Editing Edward Thorndike (section)

==Beliefs about the behavior of women==
Unlike later [[Behaviorism|behaviorists]] such as [[John Broadus Watson|John B. Watson]], who placed a very strong emphasis on the impact of environmental influences on behavior, Thorndike believed that differences in the parental behavior of men and women were due to biological, rather than cultural, reasons.{{sfn|Shields|1975}} While conceding that society could "complicate or deform"{{sfn|Thorndike|1911b|p=30}} what he believed were inborn differences, he believed that "if we [researchers] should keep the environment of boys and girls absolutely similar these instincts would produce sure and important differences between the mental and moral activities of boys and girls".{{sfn|Thorndike|1922a|p=203}} Indeed, Watson himself overtly critiqued the idea of maternal instincts in humans in a report of his observations of first-time mothers struggling to breastfeed. Watson argued that the very behaviors Thorndike referred to as resulting from a "nursing instinct" stemming from "unreasoning tendencies to pet, coddle, and 'do for' others,"{{sfn|Thorndike|1922a|p=203}} were performed with difficulty by new mothers and thus must have been learned, while "instinctive factors are practically nil".{{sfn|Watson|1926|p=54}}

Thorndike's beliefs about inborn differences between the thoughts and behavior of men and women included arguments about the role of women in society. For example, along with the "nursing instinct," Thorndike talked about the instinct of "submission to mastery," arguing that because men are typically physically larger than women, "Women in general are thus by original nature submissive to men in general."{{sfn|Thorndike|1914b|p=34}} Such beliefs were commonplace during this era.{{sfn|Furumoto|Scarborough|1986}}