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Struggle for scientific authority: The reception of Watson's Behaviorism, 1913–1920
Author(s) -
Samelson Franz
Publication year - 1981
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/1520-6696(198107)17:3<399::aid-jhbs2300170310>3.0.co;2-2
Subject(s) - watson , behaviorism , zeitgeist , manifesto , perception , psychology , sociology , epistemology , psychoanalysis , law , political science , philosophy , computer science , psychotherapist , natural language processing
Abstract Supported by the Zeitgeist, Behaviorism supposedly spread quickly through American psychology after the publication of Watson's manifesto in 1913. But an extensive search of published and unpublished source material from 1913 to 1920 shows only limited support and a good deal of resistance; documentary evidence for the conversion of psychologists to radical behaviorism during these years is hard to find. Though faced with some troubling problems, the discipline was not eager to renounce its established scientific authority and expertise on the mind. Acceptance of Watson's claims for a new authority required drastic shifts in psychologists' perception of reality, and in their interests to problems of social control.