John B. Watson - Behaviorism

John B. Watson is considered the founder of behaviorism. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and emotion. Behavioristic ideas would be that the thought process of one should not be a concern. Introspection would take away from the scientific process of psychology which is why Watson had no regard for it. Watson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and he taught at John Hopkins University for 12 years. Watson wanted behaviorism to be the school of thought that could be applied to many other aspects in life such as education, law and business. He wanted to have variables and make the perspective of behaviorism as close to scientific as it could possibly be. Behaviorism is an experimental natural science and incorporating the introspective factors would take away from that concept. Behaviorist believes that humans are the product of their environment. Watson thinks the unconscious mind is completely irrelevant to psychology.

The author’s specific thesis is that psychology should be viewed as a “purely objective experimental branch of natural science”. Watson stated that all emotions and thinking should be eliminated for it takes away from being scientific. Behaviorism should only be focused on observable behaviors. Watson believes the learning process is similar in both animals and humans and that animal behavior should also be researched. Locke’s theory of tabula rasa which mean human are born with a blank state fits into his concept. The concept of this perspective is that behavior is the result of a stimulus and response. Introspection has no place in behaviorism.

Evidence to support the thesis would be that Watson thinks that living organisms are known to adapt to their surroundings. This is due to their habit and hereditary factors ingrained into them. The second factor would be that the stimulus is what makes the behavior occur. Watson performed an experiment

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