A search by James B. Watson for definitive proof of his mother's date of birth ultimately proved fruitless, although one piece of evidence he discovered strongly suggests that Rosalie Rayner was born in 1899, not 1898 as some sources indicate. Watson believes that his father, John Broadus Watson, wrote his 1936 autobiographical essay before Rayner's death because afterward he was too devastated to have written it.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BuckleyK. W. (1989) Mechanical man: John Broadus Watson and the beginnings of behaviorism. New York: Guilford.
2.
HannushM. J. (1987) John B. Watson remembered: An interview with James B. Watson. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 23, 137–152.
3.
ThorneB. M. (1998) Contributions to the history of psychology: CXI. Factual errors and Watson's autobiographical essay. Psychological Reports, 82, 1147–1152.
4.
WatsonJ. B. (1936) John Broadus Watson. In MurchisonC. (Eds), A history of psychology in autobiography. Vol. 3.Worcester, MA: Clark Univer. Press. Pp. 271–281.
