John B. Watson

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox scientist John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September 25, 1958) was an American psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school.<ref name=":0">Cohn, Aaron S. 2014. "Watson, John B.." Pp. 1429–1430 in The Social History of the American Family: An Encyclopedia, edited by M. J. Coleman and L. H. Ganong. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Retrieved May 16, 2020. Template:Doi. Template:ISBN.</ref> Watson advanced this change in the psychological discipline through his 1913 address at Columbia University, titled Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It.<ref name="Watson">Template:Cite journal</ref> Through his behaviorist approach, Watson conducted research on animal behavior, child rearing, and advertising, as well as conducting the controversial "Little Albert" experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. He was also the editor of Psychological Review from 1910 to 1915.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> A Review of General Psychology survey, published in 2002, ranked Watson as the 17th most cited psychologist of the 20th century.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Biography

Early life

He was born on January 9, 1878.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> His father, Pickens Butler Watson, was an alcoholic and left the family to live with two Indian women when John was 13 years old—a transgression which he never forgave.<ref name="Hothersall">Hothersall, D. (2004). History of Psychology. Boston: McGraw Hill</ref> His mother, Emma Kesiah Watson (née Roe), was a very religious woman who adhered to prohibitions against drinking, smoking, and dancing,<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> naming her son John after a prominent Baptist minister in hopes that it would help him receive the call to preach the Gospel. In bringing him up, she subjected Watson to harsh religious training that later led him to develop a lifelong antipathy toward all forms of religion and to become an atheist.<ref group="lower-roman">Kimble, Gregory A., Michael Wertheimer, and Charlotte White. 2013.Portraits of Pioneers in Psychology. Psychology Press.

"Watson's outspoken atheism repelled many in Greensville." (p. 175).</ref><ref group="lower-roman">Martin, Michael. 2006. The Cambridge Companion to Atheism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

"Among celebrity atheists with much biographical data, we find leading psychologists and psychoanalysts. We could provide a long list, including…John B. Watson." (p. 310).</ref><ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>

In an attempt to escape poverty, Watson's mother sold their farm and brought Watson to Greenville, South Carolina,<ref name=":0" /> to provide him a better opportunity for success.<ref name=":3" /> Moving from an isolated, rural location to the large urbanity of Greenville proved to be important for Watson, providing him the opportunity to experience a variety of different types of people, which he used to cultivate his theories on psychology. However, the initial transition would be a struggle for Watson, due to his limited social skills.

Marriage and children

Watson married Mary Ickes, sister of politician Harold L. Ickes, while he was in graduate school.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> They had two children, also named John and Mary Ickes Watson,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name=":3" /> the latter of whom attempted suicide later in life.<ref name=":4">Smirle, Corinne. 2013. "Profile of Rosalie Rayner Template:Webarchive." Psychology's Feminist Voices, edited by A. Rutherford. Retrieved May 16, 2020.</ref> Young Mary and her husband, Paul Hartley, had a daughter, Mariette Hartley, an actor who suffered from psychological issues that she attributed to her being raised according to her grandfather's theories.<ref>Hartley, Mariette, and A. Commire. 1990. Breaking the Silence. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Watson's wife later sought divorce due to his ongoing affair with a student, Rosalie Rayner (1898–1935).<ref name=":1" /> In searching Rayner's bedroom, Mary discovered love letters from Watson.<ref name="Hothersall" /> The affair became front-page news in Baltimore. The publicity resulted in Johns Hopkins University asking Watson to resign his faculty position in October 1920.<ref name="ReferenceA">The Washington Times. January 2, 1921.</ref>

In 1921, following the finalization of the divorce, Watson and Rayner married in New Jersey,<ref name="ReferenceA" /> parenting two sons, William Rayner Watson (1921) and James Broadus Watson (1924), who were raised with the behaviorist principles that John espoused throughout his career. The couple remained together until Rayner's death at age 36 in 1935.<ref>Murray, D. J. (1988). A History of Western Psychology. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.</ref> Like their half-sister, both sons later attempted suicide,<ref name=":4" /> with William killing himself in 1954.<ref name=":0" />

Later life and death

Watson burned his letters and personal papers, thus depriving historians of a resource for understanding the early history of behaviorism and of Watson himself.<ref name=":5">Burnham, John C. 1994. "John B. Watson: Interviewee, Professional Figure, Symbol." Modern Perspectives on John B. Watson and Classical Behaviorism. Greenwood Press.</ref>

