John B Watson Research Paper

Experiments of the 1900s Two experiments were conducted in the 1900s by two people named John Watson and Mary Cover Jones. John Watson’s experiment was conducted to induce fear of a white rat in a baby named Albert. Mary Cover Jones conducted an experiment that would eliminate fear of rabbits in a young boy named Peter. These two experiments are still talked about today. The Little Albert experiment presents an example of how classical conditioning can be used to condition an emotional response. The Peter experiment shows us a form of direct conditioning. The experiments were opposite in that Watson was conditioning Albert to fear the rats, and Jones was conditioning Peter to get used to the rabbits and not fear them. As a student of

She had a wonderful, nurturing upbringing. Her father was a businessman and her mother was a homemaker. Her father wanted all of his children to receive every educational opportunity possible. In 1915, she enrolled at Vassar College. She took every psychology class offered there except for one. She graduated from college in 1919. She attended weekly seminars given by John B. Watson. She watched him describe his research of Little Albert. She realized then her love of psychology. She wanted to enroll in a graduate psychology program. She completed her Masters in 1920. Jones conducted her study of Peter under the supervision of John B. Watson. Watson, although he was no longer working in academia, was hired by Teacher’s College to serve as consultant on a grant which was received from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial to study child development and provide parent education ("Classics in the History of Psychology -- Introduction to Jones (1924) by A. Rutherford," n.d.). Jones treated Peter’s fear of white rabbits with a variety of fear reducing procedures. The most successful procedure was that of “direct conditioning,” in which a pleasant stimulus like food was presented simultaneously with the rabbit. So as the rabbit was brought slowly closer to Peter in the presence of his favorite food, Peter was more tolerant, and was able to touch the rabbit without fear ("Classics in the History of Psychology -- Introduction to Jones (1924) by A. Rutherford," n.d.). Generalized fear responses to similar objects were also eliminated by this