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John B. Watson
1878–1958; manifesto 1913· Psychologist or thinker
Historical, now abandonedImportant in its time, no longer accepted.
American psychologist who launched behaviorism in 1913, then took psychology into advertising after a scandal ended his academic career.
See it on the Psychology map →What it says
A Johns Hopkins professor, Watson published 'Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It' in 1913 and became American Psychological Association president in 1915. In 1920 he ran the Little Albert fear study with graduate student Rosalie Rayner; their affair cost him his job that year. He joined the J. Walter Thompson ad agency, applying emotional appeals to products such as Pond's cold cream. His 1928 bestseller on child care told parents never to hug or kiss their children.
Why it matters
He set American psychology on a course toward measurable behavior for decades and pioneered psychology-driven advertising; his cold parenting advice was later rejected.
Legacy and how the work held up
Status: historical. His 1913 paper and 1925 book Behaviorism survive; attachment research later contradicted his child-rearing advice. University records and letters document his 1920 dismissal.
Connections (3)
▸John B. Watson founded BehaviorismWell replicated
The connection
Watson's 1913 paper 'Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It' gave the movement its name and program: drop consciousness and introspection, study only what can be observed, and aim to predict and control behavior. As APA president from 1915 he promoted conditioning as the method, and his 1925 book Behaviorism popularized the approach.
Who showed it and when
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; first delivered as a lecture at Columbia University in New York in 1913 and published in Psychological Review that year.
The evidence
The 1913 paper is among the most cited in psychology's history and is universally treated as behaviorism's founding statement.
Open questions
Whether Watson originated behaviorism or named a trend: animal researchers were already moving that way, and historians find his manifesto's early reception was modest.
▸The 'Little Albert' fear experiment was run by John B. WatsonWell replicated
The connection
Watson designed the Little Albert study with graduate student Rosalie Rayner to show that emotions such as fear could be conditioned, supporting his claim that environment shapes nearly everything. Their 1920 paper became his best-known experiment. That same year their affair became public and Johns Hopkins forced him out; he soon married Rayner.
Who showed it and when
Harriet Lane Home for children at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1919–1920; published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology in 1920.
The evidence
The 1920 Watson and Rayner paper, surviving film footage and university records; Watson's own later retellings, which often changed details.
Open questions
Whether they ever meant to remove Albert's fear: the paper says he left before they could, but historians note they knew his departure date in advance.
▸Classical conditioning (Pavlov's dogs) inspired John B. WatsonWell replicated
The connection
Watson needed an objective method to replace introspection. Around 1915 he seized on the conditioned reflex as the building block of learning, arguing even complex habits and emotions were chains of conditioned responses. His 1915 presidential address to the American Psychological Association promoted it, and Little Albert was his attempt to show it in a human.
Who showed it and when
Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, 1914–1916, drawing on Pavlov and his Russian rival Vladimir Bekhterev, whose movement-based conditioning Watson actually copied in his lab.
The evidence
Watson's published 1916 address, 'The Place of the Conditioned-Reflex in Psychology', describes his Bekhterev-style experiments and credits both Russians.
Open questions
Historians note his 1913 manifesto barely mentioned conditioning; whether it was behaviorism's foundation or a tool adopted later is debated.