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Watson Alters Psychology’s Course as Behaviorism Makes Its Debut

In the early 1900s, another major school of thought appeared that dramatically altered the course of psychology. Building on earlier insights by others, John B. Watson (1878–1958) became an articulate advocate for an approach called behaviorism (Malone, 2014). Behaviorism is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior. It is important to understand what a radical change this definition represents. Watson (1913, 1919) was proposing that psychologists abandon the study of consciousness altogether and focus exclusively on behaviors they could observe directly. In essence, he was redefining what scientific psychology should be about.

Why did Watson argue for such a fundamental shift in direction? Because to him, the power of the scientific method rested on the idea of verifiability. In principle, scientific claims can always be verified (or disproved) by anyone who is able and willing to make the required observations. However, this power depends on studying things that can be observed objectively. Otherwise, the advantage of using the scientific approach—replacing vague speculation and personal opinion with reliable, exact knowledge—is lost. In Watson’s view, mental processes are not a proper subject for scientific study because they are ultimately private events. After all, no one can see or touch another’s thoughts. Consequently, if psychology was to be a science, it would have to give up consciousness as its subject matter and become instead the science of behavior.