John B Watson
THE CANADIAN PSYCHOLOGIST
Vol. 9, No. 3, July, 1968
WHO'S AFRAID OF JOHN B. WATSON? COMMENTS
ON:
Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology. John
B. Watson (Introduction by R. J. Herrnstein). New York:
Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1967.
ROBERT G. WEYANT,
The University of Calgary
This book, a reprint of the 1914 volume which was Watson's
first book, disinters again from its mouldy wrappings the often
harrassed spectre of John B. Watson's place in the history of
North American psychology. Was he, as Gustav Bergmann
(1956) has suggested, second only to Freud as "the most
important figure in the history of psychological thought during
the first half of the century?" Or was A. A. Roback
(1937, 1964) closer to the truth in dismissing Watsonian Behaviorism
as a "rah-rah technique" which "made a big noise"
which was "not substantiated by deeds?" Or was Watson, as
other writers have suggested, simply a footnote to Functionalism?
Herrnstein, in his introduction, discusses Watson as the
heir of Darwin, Sechenov, and Pavlov, and as the progenitor
of Tolman, Hull, and Skinner. There is an interesting, but
unfortunately brief, discussion by Herrnstein of the thesis that
the "special problem" of Behaviorism was 'purpose.' The
strong reactions of the early behaviorists against teleological
explanations is an interesting phenomenon, mirroring the reaction
of Newtonian mechanics against the teleology of Aristotelian
physics, and leading to Hull's attempt to duplicate the
Newtonian system in the animate world. Even here, of course,
controversy arises since most historians of psychology have
seen the introspective method as the central problem of Behaviorism
(Boring, 1950, 1953). Alternatively, Bergmann (1956)
has seen Watson's main thesis to be "that there are no interacting
minds."
One can only wish that Herrnstein's introduction might have
been longer. Its brevity has, in my opinion, resulted in some
rather misleading statements. An...
View Full Essay
