The ideas of child-centered research have long been articulated to examine and study the lives of children. Traditionally, research practices have reframed individual thinking and perceptions in such a way that people are more likely to work with children. Unlike conventional research practices that focused on children as objects of inquiry, current child-centered paradigms focus on ethnographic approaches when conducting research with children. American psychologist John B. Watson became keenly interested in childhood behaviorism after conducting extensive research on animal behavior. However, Watson failed to conduct effective research because his research focused on children rather than with children. Conversely, where Watson failed, the short-lived researchers, James, Christensen, and Mayall, succeeded because their research methods and methodologies were unbiased and consisted of ethnographic paradigms, focused solely on the child. John Bradus Watson, the father of behaviorism, is a psychologist whose research lacked effectiveness because his experiments were conducted on children and not with children. Behaviorism is a philosophy of psychology that leads to explaining the physical, mental and emotional actions of individuals (“behaviorism”). Watson used behaviorism to study and identify why children behave in certain ways and what makes them do so. During his interest in child psychology, Watson conducted an unethical experiment on an eight-month-old boy, Little Albert. Watson hypothesized that children's behavior can be conditioned by adults ("John B. Watson"). To prove his hypothesis, he gave Little Albert a white rat and observed that he was not afraid of it. Then he decided to...... middle of paper......shares. New York, NY: Routledge, 2008. 1-9. Research with children: perspectives and practices. York University, 2010. Web. October 10, 2010. Mayall, Berry. “Conversations with children: working on generational issues”. In AP/HUMA 1970 9.0A Worlds of childhood. Fall/Winter. Ed. Jeffrey Canton and Steve Gennaro. Toronto: York University. 2010-2011. 139-147. Contributors Print.Wikipedia. "Behaviorism." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, October 9, 2010. Web. October 10, 2010. Wikipedia Contributors. “John B. Watson.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, October 5, 2010. Web. October 10. 2010. .