John Broadus Watson, a methodological behaviorist, was born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1878. He did both doctoral and post-doctoral work at the University of Chicago and also taught at this college. His research at the University of Chicago involved the physiology of animal behavior, and his observations of the animals became the foundation for his behavioristic theories.

Watson moved to Johns Hopkins University in 1908, and this setting was where some of his most important writing was done. He advocated both behavioristic ideas and the need for psychology to become an objective, experimental science emphasizing the goals of predicting and controlling behavior. In 1914 he suggested that psychologists should only study overt animal behavior, and his position increased psychological study of rats, pigeons, and other animals. Some contemporary psychologists were resistant to this trend; Gordon Allport, for example, stated that psychology was unfortunately becoming the "psychology of white rats.''

Watson's popularity led to his election to the presidency of the American Psychological Association in 1915. His presidential address was about combining his behavioristic concepts with the classical conditioning concepts of Ivan Pavlov.

Watson next turned his attention to applying behaviorism to childrearing, and one of his most famous studies involved the classical conditioning of fears in "Little Albert.'' Watson wrote the "bestselling'' childcare book Psychological Care of the Infant and Child; many of the concepts in this book are not advocated today, such as letting infants "cry it out,'' strict schedules, and unemotional parenting.

By 1917, Watson was studying the human sexual response. Because this was the Victorian era, his work was less accepted than the work done later by Alfred Kinsey or by Masters and Johnson. Unfortunately, Watson chose to include himself and his female laboratory assistant as subjects in his study of the human sexual response during intercourse. His wife sued him for divorce and had all of his research records confiscated and destroyed. Watson was dismissed from Johns Hopkins University and did not find work at another college. He married his research assistant and went to work for a private industry, where he applied behaviorism to public relations and advertising techniques. His research included marketing demographics and the use of subliminal advertising. (Source: Simons, J. A., Irwin, D. B., & Drinnin, B. A. 1987. Instructor's Manual to Accompany Psychology, the Search for Understanding, St. Paul: West Publishing.)

Many students believe that Sigmund Freud was the first to propose the importance of the unconscious, sexuality and aggression, and human irrationality when, actually, the philosophers of his time shared these ideas.

Arthur Schopenhauer was a nineteenth-century philosopher who believed that people were irrational beings guided by internal forces of which they possessed only vague awareness. Schopenhauer also believed that sexual behavior was governed by a primary, primitive drive for copulation.

Nineteenth-century philosopher Eduard von Hartmann believed that the unconscious mind influenced everyday behavior.

Friedrich Nietzsche believed that human beings operated by self-deception. He also stated that the two biological drives of sex and aggression distorted all conscious thought. (Sources: Hogan, R. 1986. What every student should know about personality psychology. In V. P. Makosky, The G. Stanley Hall Lecture Series, Vol. 6. Washington, D. C.: American Psychological Association.)

About the psychologist: Although the word "adolescence'' has ancient roots in the Latin word for growth, the word itself is a twentieth century phenomenon-it was coined by G. Stanley Hall, who is considered the founder of adolescent psychology. Hall believed that adolescence was a stormy and stressful developmental stage; current research suggests that a significant minority of the adolescent population has a "stormy adolescence.''

Hall is also remembered for his experimental work in child development, and for pioneering the study of aging with a book written when he was nearly 80 years old. Although he began his research with case studies, Hall knew he needed large numbers of subjects in order to have representative data. To acquire the necessary data, Hall devised the questionnaire method, now an important research method in all the social sciences. Although best-known for his study of children and teenagers, Hall was important to the whole of psychology and was one of the founders of the American Psychological Association. Here are some quotes from Hall's Adolescence (1904): ". . . every step of the upward way is strewn with wreckage of body, mind, and morals.'' "The teens are emotionally unstable and pathic. It is a natural impulse to experience hot and perfervid psychic states, and it is characterized by emotionalism.'' "Normal children often pass through stages of passionate cruelty, laziness, lying and thievery.''

Psychologists often compare historical affects on our development and come up with interesting trends. However, it is a harder task for scientists to understand how development will be affected in the future because people generally do poorly in predicting what events and social policy will occur in the future. This flaw becomes apparent when hearing predictions made in 1893 (in a ten-week series by the American Press Association around the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair) about what society will be like in 1993. Although a few have come true, most have not; moreover, we cannot tell which of our predictions will be correct. (Source: Walter, D. 1993. Today Then. American World and Geographic Publishing.)

One of the ways in which developmental psychology is distinct from other areas in psychology is its focus on a special kind of behavioral and psychological change. Developmental change is said to be different from other types of change such as learning and maturation.

Give a lecture that explores the nature of developmental change, its causes, and what distinguishes it from other types of change. Although there are different views about what characterizes developmental change, consider these four features: Developmental change (a) is orderly; (b) is relatively long lasting; (c) produces something that is new or qualitatively different from what was present earlier; and (d) results in superior functioning. Elaborate and exemplify each of these points with brief descriptions of material that you will cover in the course. Motor development is an excellent vehicle, as are Piaget's theory and material on language development.

After characterizing development, discuss causes of development. Consider these possibilities: (a) heredity; (b) biological maturation; (c) psychological change; and (d) environmental forces. Then address the question of whether any one of these causes is more important than any other. In this context begin a treatment of the concept of interaction as a way to understand development (see class activities next for a useful illustration). Useful examples include phenylketonuria, language development, Vygtosky's theory of the proximal zone of development, the concept of critical period, gene interactions ¾ in fact, virtually any developmental topic.

In the late 1970s reform of hospital procedures for handling births received strong impetus from the claims made by pediatricians Klaus and Kennel that mothers needed immediate contact with their newborn babies to bond properly with them. Use this work as the basis of one of your early lectures to illustrate the potential influence of developmental psychology on policies and practices for raising children. Describe the original work, and either describe or discuss appropriate applications of it to or with the class, assuming that the findings were valid.

Then mention that the original work quickly became controversial. Invite the class to criticize it. Eventually, discuss its shortcomings and talk about subsequent research that essentially disconfirmed Klaus and Kennel's findings. An interesting point to pursue, however, is that parents and hospitals alike continue to stress the value of early parent-infant contact anyway to their developing relationship. Discuss why.

This lecture provides a good opportunity to illustrate the potential contributions of developmental psychology, the importance of good research methodology, and the place that values have in both research and practice. You may also find it to be a good vehicle for further illustrating concepts and issues you have raised in the other lectures suggested here.

Present an overview of the importance of observational methodologies in life-span developmental psychology. Begin by defining the technique. Focus on observation as a means of identifying patterns and regularities in behavior that invite explanation. Relate this to the process of discovery in all of the sciences, drawing on examples from physics, chemistry, biology, and other sciences.

Explore some of the early observational work. Darwin is a good example, whom you may want to parallel with other baby biographers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries (e.g., Piaget). Identify example regularities such people noticed and felt needed explanation. Comment on how pervasive observational work is in child psychology, and therefore how important it is to understand how it is done. An interesting point to discuss here is the fact that observational work has made something of a comeback in child psychology because researchers are in search of new ideas about various aspects of development.

Finally, explore some of the difficulties of doing observational work. How do observers decide what to look at? How do they record all the information they need? How do they know their observations are accurate? What are the limitations of observational strategies? Depending on time constraints, this may be a good time to deal with such concepts as reliability and validity, or as a point of departure for talking about other research strategies.