What is most cited experiment in the history of psychology? Where did ideas like sending children to the naughty step and using time-out’s originate?
According to John Broadus Watson, psychology should be the science of observable behavior. He saw psychology as the study of people's actions with the ability to predict and control those actions and it was this belief that set the stage for behaviorism, which soon rose to dominate psychology for many years. Watson’s ideas culminated in the popular experiment ‘Little Albert’ in which he tried to condition a child to feel fear, however in recent years the ethics of the experiment have often been criticized in addition to its results but the legacy of conditioning remains popular as do many of its principles. The following 6 audio tracks give an insight Watson, his experiments and how his ideas influenced completely different fields.