Historian John Burnham interviewed Watson late in life, presenting him as a man of strong opinions and some bitterness towards his detractors.<ref name=":5" /> In 1957, shortly before his death, Watson received a Gold Medal from the American Psychological Association for his contributions to psychology.<ref name="Hergenhahn">Hergenhahn, B. R. (1992). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. California: Wadsworth Publishing Company.</ref>

Watson lived on his farm until his death in 1958 at age 80. He was buried at Willowbrook Cemetery, Westport, Connecticut.<ref name="Marquis">Template:Cite web</ref>

Education

Despite his poor academic performance and having been arrested twice during high school—first for fighting, then for discharging firearms within city limits—Watson was able to use his mother's connections to gain admission to Greenville's Furman University at the age of 16.<ref name=":3" /> There, he would complete a few psychology courses, though never excelling.<ref name=":0" /> He would also consider himself to be a poor student, holding a few jobs on campus to pay for his college expenses. Others thought him as quiet, lazy, and insubordinate,<ref name=":3" /> and, as such, he continued to see himself as "unsocial," making few friends. Nevertheless, being a precocious student, Watson would leave Furman with a master's degree at the age of 21.

After graduating, Watson spent a year at Batesburg Institute, the name he gave to a one-room school in Greenville, at which he was principal, janitor, and handyman. Watson entered the University of Chicago after petitioning the University President. The successful petition would be central to his ascent into the psychology world, as his college experience introduced him to professors and colleagues who would be integral to his success in developing psychology into a credible field of study. Watson began studying philosophy under John Dewey on the recommendation of Furman professor, Gordon Moore.<ref name="Hergenhahn" /> The combined influence of Dewey, James Rowland Angell, Henry Herbert Donaldson, and Jacques Loeb, led Watson to develop a highly descriptive, objective approach to the analysis of behavior, an approach he would later call behaviorism.<ref name="Fancher">Fancher, R. E. (1990). Pioneers of Psychology. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.</ref> Wanting to make psychology more scientifically acceptable, Watson thought of the approach as a declaration of faith, based on the idea that a methodology could transform psychology into a scientific discipline. Later, Watson became interested in the work of Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936), and eventually included a highly simplified version of Pavlov's principles in his popular works.<ref name="Bolles">Bolles, R. C. (1993). The Story of Psychology: A Thematic History. California: Brooks/Cole Publishing.</ref>

Dissertation on animal behavior

Watson earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1903.<ref name=":6">"John B. Watson." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2020 [1998]. Retrieved May 16, 2020.</ref> In his dissertation, "Animal Education",<ref>Watson, John B. 1903. "Animal Education: An Experimental Study on the Psychical Development of the White Rat, Correlated with the Growth of its Nervous System" (dissertation). University of Chicago.</ref> he described the relationship between brain myelination and learning ability in rats at different ages. Watson showed that the degree of myelinization was largely related to learning ability. Watson stayed at the University of Chicago for five years doing research on the relationship between sensory input and learning. He discovered that the kinesthetic sense controlled the behavior of rats running in mazes. In 1908, Watson was offered and accepted a faculty position at Johns Hopkins University and was immediately promoted to chair of the psychology department.<ref name="Bolles" />

Behaviorism

In 1913, Watson published the article "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" (also called "The Behaviorist Manifesto").<ref name="Watson" /><ref name=":6" /> In the "Manifesto", Watson outlines the major features of his new philosophy of psychology, behaviorism, with the first paragraph of the article concisely describing Watson's behaviorist position:<ref name="Watson" />Template:Rp

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 1913, Watson viewed Pavlov's conditioned reflex as primarily a physiological mechanism controlling glandular secretions. He had already rejected Edward L. Thorndike's 'law of effect' (a precursor to B. F. Skinner's principle of reinforcement) due to what Watson believed were unnecessary subjective elements. It was not until 1916 that he would recognize the more general significance of Pavlov's formulation, after which Watson would make such the subject of his presidential address to the American Psychological Association. The article is also notable for its strong defense of the objective scientific status of applied psychology, which at the time was considered to be much inferior to the established structuralist experimental psychology.

