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LITTLE ALBERT (1920)
Presented by
Saamia SIddiqui
Lizette Diaz
Brandon
Who was involved ?
The little Albert study was an experiment held by John Watson where he wanted to prove that humans could be classically conditioned. This case revolved around a 9-month old boy. The experiment was to condition him into fearing white furry objects (ex. a rat, a rabbit) by repeatedly showing the rat (neutral stimulus) while the assistant struck a metal pole with a hammer (unconditioned stimulus) until he had learned the behavior of crying/fearing the sight of any furry animal. With this experiment Watson created a new stimulus-response link within Little Albert providing evidence that behaviors such as emotions could be manipulated by changing the environment of an individual .
John Watson was one of the most influential psychologist of the 21st century. His work continues to be apart of introductory psychology education texts. He contributed to classical behaviorism, created a pathway for B.F. Skinner (prominent psychologist), and impacted American educational systems. John Watson was a professor of psychology at Johns Hopkins University from 1908 to 1920. His academic career was short and his legacy has faced many criticism. Watson is known for his 1913 article that is credited with founding behaviorism, his 1919 psychology text that introduced behaviorist principles, and the Little Albert Experiment. Due to the scandal of his relationship with his assistant Rosalie Rayner he resigned from his position at Hopkins and moved into advertising. Watson did publish accounts of behaviorism after leaving the University one of them being his book Psychological Care of the Infant and Child (1928) which was very popular and advocated detachment in parenting. Although John Watson had a short career and face scrutiny he has left a mark in psychology.
"Little Albert" was the baby who was apart of an experiment that is arguably the most unethical within psychology. In the papers written by John Watson, Albert was the son of a wet nurse who worked at the hospital. The true identity of Albert has been investigated for many years. One of the reasons behind trying to find out the identity of the baby was to see if any damage was done by his participation in the experiment. Due to the personal scandal Watson was unable to reverse the conditioning. Through much research there are two individuals who are believed to be "Albert". Douglas Merritte, son of Arvilla, and William Albert Barger son of Pearl Martin. It was originally believed without a doubt that Douglas was "Albert" because there was no record of another employee having a son at the same time, but it was Russ Powell from MacEwan University that noticed inconsistencies. He found that Pearl Martin also worked at the hospital and had a son who fit perfectly with the baby identified as " Albert B".
This experiment was significant because it proved that behaviors could be taught and learned through the altering of an person's environment. John Watson was able to justify his belief that psychology needed to study the observable behaviors instead of focusing on consciousness and the unseen phenomena. By working with experiments such as these Watson was able to break the principles of Freudian psychoanalysis. He is credited with creating the term Behaviorism.
"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."
No one knows what eventually happened to Albert, because his identity remained a mystery for over 90 years. In recent years, researchers believe they have narrowed down his identity to these two individuals.
Douglass Merritte: Sadly, the team also discovered that Douglas died at age 6 of acquired hydrocephalus, and was unable to determine if Douglas' fear of furry objects persisted after he left Hopkins.
OR
William Albert Barger:
Albert Barger died in 2007 after a happy life, says his niece. She describes him as an intellectually curious person who would have been thrilled to know he had participated in this kind of experiment. Intriguingly, he had an aversion to animals -- the family dogs had to be kept in a separate room when he visited.