Behaviorist, publicist and social critic: the evolution of John B. Watson

Abstract

During the 1920s and early 1930s John B. Watson became a successful “advertising man” and a prolific writer in popular magazines. Knowing that controversy was an effective tool for gaining public attention, he advocated extreme positions on child care and family life that contributed to making behaviorism popular, but also alienated him from academic psychologists. Over time his social criticism became stronger to the point that his last article “Why I Don’t Commit Suicide” was rejected by several magazines and did not come out until being published in this same issue of the Revista de Historia de la Psicologia. This article describes Watson’s evolution from the 1913 behaviorist manifesto to this posthumous writing. Emphasis is laid on his attempts to make psychology useful to the general public and business, as well as his critique of marriage, university, religion, and politics, among other social institutions, especially with regard to the lack of challenging values. Although no definitive conclusion can be reached, Watson’s bitter social criticism seems to relate to unfair treatment from a puritanical society and from his colleagues in psychology who did not fully understand his situation after he was forced to resign his chair at John Hopkins University.

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