With his notion of behaviorism, Watson put the emphasis on external behavior of people and their reactions on given situations, rather than the internal, mental state of those people. In his opinion, the analysis of behaviors and reactions was the only objective method to get insight in the human actions. This outlook—combined with the complementary ideas of determinism, evolutionary continuism, and empiricism—has contributed to what is sometimes called Methodological Behaviorism (not to be confused with the Radical Behaviorism of Skinner). It was this new perspective that Watson claimed would lead psychology into a new era. He claimed that prior to Wilhelm Wundt, there was no psychology, and that after Wundt there was only confusion and anarchy. It was Watson's new behaviorism that would pave the way for further advancements in psychology.

Watson's behaviorism rejected the studying of consciousness. He was convinced that it could not be studied, and that past attempts to do so have only been hindering the advancement of psychological theories. He felt that introspection was faulty at best and awarded researchers nothing but more issues. He pushed for psychology to no longer be considered the science of the 'mind'. Instead, he stated that psychology should focus on the 'behavior' of the individual, not their consciousness.

Meanwhile, Watson served as the president of the Southern Society for Philosophy and Psychology in 1915.<ref name="southernsociety">Template:Cite web</ref>

Language, speech, and memory

Watson argued that mental activity could not be observed. In his book, Behaviorism (1924), Watson discussed his thoughts on what language really is, which leads to a discussion of what words really are, and finally to an explanation of what memory is.<ref name=":7">Watson, John B. 1924. Behaviorism. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.</ref><ref name=":8">Watson, John B. 1958 [1924]. Behaviorism (revised ed.). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Template:OCLC.</ref> They are all manual devices used by humans that result in thinking. By using anecdotes that illustrate the behaviors and activities of mammals, Watson outlined his behaviorist views on these topics.

Watson refers to language as a "manipulative habit," because when we speak language, the sound originates in our larynx, which is a body instrument that we manipulate every time we talk in order to hear our "voice."<ref name="Watson, J.B. 1925">Watson, John B. 2009 [1924]. "Talking and Thinking." Ch. 10, pp. 180–200 in Behaviorism. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.</ref> As we change our throat shape and tongue position, different sounds are made. Watson explains that when a baby first cries, or first says "da" or "ma," that it is learning language. To further his theory, Watson and his wife conducted an experiment in which they conditioned a baby to say "da-da" when he wanted his bottle. Although the baby was conditioned and was a success for a short while, the conditioning was eventually lost. Watson argues, however, that as the child got older, he would imitate Watson as a result of Watson imitating him. By three years old, the child needed no help developing his vocabulary because he was learning from others. Thus, language is imitative.

Watson goes on to claim that, "words are but substitutes for objects and situations."<ref name="Watson, J.B. 1925" /> In his earlier baby experiment, the baby learned to say "da" when he wanted a bottle, or "mama" when he wanted his mom, or "shoe-da" when he pointed to his father's shoe. Watson then argues that "we watch our chances and build upon these,"<ref name="Watson, J.B. 1925" /> meaning human babies have to form their language by applying sounds they have already formed. This, Watson says, is why babies point to an object but call it a different word. Lastly, Watson explains how a child learns to read words: a mom points at each word and reads in a patterned manner, and eventually, because the child recognizes the word with the sound, he or she learns to read it back.

This, according to Watson, is the start of memory. All of the ideas previously mentioned are what Watson says make up our memory, and that we carry the memory we develop throughout our lives. Watson tells the tale of Mr. Addison Sims and his friend in order to illustrate these ideas. A friend of Mr. Sims' sees Mr. Sims on a street sidewalk and exclaims: "Upon my life! Addison Sims of Seattle! I haven't seen you since the World's Fair in Chicago. Do you remember the gay parties we used to have in the old Windermere Hotel?"<ref name="Watson, J.B. 1925"/> Even after all of this, Mr. Sims cannot remember the man's name, although they were old friends who used to encounter many of the same people, places, and experiences together. Watson argued that if the two men were to do some of their old shared activities and go to some of the old same places (the stimuli), then the response (or memory) would occur.

