John b. watson

John B. Watson was destined to become a Baptist preacher until his mother died and he felt relieved of his promise to her of attending the seminary. Instead, he went to the newly-formed University of Chicago. There, he studied under Angell and was influenced by Loeb's theory of tropisms. Soon after graduation he moved to the Johns Hopkins University, and soon thereafter became chair because of Baldwin's sexual indiscretions. All along, Watson was thinking about behaviorism. In 1913, he finally published "Psychology as the behaviorist views it." That manifesto revolutionized psychology and, when combined with Pavlov's classical conditioning (see above), became a new paradigm. Watson, like Baldwin before him, paid for his sexual indiscretions by the loss of his job. Interestingly, even in hi...