Association for Behavior Analysis International

Other than research on behavior's basic principles, the analysis of child behavior is the longest sustained program of research in behavior analysis. It includes replications of the basic principles (e.g., reinforcement), analyses of behavior of societal importance (e.g., cooperation), applications to behavior of individual importance (e.g., temper tantrums), and extensions of these applications to parent training (e.g., child socialization). This program's brief history, however, has a long past that includes the histories of behavior analysis (e.g., childrearing practices in Skinner's Walden Two, Bijou's Institute of Child Development, Bijou and Baer's theory of child development), behaviorism (e.g., Watson's classical behaviorism), psychology (e.g., child and developmental psychology), and childrearing and child welfare in America (e.g., Child Welfare Stations). A common connection among these histories is Watson and Watson's 1928 book of childrearing advice, The Psychological Care of Infant and Child. Now more infamous than famous (e.g., "pathological," "punitive") the book is, in part, Watson’s legacy to research, application, and theory in the behavior analysis of development. As such, its fame and infamy bear close examination. In this presentation, Dr. Bigelow will describe Watson’s childrearing advice in the context of the culture, the childrearing, and the advice of his day--and our day; address the criticisms of it in those contexts--and at present; consider the nature and existence of “behavioristic” childrearing advice--then and now; and comment on the legacy of Watson’s advice for the behavior analysis of development today.

Graduate students, practitioners, research scientists, and educators.