John B. Watson, biography of the father of behaviorism

John B. Watson is one of the most important figures in the entire history of psychology. He is considered the creator of the behaviorist school and one of the decisive researchers in the study of the human mind. Although his name has not been without controversy, his contributions to psychology are undeniable.

Article Psychology as the behaviorist sees it by John B. Watson is considered by many to be the founding work of behaviorism. He was one of the three great pillars of that school, along with Ivan Pavlov, father of classical conditioning, and BF Skinner, father of operant conditioning.

However, It was John B. Watson who really achieved the popularization of behaviorism. Although Pavlov and Skinner were stronger theorists than him, Watson’s ability to communicate and spread behaviorism in the second and third decades of the 20th century.

The life of John B. Watson

John B. Watson was born in Travelers Rest, South Carolina (United States), on January 9, 1878. His father, Pickens Butler Watson, suffered from alcoholism and abandoned the family to make a new home with two Indian women. Her mother, Emma Kesiah Watson, was deeply religious and the departure of her husband surely reinforced her convictions.

Emma wanted to train her son in strict asceticism. She forbade him to smoke, drink and dance. In fact, she named her son John because a Baptist minister she admired had that name. Her hope was that, with her name, her little son would also inherit a love of preaching.

In reality, quite the opposite happened. On the one hand, little John never forgave his father for the affront of abandonment. He even had behavioral problems after his parent left, to the point where he was arrested. On the other hand, the strong restrictions imposed by his mother only gave him a strong aversion to anything that sounded religious. In his adult life he became an atheist.

Vocational training

John B. Watson first studied at Furman University and earned his bachelor’s degree there at age 21. He later did his graduate studies at the University of Chicago, where began an interesting investigation into learning processes in the white rat. His doctoral thesis, which he presented at age 25, was on that topic.

At the time, he became the youngest student to earn a doctorate from the University of Chicago. The heads of the department, impressed by his studies, decided to hire him as an assistant professor. After four years, he went to work at Johns Hopkins University and, more by chance than merit, He ended up becoming the editor of the prestigious magazine Psychological Review.

It was precisely in that magazine that he published the founding work of behaviorism, in 1913. Just a year later he was named president of the American Psychological Association (APA).. After a scandal over a clandestine affair, John B. Watson left academia and dedicated himself to advertising. In any case, almost all of his works are authentic classics of psychology.

A scandalous life

The life of John B. Watson, which ended in New York on September 25, 1958, was surrounded by scandal. He married Mary Ickes before completing his doctorate and they had two children who were baptized with the same name as their parents.

Mary daughter had a suicide attempt. Her daughter, Mariette, had psychological disorders and she attributed them to the fact of having been raised with the guidelines of her grandfather.

When Watson went to work at Hopkins, he began a romance with an assistant named Rosalie Rayner. With it he carried out the famous and controversial little Albert experiment.. The truth is that his wife discovered the psychologist’s correspondence with her lover and made it public. That’s why he was invited to leave the university. After this, he divorced and married his assistant. He partly repeated his father’s story.

With Rosalie he had two other children, whom he educated following the principles of behaviorism. When she died in 1935, John B. Watson retired to a farm in Connecticut, dedicating himself to field work. There he spent his last years. One of the sons of his second marriage, William, became a psychiatrist and later committed suicide.in 1963.

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