discovered love letters from Watson.[7] The affair became front-page news in Baltimore. The publicity resulted in Johns Hopkins University asking Watson to resign his faculty position in October 1920.[14]
In 1921, following the finalization of the divorce, Watson and Rayner married in New Jersey,[14] parenting two sons, William Rayner Watson (1921) and James Broadus Watson (1924), who were raised with the behaviorist principles that John espoused throughout his career. The couple remained together until Rayner's death at age 36 in 1935.[15] Like their half-sister, both sons later attempted suicide,[11] with William killing himself in 1954.[2]
Later life and death[edit]
Watson burned his letters and personal papers, thus depriving historians of a resource for understanding the early history of behaviorism and of Watson himself.[16]
Historian John Burnham interviewed Watson late in life, presenting him as a man of strong opinions and some bitterness towards his detractors.[16] In 1957, shortly before his death, Watson received a Gold Medal from the American Psychological Association for his contributions to psychology.[17]
Watson lived on his farm until his death in 1958 at age 80. He was buried at Willowbrook Cemetery, Westport, Connecticut.[18]
Use of children[edit]
"Little Albert" experiment (1920)[edit]
One might consider the experiment Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner carried out in 1920 to be one of the most controversial in psychology. It has become immortalized in introductory psychology textbooks as the Little Albert experiment. The goal of the experiment was to show how principles of, at the time recently discovered, classical conditioning could be applied to condition fear of a white rat into "Little Albert", a 9-month-old boy. Watson and Rayner conditioned "Little Albert" by clanging an iron rod when a white rat was presented. First, they presented to the boy a white rat and observed that he was not afraid of it. Second, they presented him with a white rat and then clanged an iron rod. "Little Albert" responded by crying. This second presentation was repeated several times. Finally, Watson and Rayner presented the white rat by itself and the boy showed fear. Later, in an attempt to see if the fear transferred to other objects, Watson presented Albert with a rabbit, a dog, and a fur coat. He cried at the sight of all of them.[28] This study demonstrated how emotions could become conditioned responses.[29] As the story of "Little Albert" has made the rounds, inaccuracies and inconsistencies have crept in, some of them even due to Watson himself. Analyses of Watson's film footage of Albert suggest that the infant was mentally and developmentally disabled.[30] An ethical problem of this study is that Watson and Rayner did not uncondition "Little Albert".[31]
In 2009, Beck and Levinson found records of a child, Douglas Merritte, who seemed to have been Little Albert. They found that he had died from congenital hydrocephalus at the age of 6. Thus, it cannot be concluded to what extent this study had an effect on Little Albert's life.[32] On January 25, 2012, Tom Bartlett of The Chronicle of Higher Education published a report that questions whether John Watson knew of cognitive abnormalities in Little Albert that would greatly skew the results of the experiment.[33] In 2014, however, the journals that initially endorsed Beck and Fridlund's claims about Albert and Watson (the American Psychologist and History of Psychology) published articles debunking those claims.[34][35]
Advertising career[edit]
Thanks to contacts provided by E. B. Titchener, an academic colleague, Watson subsequently began working late in 1920 for U.S. advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. He learned the advertising business' many facets at ground level, including a stint working as a shoe salesman in an upscale department store. Despite this modest start, in less than two years Watson had risen to a vice-presidency at Thompson. His executive's salary, plus bonuses from various successful ad campaigns, resulted in an income many times higher than his academic salary. Watson headed a number of high-profile advertising campaigns, particularly for Ponds cold cream and other personal-care products.[17] In addition, he is credited with popularizing the "coffee break" during an ad campaign for Maxwell House coffee. He has been widely but erroneously credited with re-introducing the "testimonial" advertisement after the tool had fallen out of favor (due to its association with ineffective and dangerous patent medicines). However, testimonial advertisements had been in use for years before Watson entered advertising.
An example of Watson's use of testimonials was with the campaign he developed for Pebeco Toothpaste. The ad featured a seductively dressed woman, and coaxed women to smoke, as long as they used Pebeco toothpaste. The toothpaste was not a means to benefit health or hygiene, but as a way to heighten the sexual attraction of the consumer.[8] Watson stated that he was not making original contributions, but was just doing what was normal practice in advertising. Watson stopped writing for popular audiences in 1936, and retired from advertising at about age 65.[7]
