Monster
Study
Conducted by Wendell Johnson
PowerPoint by: Samantha, Kendra, Caitlin
How could an experiment in
children's speech therapy
end up getting rated the
fourth most unethical
psychological experiments in
history?
Wendell
Johnson
April 16, 1906 – August 29, 1965
Wendell suffered from stuttering, so he spent
most of his life trying to find the cause and cure.
He was the present and valedictorian of his
high school in Roxbury, Kan.
His impediment often ended up leaving him
speechless; which left him with a needed desire
to find another way to express himself. He
started to lean towards the study of literature,
writing and speech.
The speech center at the Iowa University
hospital was named in honor of him.
He conducted the “Monster study” in 1939.
Wendell Johnson chose Mary
Tudor (one of his graduate
students) to conduct the
experiment while he supervised
her research.
Johnson and Tudor conducted their
experiment on twenty-two orphans
aged between five and eighteen; Ten
whom were stutterers.
None of the children
knew they were going to
be part of an experiment.
They just thought that
they were receiving
speech therapy.
Out of the twenty-two orphans
that where chosen, eleven of them
received positive speech therapy;
being praised and rewarded for
their accomplishments, while the
others were belittled and put down
for every imperfection.
Positive Therapy;
Children were
taught the
fundamentals of
speech.
They were
rewarded, and
praised for signs of
improvements.
The children with
slight speech
problems actually
started to show
signs of
improvement.
Negative
Therapy;
The children were repeatedly put down and told they
had a speech impediment.
This resulted in many of the normal speaking children
feeling self conscious as they began to having a
stuttering problems.
The children were left feeling worthless after weeks of
being belittled.
Although his experiment was proven
successful it was inhuman and cruel.
Johnson was the first
psychologist ever to talk about
the significance of a stutterer's
attitudes, thoughts, feelings and
beliefs.
Johnson tried to
keep what he
and Tudor did to
the children
secret in fear
that it would ruin
his reputation.
60 years later a letter
was sent to Mary’s
house addressed to
"Mary Tudor Jacobs
The Monster”.
Some of the content of
the letter read:“You
destroyed my life.” “I
could have been a
scientist,
archaeologist, or even
president. Instead I
became a pitiful
stutterer.” “Even to
this day I avoid
people.”