John Watson

 John B. Watson was an American psychologist who was coined the name father of behavioral psychology. Watson was born on January 9th 1878 in Greenville, North Carolina. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago. Watson viewed psychology as the study of human actions and the ability to predict what their actions will be in the future. He rejected the idea of consciousness and conducting experiments and observation of one's own mental and emotional processes. Instead, he put forth a theory in psychology known as the behaviorist theory. Watson believed that humans act based on their environmental surroundings. Many people viewed Watson’s ideas about behaviorism as radical and he was considered to be an anti-mentalist.  In 1908 Watson became a professor at John Hopkins University where he established a research laboratory in order to conduct research on behaviorism. Watson began studying comparative psychology and studying white rats. In his dissertation Watson wrote about the relationship between the behavior of white rats and the growth of the human nervous system. However, later in his research he started conducting experiments on human subjects.

Little Albert Experiment 

One of Watson‘s most famous and controversial experiments he conducted was known as the little Albert experiment. He believed that children have three basic emotions fear, anger, and love. In this experiment he wanted to prove that he could artificially condition an 8 month infant to fear white furry animals such as rats, rabbits and monkeys. Watson first showed the infant these white furry creatures in front of the baby. The infant had no response of fear. In the next trail, Watson showed the infant these white furry creatures again, however  he included loud sounds behind the infants back by striking a suspended steel bar with a hammer. This conditioned stimulus produced a conditioned response of fear within the infant. This study provided evidence that emotions can be learned and manipulated based on one’s environment.

Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aso/databank/entries/bhwats.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/watson.htm
http://www.apa.org/monitor/2010/01/little-albert.aspx