John Watson Research Paper

John Broadus Watson was born January 9, 1878 to Pickens and Emma Watson in South Carolina. Brought up in a religiously strict and mostly isolated home until the age of thirteen when his father left, Watson was very rarely exposed to variety until his mother decided to move them to Greenville, South Carolina where he was able to interact with different types of people. This sparked his interest in psychology and helped him cultivate many of his later theories. He attended many colleges and received multiple degrees in his late teenage years and early twenties. He married twice, the first time to Mary Ickes and the second time was with his graduate assistant Rosalie Rayner. Along with being a very prominent researcher in the field of psychology, …show more content…
He believed that his study in animal behavior could produce the same results in human infants if similar tests were conducted (Cohen, 1979). Watson proposed a theory known as behaviorism. In his article “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”, which was published in Psychologist Review in 1913, Watson explained that children could be conditioned to become a product of their surrounding environment. The theory of behaviorism also rejected the believed ability to study consciousness. He felt that such a thing could not be studied and that any research presented thus far was inconclusive and hindering any further advancements in the field of …show more content…
He was known by his family and colleagues to be a particularly strict and seeming harsh parent. Watson implemented regime such as scheduled feedings and little to no physical affection. All of these things were done in his home because he had a developing theory about the upbringing of children. He believed that infants and toddlers required psychological care and evaluation and that they should essentially be treated as young adults. Watson was a very big advocate for detached parenting, calling parents to approach raising children with little amounts of affection (Glassman & Hadad, 2004). His reason for so firmly standing behind this theory was that parents often supported invalidism, stating that people do not show children much comfort or coddle them as they become young adults so parents should not set such impractical expectations at such an early age. All of these beliefs on parenting were suddenly up for public scrutiny when “Psychological Care of Infant and Child”, a book that was published in 1928 and co-written by Watson and Rayner, came out. He, to this day, receives criticism about the book and his theories. On the other hand, the tools and advice that he provided in the book are still being utilized by parents and psychologists and had a huge influence on many of his successors. Watson later regretted being so upfront and public with his stance on

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