Little Emotional Albert
Rachel Walterman, Jamie Clay,
Jess Schweer, Candace Cornick
Little Emotional Albert
• John B. Watson, Rosalie Raynor
• 1920
• Freud’s psychoanalysis dominated
psychology
• Watson sought to disprove that
biological processes were the only
explanation for emotions
Little Emotional Albert
• Albert was an orphan and an only
child
• Raised from birth in hospital
environment
• Emotionally and physically healthy
• Happy baby
Little Emotional Albert
• Watson’s theory: Emotional
responses exist because humans have
been conditioned to respond to
stimuli in the environment
• We learn our emotions
Little Emotional Albert
• Watson’s goals:
– Can we condition fear of an animal by striking a
steel bar simultaneously?
– Can the conditioned emotion be transferred to
other objects?
– What is the effect of time on conditioned
responses?
– How can the conditioned response be removed
(extinction)?
Little Emotional Albert
• Method
– Albert was presented with stimuli to
observe his reactions to them:
• White rat, rabbit, dog, monkey, mask with
and without hair, and white cotton wool
• Albert did not show any fear to any of the
situations he was presented with
Little Emotional Albert
• Tested reaction to loud noises by
hammering a steel bar
• The noise startled him and he cried
• This is an unconditioned stimulus
because the fear does not have to be
learned
Little Emotional Albert
• Conditioning began at age 11 months
• Albert was presented with the white rat
and a loud noise simultaneously
• At first, Albert was interested in the rat
and wanted to touch it, but as soon as he
reached for it a metal bar was struck,
causing him to be frightened
Little Emotional Albert
• Process was repeated 3 times
• One week later, the same procedure
was followed
• After 7 times, the rat was presented
to Albert and he reacted with fear
• He cried, turned over and crawled
away
Little Emotional Albert
• Watson was curious if the behavior would
transfer to other objects – generalization
• The next week Albert was tested again
and found to still be afraid of the rat
• Then, an object similar to the rat (a white
rabbit) was presented to him
• Albert instantly showed signs of fear –
crying and crawling away
Little Emotional Albert
• Albert was not afraid of the rabbit
prior to the study
• He had generalized a stimulus
• He was then presented with a
package of cotton, a fur coat, and a
Santa Claus mask and reacted
fearfully to each one
Little Emotional Albert
• To increase the significance of the
findings, Albert was tested in a different
environment
• Albert was brought to a different
hospital room with brighter light and more
people present
• His reactions to the stimuli are presented
in the following table:
Little Emotional Albert
Stimulus Presented
Reaction Observed
1.
Blocks
Played as usual
2.
Rat
Fearful withdrawal (no crying)
3.
Rat + Noise
Fear and crying
4.
Rat
Fear and crying
5.
Rat
Fear, crying, crawling away
6.
Rabbit
Fear, but less strong reaction
7.
Blocks
Played as
8.
Rabbit
Same as 6
9.
Rabbit
Same as 6
10.
Rabbit
Some fear, but also wanted to touch rabbit
11.
Dog
Fearful Avoidance
12.
Dog + Noise
Fear and crawling away
13.
Blocks
Normal play
Little Emotional Albert
• Final Test:
– To study if Albert’s learned emotional responses would
persist over time
– However, Albert was adopted and the tests were
discontinued for 31 days
– He was brought back and tested with the same stimuli
and continued to be fearful
– Researchers planned to recondition Albert of his fears,
but he left the hospital on the day the tests were
scheduled
– No reconditioning took place
Little Emotional Albert
• Significant Findings:
– Watson’s theory can explain human emotions in
simple terms
– Freud criticized as too complex to accurately
explain behavior
– Emotional disturbances can not always be
contributed to childhood trauma
– Phobias and sexual fetishes could be developed
from similar conditioning
Little Emotional Albert
•
Discussion Questions:
1.
Even though Watson’s experiment was done in
1920, would you consider it ethical at that
time?
2. Do you think that such fears would have
occurred naturally had Albert not been in the
experiment?
3. Do you think that the number of times Albert
was conditioned affected his responses?
Little Emotional Albert
4. Do you think that the fact that Albert was
raised in a hospital played a role in his
reactions?
5. Do you think that a fear learned during
infancy could transfer to adulthood?
6. Could this study be generalized among all
children or was he just a spaz?
7. How could the experiments’ effects be
reversed?
Little Albie
Where’s Albert ????