Research; Examples of Previous Research

Question 1

Little Albert Experiment

Answer 1

Case study conducted by Watson and Raynor 1919-1920

Question 2

Stanford Prison Experiment

Answer 2

Conducted by Zimbardo in 1971

Question 3

Aim of Little Albert

Answer 3

To successfully instil a fear in the child

Question 4

Procedure of Little Albert

Answer 4

Using Pavlovian Classical Conditioning, they took the previously neutral stimulus (white rat) accompanied by the unconditioned stimulus (loud noise)

Conditioning process; white rat with loud noise
Conditioned stimulus; white rat without loud noise
Conditioned response; fear/ distress

Question 5

Findings of Little Albert

Answer 5

The child now feared the rat without the loud noise present

Extinction; without reinforcement a conditioned association can fade over time

Generalisation; conditioned association can be clustered to other things e.g. if a child doesn’t like one teacher they can go on to not like all

Question 6

Aim of Stanford

Answer 6

To study the effects of situational variables on participants behaviour and actions

Question 7

Procedure of Stanford

Answer 7

24 psychologically well males were assigned to be ‘guards’ or ‘prisoners’ in a pretend prison

Were paid $15 for each day

Were treated like actual prisoners, arrested, assigned numbers and uniforms

Guards worked long hours, instructed to do as they felt was necessary, nothing physical

Question 8

Findings of Stanford

Answer 8

Prisoners exerted independence
Guards exerted authority

People could quickly become accustomed to situational variables

Prisoners became emotionally disturbed

Question 9

Strength of Stanford

Answer 9

• Helped to explain the dehumanisation of prisoners
• The harmful effect led to the introduction of ethical guidelines in psychology which must be used in every research study

Question 10

Weakness of Stanford

Answer 10

Highly unethical study
• Some participants became emotionally disturbed
• Had to be terminated after 6 days due to the extreme, pathological behaviour presented by each participant

Question 11

Strength of Little Albert

Answer 11

Helped to understand fears in humans

Question 12

Weakness of Little Albert

Answer 12

Highly unethical
• Done on an infant
• Could not consent on behalf of themselves
• Inflicted emotional distress