PSYC312 - HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 8 Notes - Behaviourism John Watson & Founding Behaviourism - John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) " Born in poverty in rural Travelers Rest, South Carolina in 1878. " Mother was religiously devout; father was an alcoholic who abandoned the family for extended periods. " Attended Furman University -> mother hoped he would become a Baptist minister " Graduated with a master's degree in 1899. - After his mother's death, Watson sought further education and went to the University of Chicago in 1900. " Supported studies by working as an assistant janitor, delivering books for a library, waiting tables, and keeping white rats for Professor H.H. Donaldson. . Watson was interested in philosophy > turned off by classes with John Dewey, chose to study psychology · Worked with James Rowland Angell and Henry Herbert Donaldson on doctoral research o Involved studying relationship between learning and changes in nerve fibers in rat's cortex. - Received doctoral degree in 1903 -> remained faculty at Chicago as an instructor, working closely with Angell. - Married Mary Ickes -> former student of his. - Animal research was not possible in structuralism due to reliance on introspection - Functional psychology (focused on learning as means of adapting to new environment) animals were good subjects. " Animal research dominated functionalism and behaviorism and has roots in work of Darwin. Beginnings of Comparative Psychology - Comparative psychology: the study of similarities and differences in behavioral organization among living beings, from bacteria to plants to humans · Subfield of animal psychology · Many animal psychologists study animal behavior for its own sake o Comparative psychologists study the behavior of nonhuman animals in order to generalize their findings to human behavior. - Comparative psychology is possible only if there is some tie between humans and other animals " Some evidence they share a common ancestry. · Keeping human beings separate from the animal kingdom had been something that philosophers and theologians had been careful to do for centuries -> views of phylogenetic division would change. Copernicus showed the earth was not the center of the universe and that it revolved around the sun (16th C.) - · For many, the planet seemed a little less significant. - Darwin demonstrated morphological and behavioral ties between humans and rest of animal kingdom (19th C.) · Humans seemed a little less significant. " Darwin's books were important for the birth of comparative psychology including: o On the Origin of Species (1859) o The Descent of Man (1871) o The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). · Darwin was interested in animal behavior, but also speculated about the relationship between animal and human behavior. . Linkage would be help the work of follower George John Romanes - George John Romanes (1848-1894) " Laid foundation for comparative psychology > postulated similarities of cognitive processes and mechanisms between humans and other animals. · In his studies of animal behavior, Romanes used a method called introspection by analogy o