The Little Albert Experiment

For this paper, I chose to write about the Little Albert experiment The overall importance of this study was to discover if a human could be conditioned to develop a bias, fear, or generalized fear of an animal, object, or person based the stimuli placed around the involved person, animal or object. Watson & Rayner (1920) suggested that “in infancy the original emotional reaction patterns are few, consisting so far as observed of fear, rage and love, then there must be some simple method by means of which the range of stimuli which can call out these emotions and their compounds is greatly increased.” This means that before any conditioning occurs, the subject should have a pure response, but after minor and simple experimentation and conditioning,

The major key findings that were discovered in this study include the idea that it is possible that after being conditioned to react to a certain stimulus, the subject could possibly begin to generalize different objects that may cause the subject to react the same way towards the generalized stimuli as the subject did to the original stimulus. Another finding is that classical conditioning is something that could potentially have a long lasting effect on someone, especially if the subject formed a generalization to the original stimulus. The researchers felt that because of the lack of experimental evidence provided about the subject before this experiment prompted them to research it

After he was involved in playing with the blocks, I would re-introduce the rat, bunny or dog while keeping albert preoccupied with his blocks. I would try to bring Albert’s attention to the animals with a very soothing voice and offer a type of protection in my body language towards Albert. I would continue to recondition him by speaking in a positive, calm, and soothing voice while I myself played with the animal. If he became scarred or began to cry, I would pick him up and soothe him, but I would continue to interact with the animal as usual with a positive attitude. After a while, I would expect Little Albert to gain curiosity and begin to try to imitate my actions towards the animal. Upon Albert’s new reaction to the animal, I would show Albert praise for his interaction with the animal. Eventually, Albert would associate praise and positive attitudes with the animal. I think this would work to reduce the fear in Little Albert because he would be reintroduced to the animal with positive reinforcements, such as the blocks and the positive praise he received after interacting with the