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Little Albert
John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner carried one of
the most influential psychology studies out in 1920.
Psychologists and intro psychology students alike
know the "Little Albert" study. The reason it is
such a landmark study is because Watson was able
to show that emotional responses could be
conditioned, or learned. The implications of this
research over the years have been outstanding.
Preceding Watson, Freud and James believed in
instinctual systems. Freud thought there were two
types of instincts, sexual and life- preservation.
James, however, claimed there were many more
innate instincts.
Conversely, Watson stressed the importance of
environmental factors on behavior. Pavlov
introduced experiments showing classical
conditioning of responses in dog. Pavlov and
Watson's behavioral work lead to B.F. Skinner's
operant conditioning experiments ten years later.
Watson wanted to take classical conditioning
further than Pavlov did. So, he tested a human and
conditioned an emotional response. The idea that
something like emotional responses could be
conditioned was a very new concept to the world. It
not only leads to more research in psychology, but
had affects in other disciplines as well. For
example, Franz Boas (1883-1942) is known as the
"father of anthropology" and introduced the idea to
the world that culture was learned, not innate in a
specific race of peoples. The "Little Albert" study
not only had far reaching implications for the
direction of psychology, but for how humans
thought of the world and each other.
Albert B. was born to a woman who was a wet
nurse in the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid
Children. Although raised in the hospital
environment, Albert developed normally and was
very stable. When Albert was about eight months
old, Watson wanted to determine if a loud sound
would cause a fear response in the child. He was
placed in a room and an experimenter stood behind
him and made a loud noise by striking a hammer on
a steel bar. The first time this was done, Albert
startled and raised his hands up. The second time,
he began to tremble, and on the third time he was
crying and having a fit. Around nine of months of
age, Albert was run through some tests. He was
introduced abruptly to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a
monkey, with masks with and without hair, cotton
wool, burning newspapers, and other things. At no
time did he show any signs of fear or rage. These
sessions were recorded on videotape.
After these initial tests, Watson posed some
questions. He wanted to determine if an emotional
response of fear could be conditioned when the loud
noise was paired with a white rabbit or rat, for
example. Watson wanted to find out if this fear
would transfer to other objects and if so, how long
would this response last?
Watson then set out to establish a conditioned
emotional response in Albert. At the age of 11
months, Albert began the procedure. He was first
presented with a white rat. When he reached out to
touch it, the bar was struck. The child fell forward,
but did not cry. He reached for the animal again,
and the noise was made a second time. This time
little Albert cried. One week later, he was
presented with the rat again. This time he did not
reach for it immediately. Instead, the rat was placed
closer to him. Then he
slowly reached for it, but snatched his hand away
before making contact with it. The rat was
presented again and Albert cried at the sight of the
rat alone.
Watson had indeed conditioned a fear response
in little Albert. Now he wanted to see if this
response would transfer over to other objects. A
week after the previous session, Albert was placed
in the same room and had blocks to play with. He
entered the room, smiled, giggled, and played with
the blocks. This showed he had not developed a
fear of the room, blocks, or table. The rat was then
presented. He turned away from it and whimpered.
Albert was then shown a rabbit. He immediately
cried and got as far away as possible from it. Then
a dog was brought in. Albert did not cry right
away. He was acting cautious, and it was only
when the dog came right up to his head that he
began to cry and tried to get away from it. After
this, a seal fur coat was brought into the room.
Albert turned from it and was agitated. When it
was brought close to him, he cried. Researchers
then presented Albert with some cotton wool in a
paper bag. Placed at his feet, Albert kicked it away,
avoiding contact with his hands. Then Watson,
himself put his head down to see if Albert with
would play with his hair. He did not. But, he did
play with two other researchers hair. Then Watson
came in with a Santa Claus mask on and Albert
showed a very negative reaction to that.
After another week passed, Albert was
exposed to the rat alone. Although he did try to
avoid it, his reaction did not involve crying and was
not as violent as before. So researchers put the rat
in contact with his hand and struck the hammer
against the steel again. This time Albert's reaction
was very strong. Then he was shown the rat alone
twice more. He immediately moved away from it.
The rabbit was brought in and Albert moved away
from it and cried. Then the rabbit and the dog were
paired with the loud sound and presented alone.
Albert showed a fear response in those situations.
Watson then wanted to test whether the
reaction would carry over in a different setting. The
previous tests were done in a small dark room.
Albert was then brought into a large bright lecture
hall. He was then presented with the rat, followed
by the rabbit. His fear reactions were only slight.
However, the dog was brought in and he whimpered
in the dog's presence. Then the rat was paired with
the noise, and then presented alone. His fear
reaction was stronger when the noise was paired
with the rat. The rabbit and the dog were then
brought out again and Albert showed withdrawal
reactions to both.
Although Watson had shown that the fear
response could carry over for a period of a week, he
wanted to test it over a longer time. So, Albert was
taken home and returned one month later. Albert
was first exposed to the Santa Claus mask. He
withdrew from it and cried when forced to touch it.
Then he cried at the sight of it. The same series of
events took place when the researchers brought in
the fur coat. Afterwards, the rat was presented,
followed by the rabbit. With both animals, Albert
showed the withdrawal
reaction and cried when the rabbit was placed on his
lap. Albert cried when the dog was brought in.
Since Albert's emotional response seemed to persist
over time across environments and generalized to
other stimuli, Watson wanted to see if he could
essentially "undo" this reaction. Watson proposed
several ways in which this might be accomplished.
One path to take could have been to habituate
Albert to the animals until he the fear response
extinguished. Another possible solution could have
been to recondition Albert's responses. This could
have been done through pairing the animal with
candy or constructive activities. Unfortunately,
further studies on "undoing" Albert's conditioned
fear response did not take place because he was
never brought back
to the hospital after the previously mentioned
session. Nonetheless, Watson was able to make
significant statements about his findings and
influence the world around him.
Watson concluded that phobias were most
likely conditioned responses. He stated that
phobias were probably either a fear of the original
stimulus or that they had been transferred to other
stimuli, as the person grew older. Watson believed,
like Freud, that early childhood experiences
influenced the adult personality. Watson differed
from Freud in that he had behavioral evidence that
learned responses in childhood transferred across
stimuli and environments, carrying over a period of
time, whereas Freud focused more on instincts had
no evidence for his theory.
Watson's work still lives on today. The effects
of his research can especially be noticed in
contemporary behavior therapy. Behavior therapy
can be done via counter-conditioning. An associate
of Watson's, Mary Cover Jones found in 1924 that
desensitization of a stimulus was very useful. She
worked with a three-year-old boy who was scared
of rabbits. She paired the rabbit with a pleasurable
activity and the child's fear disappeared. It wasn't
until Joseph Wolpe's work in 1958, however, that
the term and technique systematic desensitization
became popular in psychology. He also introduced
progressive relaxation into therapy of phobias.
Today, therapists may also use exposure therapy,
flooding, or aversive conditioning in the case of
alcoholism, for
example.
The "Little Albert" study is extremely
important in psychology and other disciplines. It
has inspired other important researchers of the past
and continues to impact the direction of
psychological investigation today. The "Little
Albert" implications had a profound effect on the
world at the time. In fact, Watson's findings
continue to influence psychology, especially
therapy, even in modern times.
References
Watson, John B. & Rayner, Rosalie. (1920).
Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14.