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Pros And Cons Of The Little Albert Experiment

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The Little Albert Experiment is one of the most well-known and controversial studies in the history of psychology. Conducted by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920, the experiment involved conditioning a young child, known only as "Little Albert," to develop a phobia of a white rat. The experiment has been criticized for its ethical implications, as well as for the methods used to condition the child. This paper will provide an overview of the Little Albert Experiment, including its methods, findings, and criticisms.
The Little Albert Experiment involved the conditioning of a young child, known only as "Albert B." The child was between the ages of 9 and 11 months at the time of the study. The experiment began with Albert showing no fear of a white rat, a rabbit, or a dog. However, when a loud noise was made behind him every time he reached for the rat, he began to show signs of fear. The researchers continued to expose Albert to the rat, and eventually, he’d began to cry at the mere sight of it. They found that Albert showed fear responses to the other objects such as a rabbit, dog and even a fur coat,, suggesting …show more content…

Critics have argued that the study was highly unethical because it involved the conditioning of a young child to develop a phobia. The Little Albert experiment is also widely regarded as a classic example of unethical research due to several factors. First, the study involved the use of an infant subject who was unable to give informed consent or understand the nature of the experiment. Second, the experimenters subjected Albert to a significant amount of stress and fear, which could have caused long-term psychological harm. Finally, the study lacked adequate debriefing and follow-up procedures, which meant that Albert was never given the opportunity to overcome his fear or receive any kind of counseling or

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During the student tour of the conditioning centre, the students are shown real life conditioning of Delta children. “Books and loud noises, flowers and electric shocks-already in the infant mind these couples were compromisingly linked; and after two hundred repetitions of the same or a similar lesson would be wedded indissolubly. What man has joined, nature is powerless to put asunder.” (17). This quote describes the children’s reaction to books and flowers.

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“Opening Skinner’s Box” In the first chapter of her book, Lauren Slater mentioned about the strange rumor of B. F. Skinner: Skinner tried to bring up his daughter like an experimental animal in a “skinner’s box” which is known for his notable discoveries about operant conditioning for animals (7-8). Of course, this is not truth, and his experiment for his daughter was quite loving one which could even assist her growth. Then Lauren decided to apply his method of operant conditioning to her baby to make her not crying during midnight. Even though operant conditioning could help children’s growth like Skinner’s or Lauren’s cases, is it really safe enough not to give them some trauma?

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Behavior therapy was studied by Ivan Pavlov and his famous dog study in which dogs were conditioned to salivate upon hearing a bell. It was later continued to be studied by John Watson who has the famous “Little Albert” study in which an 11-month old infant was conditioned to be scared of fuzzy white things because a rat was paired with a loud noise. The conclusion of the two conditioning experiences was that, behaviors followed by satisfying experiences tend to increase in frequency and behaviors followed by aversive experiences tend to decrease in frequency” (Thoma, 2015). Watson’s assistant Mary Jones, used this principle to clinical applications reasoning that, “if conditioning could be used to induce a phobia, perhaps it could be used to undo a phobia as well” (Thoma, 2015). Thus, behavior therapy was developed and began being used for

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Like Psychologist Diana Baumrind did so in her article “Review of Stanley Milgram’s Experiments”. Where she makes it very clear that she disagrees with causing individuals stress and discomfort. In her article, Baumrind states “It is potentially harmful to a subject to commit, on the course of an experiment, acts which he himself considers unworthy, particularly when he has been entrapped into committing such acts by an individual he has reason to trust” which in this case the trustworthy individual would be Stanley Milgram. Baumrind also worried about the dangers of the serious aftereffects that may ensure because of the stress and discomfort Stanley Milgram’s experiment has caused. Even though Stanley Milgram states that “After the interview, procedures were undertaken to assure that the subject would leave the laboratory in a state of well-being.”

