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John Watson's Early Life
Grew up on a farm in Greenville, South Carolina. His mother wanted a religious upbringing for Watson with no drinking or smoking, but his father was a heavy drinking and often got in trouble with the police. Later, he also cheated on his wife. This upbringing had a great affect on Watson later on in life. -
Furman University 1894-1899
Acceptance letter from Furman University in 1894 and then graduated in 1899. Entered at age 16, and then left with a masters degree at age 21. Waston had a hard time at first adjusting to college life, and people said he was "quiet, lazy, and insubordinate". -
Chicago University 1900-1903
During this time, Watson majored in Psychology and minored in Philosophy and Neurology. -
John Watson's Family
Married Mary Ikes in 1901 and then had his first child, Mary, in 1905. John Watson had an affair with Rosalie Rayner, and after his wife found out in 1920, they got married in 1921. She later died in 1935. -
Professor of Psychology at John Hopkins University
Hired in 1907 and fired in 1920 because of his affair -
Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology
This was a book that Watson published in which he argued "for the use of animal subjects in psychological study and described instinct as a series of reflexes activated by heredity". Later in 1918, Watson moved onto infant studies instead on animal subjects. -
Published Psychology From the Standpoint of a Behaviorists
In this book, he "extends the principles and methods of comparative psychology to the study of human beings and staunchly advocated the use of conditioning in research". His research ended abruptly when he was fired from John Hopkins in 1920 -
Little Albert Experiment
This experiment was to further Pavlov's experiment of conditioning dogs. Waston thought that he could do the same sort of experiment to prove that humans emotional reactions could be conditioned. Watson and Rayner picked Albert B, a 9month orphan. They exposed him to a white rat, a rabbit, money, and burning newspaper, but Little Albert showed no fear of any of them. After pairing the white rat with a loud banging noise, Albert started to show fear after just seeing the rat. -
Published Psychological Care of Infant and Child
Watson explained in this book that "behaviorists were starting to believe psychological care and analysis was required fro infants and children... due to his belief that children should be treated as a young adult." -
Awarded a Gold Metal Before He Died
Awarded a gold metal from the American Psychological Association for his contributions to the field of psychology.
