Background

          John B. Watson was an American psychologist and behaviorist born on January 9, 1878 in the rural area of Travelers Rest in South Carolina. At the age of 13, Watson’s dad abandoned the family which caused the family to move to Greenville, South Carolina where Watson began developing his theories on psychology. Despite poor grades and being arrested twice, Watson attended Furman University where he attained a master’s degree at the age of 21. Watson saw himself as being unsocial with only a few friends. After graduation he spent a year at Batesburg Institute where he was the principal, janitor and handyman.

         After Batesburg, Watson was able to petition himself to study under John Dewey at the University of Chicago. Under the influence of Dewey, James Rowland Angell, Henry Herbert Donaldson and Jacques Loeb, Watson developed an analysis of behavior which we know today as behaviorism. Watson would later declare that behaviorism was a declaration of faith. His works were an attempt to make psychology scientifically acceptable. Watson’s later works were based on the works of Ivan Pavlov which he simplified Pavlov’s principles.

 

The Behaviorist Manifesto

          An article by Watson in 1913 called “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” is sometimes call “The Behaviorist Manifesto”.  The article concisely outlined Watson behaviorist view by saying:

“Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation.”

          In the article Watson concludes that human psychology failed in making a claim as a natural science due to the notion that facts are conscious and introspection is the only way of attaining these facts. Watson believed psychology is objective in which it needs little introspection.

 

Little Albert

          With the “little Albert” experiment Watson tested Pavlov’s conditioning theory. In the controversial experiment in 1920 Watson presented many animals to Albert who was unafraid of all of the animals. The Watson presented a white mouse for the second time along with a loud bang which upset Albert. Albert then continued to get upset when just the mouse was presented without the loud bang. Later Watson represented other furry animals, Albert demonstrated a level of fear with each of them. Thus illustrating that fear is learned and not inherited.

 

Influence on Adult Education

-Through reinforcement of a behavior, the adult develops the desired behavior.

-Observable action can be modified through a reward and punishment system. The reward must be something the learner wants.

-Learning through modeling, shaping, and cueing.

 

Criticisms

-“Little Albert” died at the age of 6 from hydrocephalus, water on the brain, do it could not be concluded to what extent the experiment had on his life. Some questioned if Watson knew of the abnormality and that it could skew the end result.

-Classical conditioning is learning from nurture and underestimates nature.

-Deterministic, meaning there is not an allowance of freewill of the learner’s

-Watson was at times considered to be more radical than he was.

-Watson believed children should be treated as young adults, specifically with less love and affection from the child’s mother.

 

Impacts for Learning Transfer

          Behaviorism is founded in observable and measurable aspects of the learner’s behaviors. With behaviorism it is the modification of behavior over the learning of thoughts or emotions. This is done through conditioning the learners. Learning is accomplished through modeling, which is observable learning, shaping, or the gradual changing of the response, and cueing, the verbal and non-verbal cues, the students. With these methods, the learners will be able to carry out the desired behavior in the classroom and transfer the behavior to their jobs and life. The learning is supported with positive and negative reinforcements though at times the negative reinforcement is a lack of a response all together.

 

 

References

Watson, J. B. (1913). "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it.". Psychological Review 20: 158–177. doi:10.1037/h0074428