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Watson Theory

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366 views2 pages

Watson Theory

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aniketgupta7055
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Watson's Learning Theory

John B. Watson (1878 - 1958) is the father of behaviourism. Watson supported and
promoted Pavlovian Classical Conditioning. He rejected the method of introspection. He was more
concerned with overt and observable behaviour. He explained behaviour in terms of stimulus and response
(S-R). He was an extreme environmentalist.

Watson believed that the behaviour could be analysed into reflexes or stimulus response connections.
Since birth we have certain stimulus-response connections like sneezing and winking. But new stimulus
response connections are acquired by the process of conditioning. Watson adopts two principles to explain
learning. They are (i) frequency and (ii) recency. When a child sees an elephant on a number of occasions
he learns to remember. The factor that determines learning here is frequency Generally the students
remember the last chapter in any lesson because of recency. Watson tried to demonstrate the role of
conditioning it producing as well as eliminating emotional responses such as fear.

Watson's Experiment
Watson (1920) conducted experiment to demonstrate how a phobia might be acquired. He established fat
phobia in an 11 month-old boy named, Albert. Albert was permitted to play with a furry white rat, which
he enjoyed. Every time when the child approached the rat, a metal bar was hit with hammer“ producing
noise. This made albert to avoid rat. Albert learnt fear with the rat. The noise was an unconditioned
stimulus for the unconditioning response of fear.

Educational Implications of Watson's Learning Theory


1. Watson and Pavlov concluded that all types of learning can be explained in terms of process of
conditioning. Fears and phobias are result of conditioning. These are to be deconditioned in the
teaching-learning process.

2. Watson explained learning as an interaction between man and environment. He overemphasized the
importance of environment. The conducive environment to the child should be given in the educational
setting.

3. According to Watson, learning is based on frequency and recency. These concepts should be kept in
mind while teaching the children.

4. Learning is modification of behaviour through experiment. A vast experiment could be given to the
child for the y development of knowledge and is formation of behaviour.

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John B. Watson (Watsonian Behaviourism)
According to Watson, items or elements of behaviour, such as muscular movements or glandular secretion,
became the primary subject matter. Behaviourism concerns behaviour of the whole organism in relation
to its environment. Stimulus response complexes can be analyzed into their elementary stimulus and
research unit to work out the specific laws of behaviour.

Types of Behaviour
Watson explained four types of behaviour:
1) Explicit (overt)– behaviour which can be learned and is overt such as talking, writing, and playing;
2) Implicit (covert)– behaviour which can be learned but is covert such as the increased heart rate caused
by the sight of a dentist’s drill;
3) Explicit unlearned behaviour– behaviour which comes naturally and is visible such as grasping,
blinking, and sneezing;
4) Implicit unlearned behaviour– behaviour, which comes naturally but is not visible such as glandular
secretion and circulatory changes.

According to Watson, these categories incorporate everything that a person does, that is, from thinking to
blinking. For studying these types of behaviours, Watson Proposed four different menthods.
1) Observation– observing in either naturalistic or experimentally controlled environment;
2) The Conditioned Reflex Method– proposed by Pavlov;
3) Testing– refers to behaviour samples and not measurement of “capacity” or “personality”; and
4) Verbal reports– another type of overt behaviour

Criticisms of Watsonian Behaviourism


The following two points summarize the major criticism against Watsonian Behaviourism:

1) Psychology got restricted by behaviourism since it confined the behaviour solely to the peripheral
events of stimulus and response elements. Watsons also ignored physical, central mediation of stimulus
and response bonds by relinquishing mental events.
2) Watsonian behaviourism resorted to reductionism by assuming that behaviour is reducible to
environmental stimuli and observable responses.

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