John Watsons Personal Life and Theory of Behaviorism - Essay Example

? Behaviorism Behaviorism His father having left them, Watson was raised by a single religious mother. Despite his mother’s effort to join a religion, Watson stood strongly against it. Instead, he followed his father’s ways of life of drunkenness and promiscuity. Watson’s behavior was crooked because he abused his teacher and the black children. Besides that, he was arrested for committing crimes. Watson improved his academic performance at the university where he obtained his PhD in 25. He became a professor of Psychology at Chicago and Johns Hopkins and did a lot of research in Psychology and Behaviorism. He published many materials on his research. Watson was married to Rosalie having divorced Mary. Both of his wives were his former students. Rosalie died aged 36 and left her husband and two sons. Having been dismissed from Johns Hopkins, Watson got his employment in advertising where he worked till his retirement. The environment, supporters, and mentors stimulated Watson to venture and succeed in Behaviorism (Weiland, 2013). Watson’s Personal Life Watson was born on Jan 9, 1878 in Greenville, South Carolina (Weiland, 2013). Despite the fact that his mother was religious, Watson frankly opposed it. He was very much involved in drinking, smoking, and dancing. His father, Pickens, was equally a drunkard and unethical who often found himself on the other side of the law. Pickens had love affairs with other women, which made him leave his family when Watson was at the age of thirteen (Weiland, 2013). Besides being academically poor, Watson had misconducts, which made him to get arrested two times. On top of that, Watson abused his own teacher and intimidated the black children in school (Weiland, 2013). When Watson was admitted to Furman University in South Carolina, his academic performance changed for the better, and he graduated with a master’s degree at the age of 21. Later on, he joined the University of Chicago for a graduate diploma, where he studied psychology and developed his theories of behaviorism (Weiland, 2013). In Chicago, Watson studied comparative psychology and animal study. He majored in psychology and neurology, with a minor in philosophy. He was largely influenced by Ivan Pavlov and Vladimir Bekhterev, his Professors. Watson used the principles of experimental psychology to examine all the aspects of behavior. In 1903, Watson presented his dissertation on the relations between behavior in a white rat and the growth of its nervous system at the University of Chicago. He remained in Chicago as research professor, focusing on the learning and the sensory input in animals. He obtained his PhD at the age of 25(Weiland, 2013). After one year of work at Chicago; Watson married Marry Ickes, one of his students, and got their first born baby called Mary in June 1905. The couple also gave birth to a second child some years later. While his wife Mary was at home, Watson started dating other women. His promiscuity worsened while at the University of Chicago where he had love affairs with women students. These actions jeopardized his job position. To escape further problems from the faculty in Chicago, Watson decided to leave the University of Chicago for Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1908. At Johns Hopkins, Watson was teaching psychology and acting as the department chair. He set up his own laboratory at Johns Hopkins where he ran various psychological experiments in the direction of animal behavior. It was at Johns Hopkins that Watson realized part of his greatest accomplishments. He published his first and famous article of Psychology known as “Behaviorist View It” in 1913 (Weiland, 2013). In 1914, Watson made another major accomplishment of publishing Behavior: An introduction to Comparative Psychology. In this publication, he explained, in his belief, the importance of using animal subjects to study reflexes activated by hereditary. In 1919, he published another paper known as Psychology from the standpoint of a Behaviorist. Generally, Watson published over thirty-five influential books, reports, and papers. In 1915, he was elected the president of American Psychological Association (APA) (Goodtherapyorg2013). Also in 1920, Watson and his student Rosalie Rayners did an experiment known as Little Albert; an eleven-month old child. Watson differed with his wife, Mary, on the fact that Watson had an affair with Rosalie. Therefore, the marriage between Watson and Mary came to an end, and Watson got married to Rosalie. Based on the fact that Rosalie was a student, the faculty at Johns Hopkins took act with a lot of seriousness; therefore, Watson was dismissed from the university (Weiland, 2013). Despite that, Watson continued to do research and write while creating a family with Rosalie at New York City. Watson and Rosalie gave birth to two children; James and William. Having moved to New York in 1921, Watson developed an interest in advertising, and he became the vice-president in the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency within a span of two years. In advertising, Watson championed many large- scale and successful advertising campaigns, involving ads for pond cold cream and Maxwell House Coffee. As he continued with his advertising career, Watson continued to publish crucial books and articles relevant to psychology (Weiland, 2013). In 1925, he published behaviorism, and in1928 he published psychological care for infant. In 1930, he published a revision of Behaviorism. Unfortunately in 1935, his second wife Rosalie died aged 35. As a result of that, Watson started abusing alcohol and became workaholic. The relationship of his family declined, and he retired from his business job in 1946. Watson made large contribution in the field of Psychology. As a result of that, he is known as the father of Behaviorism. He did several publications, did experiments, and obtained awards. In 1957, Watson was awarded the gold medal from American Psychological Association (APA) for his contribution to the field of psychology. He served as the president of APA in 1915. Watson’s son, William, committed suicide in 1954, and Watson took out his frustration by burning all his unpublished work in 1958, shortly before he died. He died in New York City on September 25, 1958 (Weiland, 2013). How Events in His life helped him Develop the Theory of Behaviorism Watson experienced a lot of events in his life that motivated him to come up with the theory of Behaviorism. These events were attributed by himself and other people. Because of the diverse behaviors of individuals, which are subjects of changes, influenced Watson to formulate the influence of behavior. To start with, his father was a heavy drinker besides his love for other women. Pickens’ behavior influenced Watson too. As a result of