2 John B. Watson
- Full name: John Broadus Watson
- Born: January 9, 1878
- Died: September 25, 1958 (aged 80)
- Nationality: American
- What Watson was known for: When Pavlov jump-started the field of psychology by recognizing the role of learned responses, he also kicked off behaviorism. Watson was the first behaviorist, arguing that psychologists can only base their theories on observation, and utilizing the study of animals in order to draw conclusions regarding human behavior.
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select–doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. -John B. Watson