WATSON John B.

(1878 - 1958) American psychologist, founder of behaviorism. Opposing views on psychology as a science of subjective phenomena experienced directly, proposed a program of constructing a new psychology, a subject to consider-swarm behavior, not consciousness. This approach is premised on the false position that consciousness can not be studied objectively, t. to. it is supposedly open only to the 'inner eye' (introspection). From the theory of behavior were excluded not only the facts of consciousness, but also the neurophysiological processes since they are the subject of another science - neurophysiology of the brain. 'Old' notion of the images, thoughts, ideas, feelings among. proposed to replace the concepts of muscle and secretory responses. Emotions were identified them with the reactions of internal organs, thinking person - with the work of the voice muscles. U. use teaching and. P. Pavlov's conditioned reflexes, but interpret it very one-sided, ignoring the role of processes and mechanisms of higher nervous activity in the regulation of behavior ( 'Education of animals', 1903). By W. laws gain experience in animals and humans are the same, and the experience - biological adaptation, devoid of psychological meaning and content. Employment. played an important role in the fight against idealistic introspective psychology. They stimulated the development of objective methods of studying the psyche, including child. However, the inaccuracy of the initial methodological assumptions - the negation of consciousness as a particular form of regulation of behavior, . reduction of adaptive behavior to external acts, . identification of the principles of human and animal waste, . ignoring neyromehanizmov etc. - significantly reduced the positive value of the exercise have,
. and led to rapid disintegration of behaviorism.