John B. Watson: The Founding Father Of Psychology

The founding father of behaviourism is John B. Watson. Psychology changed in the early 20th century to another school of thought called ‘Behaviourism’. Behaviourism had a major change from previous theoretical perspective and rejecting emphasise on both conscious and unconscious mind. Therefore, behaviourism strove to make psychology. Behaviourism is a systematic approach to understand human and animal behaviour. Therefore, research can be carried out on animals and as well as humans in comparative psychology. It is a result of that person’s history including reinforcement and punishment, together with that person’s current motivation state. Therefore behaviourist generally accepts the important role of inheritance in determining behaviour and also they focus mainly on environment factors. Behaviourism begins with a concept that a child is born with a ‘clean slate’, on which events are written throughout the life. The condition of those events cause all important human behaviour. Behaviourist often insists that only what can actually be observed is accepted as fact. They say, only behaviour can be treated, not feeling or internal state. This contrast to the psychodynamic approach, which insists

Socialisation is a process of learning to confirm to social rules. Social learning theorists watch how children learn these rules and use them in groups. They study the pattern of reinforcement and reward in socially appropriated and acceptable behaviour and how children learn. Children acquire most of their social concepts and the rules which they learn from models. They observe parent teachers and peers in course of daily life. Social learning theory implies that the models that children are most likely to imitate are those who are warm, rewarding and affectionate. Attachment is also a part of process. The most significant models are people to whom the child is emotionally