Study of emotions

Watson was interested in the conditioning of emotions. Of course behaviorism putting an emphasis on people's external behaviors, emotions were considered as mere physical responses. Watson thought that, at birth, there are three unlearned emotional reactions:<ref name="crain2010">Crain, W. (2010). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.</ref>

Fear: evoked by only two stimuli that are unconditioned—a sudden noise or the loss of (physical) support. However, because older children are afraid of many things (e.g. different animals, strange people etc.), it must be that such fear-provoking stimuli are learned. Fear can be observed by the following reaction with infants: crying, rapid breathing, eyes closing, or sudden jumping.
Rage: an innate response to the body movement of the child being constrained. If a very young child is held in a way that she cannot move at all, then she will begin to scream and stiffen her body. Later this reaction is applied to different situations, e.g. children get angry when they are forced to take a bath or clean their room. These situations provoke rage because they are associated with physical restraint.
Love: an automatic response from infants when tickled, patted, or stroked lightly. The infant responds with smiles, laughs, and other affectionate responses. According to Watson, infants do not love specific people, they are only conditioned to do so. Because the mother's face is progressively associated with the patting and stroking, it becomes the conditioned stimulus eliciting the affection towards her. Affectionate feelings, for people later, generate the same response because they are somehow associated with the mother.

Use of children

"Little Albert" experiment (1920)

One might consider the experiment Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner carried out in 1920 to be one of the most controversial in psychology. It has become immortalized in introductory psychology textbooks as the Little Albert experiment. The goal of the experiment was to show how principles of, at the time recently discovered, classical conditioning could be applied to condition fear of a white rat into "Little Albert", a 9-month-old boy. Watson and Rayner conditioned "Little Albert" by clanging an iron rod when a white rat was presented. First, they presented to the boy a white rat and observed that he was not afraid of it. Second, they presented him with a white rat and then clanged an iron rod. "Little Albert" responded by crying. This second presentation was repeated several times. Finally, Watson and Rayner presented the white rat by itself and the boy showed fear. Later, in an attempt to see if the fear transferred to other objects, Watson presented Albert with a rabbit, a dog, and a fur coat. He cried at the sight of all of them.<ref name=":9">Template:Cite journal</ref> This study demonstrated how emotions could become conditioned responses.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> As the story of "Little Albert" has made the rounds, inaccuracies and inconsistencies have crept in, some of them even due to Watson himself.Template:Citation needed Analyses of Watson's film footage of Albert suggest that the infant was mentally and developmentally disabled.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> An ethical problem of this study is that Watson and Rayner did not uncondition "Little Albert".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

In 2009, Beck and Levinson found records of a child, Douglas Merritte, who seemed to have been Little Albert. They found that he had died from congenital hydrocephalus at the age of 6. Thus, it cannot be concluded to what extent this study had an effect on Little Albert's life.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> On January 25, 2012, Tom Bartlett of The Chronicle of Higher Education published a report that questions whether John Watson knew of cognitive abnormalities in Little Albert that would greatly skew the results of the experiment.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2014, however, the journals that initially endorsed Beck and Fridlund's claims about Albert and Watson (the American Psychologist and History of Psychology) published articles debunking those claims.<ref>Powell. R. A., N. Digdon, B. Harris, and C. Smithson. 2014. "Correcting the record on Watson, Rayner and Little Albert: Albert Barger as 'Psychology's lost boy'." American Psychologist.</ref><ref>Digdon, N., R. A. Powell, and B. Harris. 2014. "Little Albert's alleged neurological impairment: Watson, Rayner and historical revision." History of Psychology.</ref>

Deconditioning

Because "Little Albert" was taken out of town, Watson did not have the time to decondition the child. This obviously has ethical implications, but Watson did put in place a method for deconditioning fears. He worked with a colleague, Mary Cover Jones, on a set of procedures aimed at eliminating the fears of another little boy, Peter. Peter seemed to fear white rats and rabbits. Watson and Jones put Peter in his highchair and gave him a nice afternoon snack. At the same time a white rabbit in a cage was put in a distance that did not seem to disturb the child. The next day the rabbit was put slightly closer until Peter showed signs of slight disturbance. This treatment was repeated days after days until Peter could serenely eat his snack with the rabbit being right next to him. Peter was even able to play with the rabbit afterwards. This form of behavior modification is a technique today called systematic desensitization.<ref name="crain2010" />

Limitations of the conditioning paradigm

The conditioning paradigm has certain limitations. Researchers have had a hard time conditioning infants that are just a few months old. This might be because they have not yet developed what Piaget calls "primary circular reactions". Because they cannot coordinate sensory motor actions they cannot learn to make different associations between their motoric behaviors and the environment. Another limitation concerns the kind of conditioned stimuli humans can learn. When researchers attempt to condition children to fear things such as curtains or wooden blocks they have had great difficulty. Humans may be "innately disposed to fear certain stimuli."<ref name="crain2010" />

Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928)

The 20th century marked the formation of qualitative distinctions between children and adults.<ref name="Houk">Template:Cite web</ref> In 1928, Watson wrote the book Psychological Care of Infant and Child with help from Rosalie Rayner, his assistant and wife. In it, Watson explains that behaviorists were starting to believe psychological care and analysis were required for infants and children.<ref name="WJB">Watson, John B. 1928. Psychological Care of Infant and Child. New York: W. W. Norton Company.</ref> All of Watson's exclamations were due to his belief that children should be treated as a young adult. As such, he warns against the inevitable dangers of a mother providing too much love and affection, because love—along with everything else understood by the behaviorist perspective—Watson argues, is conditioned. He uses invalidism to support his warning, contending that, since society does not overly comfort children as they become young adults in the real world, parents should not set up these unrealistic expectations. Moreover, he disapproves of thumb sucking, masturbation, homosexuality, and encourages parents to be honest with their children about sex.<ref>"Watson, John Broadus." Pp. 662–63 in The Gale Encyclopedia of Psychology (2nd ed.), edited by B. Strickland. Detroit: Gale. 2001.</ref> He would reason such views by saying that "all of the weaknesses, reserves, fears, cautions, and inferiorities of our parents are stamped into us with sledge hammer blows,"<ref name=":3" /> inferring that emotional disabilities were the result of personal treatment, not inheritance.<ref name=":3" />

Watson deemed his slogan to be "not more babies but better brought up babies," in support of the 'nurture' side of the 'nature vs nurture' debate, claiming that the world would benefit from extinguishing pregnancies for 20 years while enough data was gathered to ensure an efficient child-rearing process. Further emphasizing nurture, Watson argued that nothing is instinctual, but rather everything is built into a child through the interaction with their environment. Parents, therefore, hold complete responsibility as they choose what environment to allow their child to develop in.<ref name="WJB" />

Though having researched many topics throughout career, child-rearing became Watson's most prized interest. His book would be extremely popular, having sold 100,000 copies after just a few months of release. Many critics were surprised to see even his contemporaries come to accept his views.<ref name="HBR+W">Hergenhahn, B. R. (2005). An Introduction to the History of Psychology. Wadsworth: Cengage Learning</ref> His emphasis on child development started to become a new phenomenon and would influence some of his successors, though the field had already been delved into by psychologists prior to Watson. G. Stanley Hall, for instance, became very well known for his 1904 book Adolescence. Hall's beliefs differed from Watson's behaviorism, as the former believed that one's behavior is mostly shaped by heredity and genetically predetermined factors, especially during childhood. His most famous concept, the storm and stress theory, normalized adolescents' tendency to act out with conflicting mood swings.<ref>Santrock, J. W. 2008. Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.</ref>

Although he wrote extensively on child-rearing, including in Psychological Care of Infant and Child, as well as in many popular magazines, Watson later regretted having written in the area altogether, conceding that he "did not know enough" to do a good job.Template:Citation needed

Criticism

Critics determined that Watson's ideas mainly stemmed from his beliefs.<ref name="HBR+W" /> How much Rosalie Rayner agreed with her husband's child-rearing ideas has also been an important question, as she later penned an article entitled "I am a Mother of Behaviorist Sons", <ref>Watson, R. R. (1930). I am the mother of a behaviorist’s sons. Parent’s Magazine & Better Family Living, 5(12), 16-18, 67-68.</ref> in which she wrote about the future of their family.<ref>Harris, B. 2014. "Rosalie Rayner, Feminist?" Revista de Historia de la Psicología 35:61–69.</ref>

R. Dale Nance (1970) worried that Watson's personal indiscretions and difficult upbringings could have affected his views while writing his book. This would include having been raised on a poor farm in South Carolina and having various family troubles, such as abandonment by his father.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Suzanne Houk (2000) shared similar concerns while analyzing Watson's hope for a businesslike and casual relationship between a mother and her child.<ref name="Houk" /> Houk points out that Watson only shifted his focus to child-rearing when he was fired from Johns Hopkins University due to his affair with Rayner.<ref name="Houk" /> Laura E. Berk (2008) similarly examines the roots of the beliefs that Watson came to honor, noting the Little Albert experiment as the inspiration of Watson's emphasis on environmental factors.<ref name=":10">Berk, Laura E. 2008. Infants and Children: Prenatal Through Middle Childhood. IL: Pearson Education.</ref> Little Albert did not fear the rat and white rabbit until he was conditioned to do so. From this experiment, Watson concluded that parents can shape a child's behavior and development simply by a scheming control of all stimulus-response associations.<ref name=":10" />

