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Behaviorism 1

Behaviorism was founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. It views psychology as the study of observable behaviors rather than internal mental states. Watson believed that environmental influences and conditioning can shape a person's behavior regardless of their innate traits or background. Behaviorism became a dominant force in psychology from the 1920s through the 1950s as its focus on observable and quantifiable behaviors aligned with early American social science aims.

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89 views

Behaviorism 1

Behaviorism was founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. It views psychology as the study of observable behaviors rather than internal mental states. Watson believed that environmental influences and conditioning can shape a person's behavior regardless of their innate traits or background. Behaviorism became a dominant force in psychology from the 1920s through the 1950s as its focus on observable and quantifiable behaviors aligned with early American social science aims.

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BEHAVIORISM

Behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the
belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Behaviorism was established
with the publication of Watson's classic paper "Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It"
(1913).
Behaviorism can perhaps be best summed up by the following quote from the famous
psychologist John B. Watson. Watson is often considered the "father" of behaviorism:

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"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up
in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist
I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
What exactly did Watson mean?
Simply put, strict behaviorists believed that all behaviors were the result of conditioning. Any
person, regardless of his or her background, could be trained to act in a particular manner
given the right conditioning.
From about 1920 through the mid-1950s, behaviors grew to become the dominant force in
psychology. Why did behaviorism become such a powerful force in psychology for so much
of the early twentieth-century?
"Behaviorism was the soil nourishing early American social science," explained author John
A. Mills in his 1998 book Control: A History of Behavioral Psychology. "It is also clear that
the research practices and theorizing of American behaviorists until the mid-1950s were
driven by the intellectual imperative to create theories that could be used to make socially
useful predictions," he also suggested.
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