Who was John Watson?
HI there, everyone!!!!!!!
Today, we are going to talk about who was John Watson and his contribution to behaviorism theory. I hope you enjoy the reading!
John Broadus Watson was born on January 9, 1878 in South Carolina. When young, Watson used to be a troubled teenager. His family was very religious and his mother has had hope that he would join the clergy, instead of that, he grew into a man who denied religion.
He studied Psychology at the University of Chigago, there he started to develop his theories about human behavior under a heavy influence of Ivan Pavlov's works. After has presented his dissertation, he remained at the University of Chicago as a researcher professor, and he keep using principles of experimental physiology to examine all aspects of behavior, specially in learning.
Watson's behaviorist theory focused on the external and outward behavior of people based on the his assumption that emotion was just another example of classical conditioning. He spent much of his career applying his theories to the study of child development and early learning.
He and his assitant, Rosalie Rayner, conducted a experimente, in which they conditioned an orphan called Albert to fear a white rat. Watson focused on the principles of classical conditioning, once famously suggesting that he could take any person regardless of their background and train them to be anything he chose.
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors." (John Watson, 1930)
REFERENCE:
THERAPY.COM, Good. John Watson . Retrieved from: < http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/john-watson.html>
IMAGEM:
http://psicologia-paulo-rafa.webnode.com.pt/introdução%20à%20psicologia%20do%20desenvolvimento/john-watson/