that, Watson started drinking, smoking, dancing, and be involved in promiscuity (Weiland, 2013). Watson’s behavior of promiscuity is seen where love affairs had with his own students, specifically Mary and Rosalie. These happenings, among other problems brought by his father, contributed to Watson’s poor performance in the academics. On top of that, Watson was anti-religion and he, in many occasions, abused his fellow pupils and his teacher. He was also arrested twice for committing crimes, just like his father. Based on these behavioral events, Watson wanted to find out why his father and himself were behaving the way they behaved .He also wanted to know his father’s behavior influenced his. Watson’s father left his family when Watson was thirteen years old. Similarly, Mary and Watson divorced because of Watson’s extramarital affairs. So, these events triggered Watson to find the cause of human behavior. Watson was a poor student at earlier stages, turned out to be brilliant in the university academics and even in his research work. This indicates that there was change in Watson’s ways of conducting himself, which is definitely a behavior change. Therefore, these acts stimulated Watson to research on behavior (Weiland, 2013). Watson had supporters and mentors who made him venture and achieve in research on behaviorism. Watson’s mother was well connected with professionals, which enabled her to obtain a university admission for Watson. Therefore, Watson achieved his academic excellence, which made him excel in psychology, through his mother’s support. In addition to that, Watson was introduced to psychology by Gordon Moore when Watson was still young. Therefore, this introduction created an impact in Watson for studying psychology in his future. On top of that, Wastson was largely influenced by his psychology professors like Ivan Pavlov and Vladimir Bekhterev to venture into psychology (Goodtherapyorg, 2013). Later in his research work, Watson did an experiment known as “The Little Albert”, which was initially done by his psychology teacher Ivan Pavlov. This indicates that Watson was highly motivated by his mentor, Ivan; to venture into psychology. Watson also got support from Chicago and Johns Hopkins Universities, which he could not afford on his own. These universities provided the required research materials, which Watson used when he was a student and a teacher. For instance, Watson studied at the University of Chicago where he chose to study comparative psychology and animal study. More so, he did his dissertation on the relationship between behavior in white rats and the growth of the nervous system. In addition to that, Watson was an assistant and a psychology professor at Chicago (Goodtherapyorg, 2013). On his transfer to Johns Hopkins, Watson taught Psychology and built a laboratory for the same. This means that as he was learning and teaching, he gathered enough information, which enabled him develop new ideas in psychology. Also, in his teaching profession, Watson interacted with students and other staff members from who he learned and applied psychological ideas (Goodtherapyorg, 2013). Watson was hardworking, self-starter, and self- motivator to his work. Watson did much of his works by self motivation. When he was working at Johns Hopkins, Watson built his own laboratory where he did several experiments on animal behavior. Watson produced some of his greatest accomplishment at John’s Hopkins. He published his first and popular article known as Psychology as “Behaviorist View it”. His second major accomplishment was his publication of “Behavior: An introduction to comparative psychology”. Among other popular publications, Watson published more than thirty- five books, reports, and papers (Goodtherapyorg, 2013). It’s through his motivation and vigor that he venture into the advertising job where he rose to the top executive position within two years after losing his job in Johns Hopkins. Because he was ambitious and a good performer that made Watson elected the president of American Psychological Association and even awarded a golden medal for his great contribution to the field of psychology (Goodtherapyorg, 2013). Watson was focused and persistent on psychology. Despite the challenges Watson faced, he remained focused and persistent on his research. When he was doing an experiment on “The Little Albert”, Watson was confronted by his wife, Mary, who threatened him with a divorce, but Watson ended summarily ended his marriage and continued with his experiment, and other research work. According to Cherry (2013), despite the fact that the little Albert was exposed to several stimuli without response at the initial stages, Watson persistently presently the same stimuli to Albert till the expected response occurred. Therefore, if Watson did not persist, he would have not succeeded in that famous experiment. To add to that, Watson did a lot of research on psychology and behaviorism when he was at Johns Hopkins and in advertising job. Despite the fact that the work he was doing was irrelevant to his research, Watson managed to publish a lot of materials in addition unpublished ones, which he burnt before his death. Watson published his first and famous article of Psychology known as “Behaviorist View It.”He also published Behaviorism, psychological care for infant, Introduction to comparative psychology, and many others (Anonymous, 2013). Among other popular publications, Watson published more than thirty- five books, reports, and papers. As Watson was introduced to Psychology by Gordon Moore and influenced by Ivan Vladimir, he remained focused on it and finally he succeeded (Cherry, 2013). Conclusion Watson was a devoted, focused, and persistent person. Through his character, he achieved a lot in psychology, and particularly in behaviorism in humans. Watson was influenced by his father’s behavior of drinking, dancing, smoking, and promiscuity. Watson’s father’s behavior affected Watson’s life including academics, however, Watson regained at the university. Besides that, Watson had Mentors and supporters who made his education and research on behaviorism a success. Through the behavioral environment he was raised, mentors, and supporters, Watson was able to maneuver in Behaviorism. References Cherry, K. (2013). The Little Albert Experiment. Retrieved 07 Dec, 2013 from http://psychology.about.com/od/classicpsychologystudies/a/little-albert-experiment Anonymous(2013). John Watson 1878-1958. The Little Albert. Retrieved 07 Dec, 2013 from http://education.stateuniversity.com/pages/2543/Watson-John-B-1878-1958.html Goodtherapyorg(2013). Professional life. Retrieved 07 Dec, 2013 from http://www.goodtherapy.org/famous-psychologists/john-watson.html Weiland,C. (2013).Psychology. Retrieved 07 Dec, 2013 from http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/johnbroaduswatson.html Read More