UNIT II: Behaviorism Reading
RS: 12. Domain Specific, Analysis, Argument, Critique, Primary Source Excerpt
Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one
at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.
--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930
The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist John B.
Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor. Previously, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov had conducted
experiments demonstrating the conditioning process in dogs. Watson was interested in taking Pavlov's
research further to show that emotional reactions could be classically conditioned in people. The participant
in the experiment was a child that Watson and Raynor called "Albert B.", but is known popularly today as
Little Albert. Around the age of nine months, Watson and Raynor exposed the child to a series of stimuli
including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers and observed the boy's reactions.
The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next time Albert was exposed the
rat, Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after
hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry
simply after seeing the rat. Watson and Raynor wrote:
"The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell
over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was caught
with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table." – John B. Watson
Elements of Classical Conditioning in the Little Albert Experiment: The Little Albert experiment
presents and example of how classical conditioning can be used to condition an emotional response.
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Neutral Stimulus: The white rat
Unconditioned Stimulus: The loud
noise
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Unconditioned Response: Fear
Conditioned Stimulus: The white rat
Conditioned Response: Fear
Stimulus Generalization in the Little Albert Experiment: After conditioning, Albert feared not just the
white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other furry objects including
Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.
Criticisms of the Little Albert Experiment: While the experiment is one of psychology's most famous
and is included in nearly every introductory psychology course, it has also been criticized widely for
several reasons. First, the experimental design and process was not carefully constructed. Watson and
Raynor did not develop an object means to evaluate Albert's reactions, instead relying on their own
subjective interpretations. Secondly, the experiment also raises many ethical concerns. The Little Albert
experiment could not be conducted by today's standards because it would be unethical.
What Ever Happened to Little Albert?: The question of what happened to Little Albert has long been
one of psychology's mysteries. Watson and Raynor were unable to attempt to eliminate the boy's
conditioned fear because he moved with his mother shortly after the experiment ended. Some envisioned
the boy growing into a man with a strange phobia of white, furry objects. Recently, however, the true
identity and fate of the boy known as Little Albert was discovered. As reported in American Psychologist, a
seven-year search led by psychologist Hall P. Beck led to the discovery. After tracking down the location
of the original experiments and the real identity of the boy's mother, it was discovered that Little Albert was
actually a boy named Douglas Merritte. The story does not have a happy ending, however. Douglas died at
the age of six on May 10, 1925 of hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid in his brain. "Our search of seven
years was longer than the little boy’s life," Beck wrote of the discovery.
1.
Were the results of this experiment worth the risk to “Little Albert” if indeed there were
any negative
effects?________________________________________________________
UNIT II: Behaviorism Reading
RS: 12. Domain Specific, Analysis, Argument, Critique, Primary Source Excerpt