John Watson Essay -- Psychology, Behaviorism

Watsons life history John Broadus Watson was a famous American psychologist who lived between the year 1878 and 1958. He was born in a vagabond called Greenville in South Carolina. Johns father was called Pickens and Emma was his mother and he was their fourth born child. The family was not well of financially they just lived in poverty. In spite of the poverty that engulfed the family, Johns father turned to be a habitual drunkard who cared less for his family. However, Emma Johns mother was a devoted religious woman who struggled to take care of the children with less support from her husband (Watson, 1999). In 1891, Pickens Johns father left the family and disappeared since he was person who engaged in extra marital affairs with other women a situation which even strained their marriage with his wife Emma and the relationship with his children. When Pickens had disappeared from home, John became a naughty boy and he became so confused in life due to lack of the full parental ca re of both parents. He became obstreperous at school even he did not want to listen to the advice from his teachers. He bullied his fellow students and involved in other antisocial behaviors which were sooner unsatisfactory at the school environment, further more he became violent and even rebelled his mother.Johns life started to turn around by the help of his teacher called Gordon Moore at the time he was a student at Furman University. He later on developed a positive attitude towards academic go bad since he realized that at least he can now contribute to the community regardless of the poverty state of his family. His academic performance was quite brilliant and he was able to succeed and secure a chance in the University of Chicago to pursue his m... ...eover, critics argue that animals and people can easily conciliate behaviors when new information is introduced even if the previous pattern of behavior has been already established by reinforcement.In conclusion, the theo ry of behaviorism is based on noticeable behaviors for easier quantification and data collection. Effective techniques such behavior intervention and discrete trial training originates from this school of thought. The approaches are very essential in altering the maladaptive behaviors in adults and even children (Cherry, 2011). Therefore, Professor John Watson is greatly saluted for his tremendous contribution to modern psychology since his work was a big transition from the work of in the beginning scholars to the modern scholars. His life history is quite inspiring and serves as a role model to the young scholars who are interested in studying psychology.