Behaviorism

Have no idea what Watson’s problem is—he has issues with William James and Thorndike but it’s probably because he knew they were right. Excellent book on philosophy of behaviorism because it shows so beautifully where the Watson version goes so wrong—doesn’t believe in the mind, doesn’t believe in memory. However everything else he puts forward and gets right just knocks it out of the park. The book goes through a definition of behaviorism, how it applies to social life, some conjectures on human development and utility of shaping both for attempts as well as successful performances. Was shocked to find his term for operant is conditioned response. He is adamant about the primacy of the situation over the consequence. Pretty rad ngl.

This book was a little hard to get through, but of course Watson was a founding father for so much psychology.

While I don't like the idea of paying for academic work, this was a very cheap and convenient source for the classics in early behaviorism. Excellent product!

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) was an American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, after doing research on animal behavior.Here are some representative quotations from the book:"We believed then, as we do now, that man is an animal different from other animals only in the types of behavior he displays." (Introduction)"I have never replied to a criticism. Only rarely has anyone taken up the cudgels for behaviorism. Each behaviorist has been too busy in presenting his experimental results or his generalizations to concern himself with answering criticisms." (Introduction)"The behaviorist recognizes no such things as mental traits, dispositions or tendencies. Hence, for him, there is no use in raising the question of the inheritance of talent in its old form." (Chap. V)"I should like to go one step further now and say, '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.' I am going beyond my facts and I admit doing it, but so have advocates for the contrary and they have been doing it for thousands of years." (Chap. VI)"You have already grasped the notion that the behaviorist is a strict determinist---the child or adult has to do what he does do." (Chap. VII)"No sane person can ever again use the old introspective method with which James and his immediate followers came so near wrecking this most thrilling part of psychology." (Chap. VIII)"The behaviorist advances the view that what the psychologists have hitherto called thought is in short nothing but talking to ourselves." (Chap. X)"(P)ersonality is but the end product of our habit systems." (Chap. XII)"(Y)ou can by conditioning not only build up the behavior complications, patterns and conflicts in diseased personalities, but also by the same process lay the foundations for the onset of actual organic changes which finally result in infections and lesions---all without introducing the concepts of the mind-body relation..." (Chap XII)

This book changed forever our understanding of the mind and human behaviour. Skinner's ideas are now so widely used, it is easy to forget that they were revolutionary and controversial not long ago. Well written and easily understood, it is worth reading just for the freshness of his ideas.

I have not read this book. I am writing a review because, as a historian of psychology, I find it more than a little odd that Edward Titchener should be listed as the "author." Titchener was strongly anti-behaviorist -- he was the premier advocate in North America that psychology should be the study of the structure of the conscious mind. It was primarily against Titchener's method of analytic introspection that the behaviorists brought their harshest arguments. It is true that Titchener's critical response to John B. Watson's behaviorist "manifesto" is included in this small book of reprints. But there must be an "editor" who would, more properly, be identified as the "author" of this book.

John Watson's new idea for psychology, behaviorism went through this country like wildfire, mostly because of his book behaviorism. It is detailed, and for the most part, easy to read. Anyone who is enterested in behaviorism and its techniques should read this book.

I don't know what goes on in this book specifically, but based on his professed ideas on child rearing I would surmise it to be all bunk.His ideas on child rearing would be regarded as child abuse now. For example he said a crying infant should be left to cry rather than attended to.In his "Little Albert" experiment in 1920, he took an 11-month-old orphan boy and subjected him to painful experiments. Now he would be arrested for this kind of behavior.Actress Mariette Hartley, granddaughter of Watson attributed her own psychological issues to being raised in accordance with her grandfather's theories. No surprise!I see a moral problem with giving ANY of his works four stars.

This is an excellent book - a genuinely important contribution to knowledge by the founder of 'behaviourism' (a school of thought in psychology). For me, this is Watson's greatest work. Here, he outlines the main premises of his behaviourist model.Behaviourism seeks to argue that human beings are, on the one hand, determined by nature (our biology delimits the parameters of our behavioural options, e.g. we're designed to be able to walk and run, not fly); and, on the other hand, we are determined by nurture (our social environment and upbringing conditions our ideas, our personalities, etc.). As such, we are not 'free individuals'.I think much of what Watson says is correct. Yet his ideas are also partial ... and behaviourism required the contributions made in the work others, especially B.F. Skinner, to come to full fruition.Watson focuses on classical conditioning. And he suggests that it's possible - through such conditioning - to mould a person into any sort of individuality. The conclusion is, if we - as a society - want to live in a world of peace and harmony then we need to condition people accordingly. That there are rapists and murders means that society has failed to do what is required to make wholesome individuals.The book is nearly a century old. So much of it reads like it's dated. But the basic ideas are fresh and imaginative.I recommend this book to anyone interested in psychology.

I like the fact that this book trumps any foolish notions of 'Social Construction', as it's a powerful testiment.

Very good product.