John B. Watson
An American psychologist who established the psychological school of behaviorism, emphasizing observable behavior over internal mental states.
Quotes by John B. Watson
Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior.
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.
The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute.
Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness.
The time has come when psychology must discard all reference to consciousness; when it need no longer delude itself into thinking that it is making mental states the object of observation.
Man is an animal, differing from other animals in the types of behavior he displays, but not in the fundamental principles which govern that behavior.
We need to study what people do, not what they think they do.
The behaviorist is interested in integration, in the whole individual, and in the way he reacts to his environment.
Fear, rage, and love are the three fundamental emotional reactions.
The behaviorist asks: Why do we not make what we can observe the real field of psychology? Let us limit ourselves to things that can be observed, and state laws concerning these things.
The behaviorist believes that man can be studied in the same way as any other animal.
All behavior is learned.
The goal of psychology is to predict and control behavior.
There is no such thing as an inheritance of capacity, talent, temperament, mental constitution, and characteristics.
The behaviorist is interested in the whole child, not just his mind.
We can make of a child anything we wish.
The behaviorist is a scientist, and as such, he must be objective.
The behaviorist does not believe in free will.
The behaviorist is interested in the prediction and control of human action.
Habits are formed by conditioning.