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John
Broadus Watson was born on January 9, 1878 in Greenville, South Carolina. He
had a mixed upbringing in which his mother, Emma Kesiah Watson pushed
for John
to be a religious Christian who was expected to restrain from dancing,
smoking,
and drinking. Meanwhile, his father,
Pickens Watson, was a heavy drinker who was often in trouble with the
law. Unfortunately, while growing up, John
Watson
grew particularly close to his father and also found himself getting
into
trouble, while subsequently modeling his father’s behaviors. As John grew older, his father began cheating
on his wife and the affairs ultimately resulted in Pickens leaving the
family
just after John turned thirteen. These
problems at home had a great impact on John, and his motivation for
academics
declined. He assaulted other black
children at his school and even mocked his own teacher during class. He even found himself in trouble with the law
after he was arrested for violent behavior on two separate occasions. However, John’s view on life and attitude
towards academics changed and improved when he earned acceptance to Furman University,
at the age of sixteen (Personal Life, 2005). Much
credit must also be given to John’s
mentor, Gordon Moore who was
responsible for introducing young John to the subject of psychology
(Academics,
2005).
Five
years later, in 1900, John
graduated with his Masters degree from Furman University. He then continued his studies by attending University of Chicago, in which he developed
an
interest in comparative psychology and animal study (Academics, 2005). It only took him three years to major in
psychology and neurology, with a minor in philosophy under the
well-known
scholars J.R. Angell, H. H. Donaldson, and John Dewey, respectively
(John
Broadus Watson, 1998). John went on to
earn his Ph. D in 1903 at the age of twenty-five, in which he did his
dissertation on the relation between behavior in the white rat and the
growth
of its nervous system (Academics, 2005). He
then stayed at the University
of Chicago
as an
assistant and as a teacher at the university. Surprisingly,
after only one year, he married
one of his students, Mary
Amelia Ickes (John Broadus Watson, 2000). John
and Mary had their first child in June of
1905 which they named
Mary. They also gave birth to their
second child, John, some years later. Perhaps,
due to the experience of witnessing his father’s affairs as a child,
John too
began dating other women on the campus, while his wife Mary was home
with the
children. These promiscuous behaviors
became a hot topic of conversation for students and faculty at the University of Chicago. John
was even in jeopardy of losing his
position at the university, for
his wild affairs with student women. To
avoid further problems with the faculty in Chicago, John made the
decision to
leave the University of Chicago and further his career at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908 (Personal Life, 2005).
While
teaching psychology at Johns
Hopkins University,
and acting as the department chair, John set up his own laboratory
where he ran
a variety of psychological experiments in the direction of animal
behavior. It was here that John Watson
produced some of
his greatest accomplishments. In 1913,
he published his first famous article, “Psychology as a Behaviorist
Views It,” in
Psychological Review (John Broadus Watson, 2000) in which he explained
his
beliefs that psychology was a science of human behavior, yet very
similar to
animal behavior, and it must be studied under careful lab conditions.
His
second major accomplishment was his publication of Behavior:
An Introduction to Comparative Psychology, in 1914.
In this article, he explained his belief in
the importance of using animal subjects to study reflexes activated by
heredity. In addition, he argued that
the best experimental tool was to use conditioned responses. (Watson,
2005). In addition to his most
influential writings, he also published over thirty-five papers, books,
and reports. Then in 1915, he was elected
president of the
American Psychological Association and he also edited numerous
professional
journals in the early 1920’s (John Broadus Watson, 1998).
Another
important publication by
John Watson was Psychology from the
Standpoint of a Behaviorist, in 1919. Although John Watson had many
accomplishments throughout his career as a psychologist, the one that
is most
popular is his experiment on Little Albert, an eleven-month old child. Once John developed an interest in infant
study in 1920, he collaborated with one of his students, Rosalie
Rayner, and
conducted a study in which he ultimately conditioned the child to fear
other
similar furry animals, in addition to his initial fears of loud noises
and rats,
(Watson, 2005).
This
experiment was interrupted early on by John’s wife Mary, when she found
a love
note from his student, Rosalie Rayner. Mary
gave John the ultimatum of ending his
affair with Rosalie or she
was leaving, and John chose to end his marriage with Mary and continue
to see
Rosalie. John and Rosalie eventually
married,
yet the faculty at Johns Hopkins did not see his marriage to his
student in a
positive light. John Watson was
dismissed from the university because of his relationship, but still
continued to
do research and write, while creating a family with Rosalie in New York City
(John
Broadus Watson, 2000). John and Rosalie
went on to have two children, James and William, and he often used his
two sons
for his studies on behaviorism (Watson, 2005).
After
his move to New York
in 1921, he gained an interest in
advertising and became a vice president in the J. Walter Thompson
advertising
agency. While pursing a career in
advertising, he continued to publish important books and articles with
relevance to his first love of psychology. In
1925 he published Behaviorism,
and then in 1928 he published Psychological
Care of Infant and Child In addition, he published a revision of Behaviorism in 1930, (John Broadus
Watson, 2000).
Then,
unexpectedly, in 1935, his
second wife Rosalie died at the age of thirty-five.
John was so devastated that he began abusing
alcohol and became a workaholic. Relationships
with his family deteriorated
(Personal Life, 2005), and
John retired from his business job in 1946 (Watson, 2005).
His son William committed suicide in 1954,
and John took out his frustration by burning all of his unpublished
works in
1958, shortly before his death. John B.
Watson died in New York City
on September 25,
1958.
John
Watson made many contributions
to psychology. He is known as the father
of Behaviorism, and is also famous for his many publications,
experiments and
awards. In 1957, a year before his
death, John Watson was awarded the gold medal from the American
Psychological
Association for his contributions to the field of psychology (John
Broadus
Watson, 2000).
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