Consciousness has a very peculiar position in psychology. Sometimes it is regarded as the only research object, and sometimes it is regarded as a redundant and useless concept. People familiar with psychology know that Watson, the founder of behaviorism, drove consciousness out of psychology, but many people may not really understand the reasons behind it. At the same time, since the rise of cognitive psychology in the 1960s, behaviorism has lost its aura. People tend to underestimate the role of behaviorism in the development of psychology. Therefore, reviewing the founding process of behaviorism, especially Watson's important views, is of positive significance for a comprehensive understanding of psychology.

John broadus Watson (1878-1958) was born in a poor rural family near Greenville, South Carolina, USA. his mother was a devout Baptist, and his father drank too much and was out of tune. In 1890, the mother took Watson and several other children from the countryside to the town, hoping to get rid of poverty. Watson is not adapted to the new environment. He is indifferent to his lessons and breaks the law. In 1894, when he entered Forman University, he broadened his horizons. In 1899, after receiving his master's degree, Watson worked as a teacher in a small rural school for one year. In 1900, he won a scholarship from the University of Chicago to study with philosopher Dewey, psychologist angel, neurophysiologist Donaldson and biologist rob. Watson was initially interested in philosophy, and angel drew his attention to psychology. Angel founded the functionalist School of psychology at the University of Chicago, which opposed Wundt's elementalism and tieqinna's structuralism. Structuralism tries to discover the basic structure of psychology by first separating the basic elements of consciousness, while functionalism focuses on the function of psychology. It holds that the mind is essentially an organ to solve problems, and the function of consciousness itself is to enable organisms to adapt to the environment.

Although Watson was angel's student, he later rejected not only structuralism, but also functionalism. Watson was particularly influenced by Loeb's view that all life processes can be explained in biochemical terms. Watson's interest lies in comparative psychology or animal psychology. Therefore, he does not want to take humans as subjects. He believes that the introspection method requires subjects to observe and record their feelings and perceptions of conscious experience, which is very unnatural. His doctoral dissertation was conducted under the guidance of Donaldson to study the relationship between acquired behavior and neurophysiology in rats. In 1903, Watson received his first doctorate in psychology from the University of Chicago. At the recommendation of angel and Dewey, he stayed at the University of Chicago as a lecturer and director of the psychology laboratory. Watson soon became a leader in the new field of comparative psychology.

In the summer of 1907, Watson began to observe the behavior of black terns. He was very interested in determining the origin of bird migration and nesting. Watson believes that instinct cannot explain these behaviors, and behaviors such as homing are learned. He is determined to develop technologies that can control the learning process.

In 1908, Baldwin invited Watson to offer a course in experimental psychology at Johns Hopkins University. In less than a year, Baldwin was forced to resign, which was an unexpected joy for Watson, leaving Watson as the dean of the Department and the editor in chief of psychological review. Therefore, at the age of 31, Hua became the dean of the psychology department of an important academic institution and the editor in chief of an academic journal with important influence in the industry.

Watson is increasingly dissatisfied with the assumptions of structuralism and functionalism. He wants to claim that psychology is a real experimental science, which can produce knowledge with practical application value based on solid methods. However, as long as psychology is considered to study consciousness, it will be solidified into the dualism of body and mind, so that it can not be included in the category of scientific thought. Watson believes that he can solve this problem by negating psychology as an independent entity. For many years, he has been studying animals, not involving pure psychological categories or functions. In 1910, Watson believed that psychological research could be carried out only by observing behavior without any conscious information.

In 1913, Watson publicly stated his position. In his speech at Columbia University, he challenged the basic assumptions of psychology with the title of psychology considered by behaviorists, and called for radical measures to prepare for the behavioral science that he believed was the true meaning of psychology. Watson pointed out that psychology has not been fully accepted as a natural science because psychologists use introspection and imprecise concepts such as consciousness. He believes that concepts such as mind and consciousness cannot be proved, just as the soul cannot be proved. At the same time, such a concept can not make assumptions verified by external behavior. Watson pointed out that the orientation of behaviorism can make psychology a purely objective natural science, and its purpose is to predict and control behavior. Watson hopes to combine psychology with positivism in natural science, and also seeks to bridge the gap between applied psychologists and experimental psychologists. He declared that behaviorists would develop practical tools for important fields such as business, education, medicine and law. Watson has a grand vision for the application of behaviorism and believes that the results of psychological research will have a great impact on human development. At the end of his speech, he stressed that the ultimate goal of psychology is not only to understand behavior, but also to predict and control behavior.

In 1914, Watson became the youngest president in the history of the American Psychological Society. In his inaugural speech the following year, Watson proposed that conditioned motor reflex is the basis of objective methods, which can be used to measure and control sensory responses. He found that continuous conditioning can narrow the range of stimuli that make subjects respond. Thus, conditioned reflex becomes not only a method of collecting data, but also a method of shaping behavior. Therefore, conditioned reflex is the scientific cornerstone of behaviorism, by which Watson develops the technology to control behavior. Since then, Watson began to experiment with human subjects.

Meyer, a leading figure in American psychiatry, invited Watson to establish a laboratory in his clinic. Watson accepted Meyer's invitation and began to observe the human babies sent to the laboratory by the obstetrics and Gynecology Department of the hospital. However, this research work was temporarily interrupted by the first World War. Watson worked on the military personnel Classification Committee and was appointed major of the signal corps. He studied carrier pigeons for the army in Texas and Louisiana and developed pilot testing tools in France. The war made Watson further see the great potential of applied psychology. After the war, Watson returned to the laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. He began a series of experiments, the most famous of which was the little Albert experiment. Watson claims that such technology can have a conditional effect on the random specific emotional response of human infants. In this example, he wants to clarify that a child can be conditioned to fear harmless animals that he was not afraid of before. Watson believes that he has found the key technology of behavior control he has long sought.

It can be seen that the reason why Watson drives consciousness out of psychology is directly related to the object of Watson's research. First, he studies animal psychology and is unable to use Wundt's introspection technology or investigate animal consciousness; Second, he studied the infant's psychology, but he was also unable to use von der's introspection technology, nor to examine the infant's consciousness. Of course, what is particularly important is that Watson believes that the natural science status of psychology can be established through the research of external behavior, and such behaviorism conditional reflection theory can be used as a solid foundation.