Watson's advice to treat children with respect but relative emotional detachment, has been strongly criticized. J. M. O'Donnell (1985) deems Watson's views as radical calculations. This discontent stems partly from Watsons' description of a 'happy child', whereby a child can only cry when in physical pain, can occupy himself through his problem-solving abilities, and whereby the child strays from asking questions.<ref>O'Donnell, J. M. 1985. The Origins of Behaviorism. New York: New York University Press.</ref> Other critics were more wary of Watson's new interest and success in child psychology.Template:Citation needed

"Twelve infants"

Watson has been misquoted in regards to the following passage, which is often presented out of context and with the last sentence omitted, making his position appear more radical than it actually was: Template:Blockquote In Watson's Behaviorism, the sentence is provided in the context of an extended argument against eugenics. That Watson did not hold a radical environmentalist position may be seen in his earlier writing in which his "starting point" for a science of behavior was "the observable fact that organisms, man and animal alike, do adjust themselves to their environment by means of hereditary and habit equipments."<ref name="Watson" /> Nevertheless, Watson recognized the importance of nurture in the nature versus nurture discussion which was often neglected by his eugenic contemporaries.<ref name="Hothersall" />

Advertising career

Thanks to contacts provided by E. B. Titchener, an academic colleague, Watson subsequently began working late in 1920 for U.S. advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. He learned the advertising business' many facets at ground level, including a stint working as a shoe salesman in an upscale department store. Despite this modest start, in less than two years Watson had risen to a vice-presidency at Thompson. His executive's salary, plus bonuses from various successful ad campaigns, resulted in an income many times higher than his academic salary. Watson headed a number of high-profile advertising campaigns, particularly for Ponds cold cream and other personal-care products.<ref name="Hergenhahn" /> In addition, he is credited with popularizing the "coffee break" during an ad campaign for Maxwell House coffee. He has been widely but erroneously credited with re-introducing the "testimonial" advertisement after the tool had fallen out of favor (due to its association with ineffective and dangerous patent medicines). However, testimonial advertisements had been in use for years before Watson entered advertising.

An example of Watson's use of testimonials was with the campaign he developed for Pebeco Toothpaste. The ad featured a seductively dressed woman, and coaxed women to smoke, as long as they used Pebeco toothpaste. The toothpaste was not a means to benefit health or hygiene, but as a way to heighten the sexual attraction of the consumer.<ref name=":3" /> Watson stated that he was not making original contributions, but was just doing what was normal practice in advertising. Watson stopped writing for popular audiences in 1936, and retired from advertising at about age 65.<ref name="Hothersall" />

Selected works

1907. "Kinaesthetic and Organic Sensations: Their Role in the Reactions of the White rat to the Maze."<ref>Watson, John B. 1907. "Kinaesthetic and Organic Sensations: Their Role in the Reactions of the White rat to the Maze." Psychological Review Monograph Supplement 8(33):1–100.</ref>
1908. "The Behavior of Noddy and Sooty Terns."<ref>Watson, John B. 1908. "The Behavior of Noddy and Sooty Terns." Carnegie Institute Publication 103:197–255.</ref>
1913. "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It."<ref name="Watson" />
1914. Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology.<ref>Watson, John B. 1914. Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. Henry Holt.</ref>
1915. "Recent experiments with homing birds."
1920. "Conditioned emotional reactions," with Rosalie Rayner. — the Little Albert study.<ref>Watson, John B., and Rosalie Rayner. 1920. "Conditioned emotional reactions." Journal of Experimental Psychology 3(1):1–14. Template:Doi.</ref>
1921. "Studies in Infant Psychology," with Rosalie Rayner.<ref name=":9" />
1924. Behaviorism.<ref name=":7" /><ref name=":8" />
1928. Psychological Care of Infant and Child.<ref name="WJB" />
1936. "John Broadus Watson." — autobiography <ref>Watson, John B. 1936. "John Broadus Watson [Autobiography]." Pp. 271–81 in A History of Psychology in Autobiography 3, edited by C. Murchison. Worcester, MA: Clark University Press.</ref>

References

Notes

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Citations