Evaluation of little albert

Question 1

strength with control?

Answer 1

• has high control
• For example albert had no prior learning due to his age , that could have influenced his fear response
• cause and effect
• Replication
• standardised procedures

Question 2

What happened in jones?

Answer 2

they used the same procedure to decondition a phobia of small fury animals of a child a similar age by using systematic desensitisation

Question 3

Strength regarding practical applications?

Answer 3

-can be used to reduce phobias as in little peter
-Systematic desensitisation
also can be used and provides support for aversion therapy

Question 4

weakness ecological validity?

Answer 4

• not ecologically valid so cant be generalised
• Lab environment
• not how you would obtain a phobia in every day life

Question 5

weakness use of one participant?

Answer 5

careful generalising as little albert may not be representative of all other children

• lacks pop validity
• Albert had been raised in a hospital and never had shown responses of fear before so he was unusual.
• More recent studies show that he had hydrocephalus from birth which was said to explain his lack of fear to begin with

Question 6

Ethics?

Answer 6

• albert was conditioned to fear numerous stimuli
• His mother removed him from the experiment before the fear was removed
• this breaks ethical guidelines of protection
• However benefits to others through the development could outweigh the costs to albert