John B. Watson: Life And Work Of The Behavioral Psychologist
John B. Watson along with Iván Pávlov, was one of the important characters of the classical conditioning and was key to the later development of Operant Conditioning made famous by BF Skinner. Both classical conditioning and operant or Instrumental conditioning are part of the behaviorismone of the most prominent currents in psychology.
Although classical conditioning was born thanks to the experiments of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, who was interested in salivation reflexes in dogs, Watson introduced it to the United States where it had a great impact on the American educational system.
John Broadus Watson was born in Greenville (South Carolina, United States) in 1878 and died in New York in 1958.
He studied at the University of Chicago and graduated in 1903. He wrote many scientific articles, one of the first called “Animal education: an experimental study on the psychic development of a white rat, in correlation with the growth of its nervous system.” In this article describes the relationship between brain myelination and learning capacity in rodents
Watson worked at John Hopkins University for 14 years, and there he conducted a large number of experiments on bird learning. In 1920 he left his job at the University because of rumors about a romantic relationship with his assistant Rosalie Reyner, with whom he carried out his famous experiment with “Little Albert.” Then He went on to work as a psychologist at the Thompson company, and became interested in the field of advertising
One of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century
As professor of Psychology at John Hopkins University (United States) between 1908 and 1920, Watson He was considered one of the most influential and decisive figures of the last century His work is studied today in all psychology faculties around the globe, and is one of the bases of learning and treating some psychopathologies such as phobias. Therefore, his conclusions cannot be missing from any introductory book on psychology.
Although his career as an academic was short, his legacy has been hotly debated for almost a century. Watson helped define the study of behavior and psychology as a science and emphasized the importance of learning and the influence of context on the development of human beings.
Watson popularized Behaviorism
He was a radical behaviorist, an anti-mentalist, and, as such, criticized Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, as he claimed that the study of consciousness and introspection had no place in psychology as a science. Psychology according to Watson, it only made sense through observable and measurable behavior and therefore, his experiments were carried out in the laboratory, where he could manipulate the environment and control the behavior of his subjects.
The objective of behaviorism is to make psychology a natural science, and therefore, it must have methods that allow variables to be observed, measured and predicted. John B. Watson will always be remembered as the person who coined and popularized behaviorism thanks to his publications and his research.
classical conditioning
Watson’s contributions to behaviorism are due to his classical conditioning experiments, a type of learning that involves automatic or reflex responses, and is characterized by the creation of a connection between a new stimulus and an already existing reflex. That is, it is a type of learning according to which a neutral stimulus, which does not provoke a response, becomes able to provoke one thanks to the associative connection of this stimulus with the stimulus that normally provokes said response.
John Watson was inspired by the research of the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, but, in addition, thought that classical conditioning also explained learning in humans Watson was clear that emotions were also learned through conditioned association, so the differences in behavior between humans were caused by the different experiences that each one lived.
The experiment with “little Albert”
To test his hypothesis that emotions could be learned by conditioned association, Watson used an 11-month-old boy named Albert as an experimental subject It should be mentioned that this study could not be carried out currently because it violates scientific ethics.
Albert was taken to the laboratory where he was presented with a white rat. When the little boy approached to touch it, Watson hit a metal bar with a hammer. As a result of the strong blow, the baby became upset and, out of fear, began to cry. Watson repeated this process half a dozen times, and observed that, After several trials, little Albert was scared simply by seeing the white rat Albert had learned that every time the rat appeared, the hammer would hit the metal board. That is to say, he anticipated the strong blow.
Here we leave you a video so you can see the experiment:
Now, when the EN (white rat) is presented on several occasions together with the EI (hammer blow) that causes an RI (fear), the EN (white rat) becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (EC). So, the presence of the CS (i.e. the white rat) causes a Conditioned Response (RC). The Conditioned Response It is equal to RI (feeling of fear).
This It is the most frequent mechanism of acquiring phobias a strong irrational fear that some people suffer as a result of associating negative experiences with the presence of something (flying on an airplane, spiders, clowns, among many others).
