Practice question · Multiple choice
Watson claimed that given a dozen healthy infants he could train any one of them to become any specialist he might select - doctor, artist, or thief - regardless of talents or ancestry. He offered no evidence and admitted he was going beyond his facts. Why did such an unsupported claim prove so influential?
Hints
- Compare what Watson's claim invites a researcher to do against what "it is instinct" invites them to do.
- The claim is wrong. Ask why a wrong claim can still be productive.
Show the answer
B. Because it made a strong, testable claim where the rival was untestable.
Why
The claim is false as stated and Watson knew he was over-reaching. Its influence came from its shape: 'behaviour is built by conditioning' tells a researcher what to do next, where inherited instinct functioned as a full stop. The corrected picture — early temperament, prepared associations — came out of research the overstatement provoked.
Practise Behaviorism
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