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And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long" (Huxley, Chapter 2), shows how conditioning techniques

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Alex was conditioned to react in a passive manner when confronted with any action that could be considered ultra-violence. Classical conditioning experiments have been performed on humans with a large degree of success. One of the most notable and most controversial classical conditioning experiments done on humans was Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment. This experiment was conducted to test the fear response in humans. The experiment started off by introducing Albert to several animals, a white rat, monkey, bunny and a dog (Creelan).

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Through The Psychologist Eye In Lauren Slater’s book, “Opening Skinner’s Box,” we discover in the first three chapters the mysteries behind a few psychological experiments and the discoveries that three profound psychologists have made. Each chapter is about a different psychologist, the first is B.F. Skinner; a behaviorist who designed a process of learning in which behavior is controlled, he called this operant conditioning. Lauren Slater wanted people to know about his experiment, she read his books, talked to friends and family members to unearth the features behind this man. She found that he was a loving father, who could train animals to do unordinary things, like play the piano for an example, through the processes of operant conditioning,

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Skinners experiment was based on operant conditioning, using the concept of discrimination learning, he carried out experiments on animals with the idea that their behaviour is predetermined by their environment and using a well controlled environment would allow him to in turn control their behaviours using a range of triggers. Using reinforcement and expectancy, the animal associates acting out certain behaviours with rewards. (Toates, F., 2010, pp. 165-167) After performing a number of experiments on rats using mazes, he subsequently designed the Skinner box.

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While arguably one of the defining psychological studies of the 20th Century, the research was not without flaws. Almost immediately the study became a subject for debate amongst psychologists who argued that the research was both ethically flawed and its lack of diversity meant it could not be generalized. Ethically, a significant critique of the experiment is that the participants actually believed they were administering serious harm to a real person, completely unaware that the learner was in fact acting. Although Milgram argued that the illusion was a necessary part of the experiment to study the participants’ reaction, they were exposed to a highly stressful situation. Many were visibly distraught throughout the duration of the test

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The experiment has been repeated by other teachers and educators over the years, but it is often met with criticisms and controversies because of the emotional distress it can cause to the children. It is important to keep in mind that the experiment is a representation of a serious issue, and it should be conducted with maturity and sensitivity, not to harm the children but to educate them about the harms of

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The Little Albert experiment was a case study showing empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. The study also provides an example of stimulus generalization. It was carried out by John B. Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner, at Johns Hopkins University. The results were first published in the February 1920 issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology. After observing children in the field, Watson hypothesized that the fearful response of children to loud noises is an innate unconditioned response.

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The experiment was executed well. Yet, there are unethical practices happened during the experiment. First, the participants were not fully informed about the experiment. The researchers did not explain to the participants the processes in conducting the experiment. The participants were not informed that they would be arrested by cops in their homes.

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With respect to the behavioural theory, as was seen in the case of Little Albert, while this study showed that fear could be instilled in persons, it lacked evidence to suggest that little Albert developed a phobia. Using this perspective, some time in the past a person may have learnt to associate fear with sleep, based on his brother’s pranks about the bogey man coming to get him once he falls asleep. As a result, the person would avoid sleep at all costs From the hereditary point of view, while experiments were successfully carried out on mice, to show how genes could be altered to engender a particular response to the same stimuli from future generations, it is not clear if the same could be said for human beings. If a person is said to have developed a phobia genetically, it will be

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The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown. The next time Albert was introduced to the rat a loud noise was made by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise and after repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat thus proving a point in terms of classical conditioning. “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.

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The concept of behaviourism is a combination of social experience, regular interaction, and operant (constant) conditioning (Skinner, 1957). It can be concluded that, in Skinner’s philosophy, learning is the product of discoveries of external sources, developed by demonstration and practice. The implications of Skinner’s theory were that the inner processes that take place during learning by social exposure are old-fashioned. Skinner reinforced his behaviourist ideas with the hypothetical interpretations that were common at the time, yet, the conclusions were not practically supported by an adequate amount of research. For example, Skinner established that the experiments performed on the way animals acquire behaviours is sufficient evidence to support his operant conditioning theory; as long as there is plentiful input and training the learning will be developed.

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