John B. Watson LOGAN NOE
No, Not This John Watson
This John Watson
Trivia Time Born in 1878 In Greenville, South Carolina Siblings 2 Older brothers and 1 older sister Edward (very religious) Thomas (died at 20) Mary (not that important)
Parents Father Pickens Watson Mother Emma Roe Handy man Insufferably religious Charming and handsome Strong Liked his liquor Intelligent Liked women Faithful Not what you would call a Her family believed she church going man married beneath her
Influence of the Church Watson’s nurse (how he learned to fear the dark) Greenville’s guide on being a good Christian (or how to spy on your neighbors) Edward the faithful (more like an unloving brother) House of God (literally, Watson’s house held frequent church meetings) Pickens the “Deacon” (at least in name)
Growing up in Greenville Grew up in poverty (It is not who you are, but who your forefathers were) Close relationship with his father Learned how to work with his hands Would skip school to learn from and hang out with his father Challenging home life Mother vs. Father (cage match of the century) Abandonment issues The foundation for everything
Early Life (after his father left) Violent school behavior Violent outside of school Considered by most to be lazy Value manual skills (teachings of the father) Struggled with his father leaving (excuse for his behavior) Diamond in the rough (highly intelligent) Close relationship with his mother
Education Attended Furman University in Greenville Much to the entire town’s surprise Worked many odd jobs to pay for college (remember folks, he is poor) Took many random classes (sound familiar) Really enjoyed philosophy Mentor was Gordon Moore (new father figure) More introduced him to psychology Psych. was mostly introspection at the time (intuition and consciousness) Failed his last year of school and had to return the next year (felt great anxiety and did not want to lose Moore) Handed his final paper in backwards. Also he loved sex
The “Real World” Graduated with his bachelors Worked as a teacher Private school Low wage Had no home (seriously he lived at his student’s houses) Saved up for graduate school Felt he could not leave because of his mother The big decision (kind of)
Chicago James Angell (the new father figure) Learned more about introspection but hated it Lacked self confidence to voice his opinion Animal behavior (mostly rats) He wanted psychology to be an objective science like animal psych. was Liked to make devices to test the rats (thanks to good old dad) Graduated and was offered Angell’s job (Angell worked too much) Graduated in 1903, incase you wanted to know Wanted to continue working with animal behavior
The Wife Mary Ikes One of Watson’s students in his lab (a reoccurring theme) Mary’s brothers did not like Watson Sent her away to forget about our handsome fellow Watson followed her and married her (though he did not really have the means or money to do so) Watson was tired of being alone He loved that Mary loved him
Days at John Hopkins Started teaching in 1908 Psychology controlled by philosophy (well in the same department as philosophy at least) Head of the department was Mark Baldwin (another father figure) Canned after he was caught in a brothel Made Watson editor of the Psychology Review before he left Made some new friends (Titchener and Yerkes) 1909 Watson convinced the head of John Hopkins to separate psychology into its own department Wrote Buchner a letter (he was the head honcho)
Rise to Fame Objective Psychology (mic drop)
Rise to Fame Ok for real Continued his work with rats Wanted to share his belief about an objective psychology Lacked self confidence Lectures at Columbia University February 1913 Went against the flow of traditional psychology (introspection)
A Man of Confidence Watson’s views attracted many wallets… erm …Students to John Hopkins. Goodnow becomes the new president of John Hopkins He is important later Watson conducts a lot of different studies using his new objective approach (too many to talk about so we will gloss over them) Begins to gain more influence and starts his work with children Started another lab at Phipps Institute Major Watson (Military man) Little Albert How to Drink During Prohibition, The How to guide
The Affair Mary falls ill (and Watson loses interest) Watson in the “prime” of his life Rosalie Rayner (soulmate kind of stuff right here) Beautiful, lively, 19 years old (Watson was 41…. 41 ) She was a student during one of his drinking experiments (where have we seen this before) The letters Mary fights to hold on
The Divorce Watson tries to get Mary to leave the country quietly Mary does not leave the country (go figure) Goodnow finds out about the affair Watson gets canned (asked to resign) Moves to New York and stays with an old friend The divorce The man basically loses everything, his wife, the kids, and the career On the bright side he got to keep Rosalie
Works in Advertising J. Walter Thompson Advertising Started from the very bottom (door to door sales man) Worked his way up (110%) Worked as a cashier in order to understand the customer Fear, Anger, Love Made boat loads of money ($70,000 a year) Decent money by todays standards
Money can’t buy Happyness Still wanted to do research Wrote to Titchener that he would give up all of his advertising money to return to academia Advertising was not challenging enough Contributed very little to psychology during this time After advertising he finished out his days in the land of suburbia
Riddle Me This Batman A series of thought provoking questions
Questions As in, do you have any?
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