Movements need torchbearers and behaviorism got one in John Watson. What was Watson arguing for, and against?

A manifesto is a published declaration of the theses or views of its writer, be it an individual or a group. John Watson’s “Psychology as the behaviorist views it.” became a manifesto that went on to represent not only Watson’s own views, but a larger movement in psychology that focused on theories of behavior and rejected theories of the mind.

Questions on the texts

Read Watson’s text (http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm) (core reading) and try to answer the following questions:

1. Which approaches in psychology does Watson criticize and what arguments does he use?
2. What does Watson expect to gain from adopting a behaviorist approach?
3. Can you think of limitations in Watson’s approach?

Watson proposed that the methods used to study the behavior of amoeba, a type of unicellular organism, can and should be the same to understand the behavior of humans – the behaviorist “recognizes no dividing line between man and brute”.
(CC BY-SA 4.0; a collage of amoeboid cells)

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References

Watson, J. B. (1913). Psychology as the behaviorist views it. Psychological Review, 20, 158-177. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm

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