Watson and Rayner Flashcards
What is the aim of Watson and Rayner?
To see if emotional responses could be conditioned using a small child
If they could make Little Albert afraid of a neutral stimulus (a white rat)
What is the sample of Watson and Rayner?
9 to 11 month old, stoic and unemotional, Little Albert’s mother was a wet nurse at the university Watson and Rayner worked at
What is the procedure of Watson and Rayner?
Presented with a variety of objects e.g. rabbit, fire, rat but the only thing that scared him was the banging of hammer on steel bar
Every time Little Albert went near the rat, they banged the hammer on the steel bar (paired 7 times)
Albert became conditioned to fear the rat (cried and tried to crawl away)
Tried the experiment in another room in case there was any context effects
What are the results of Watson and Rayner?
17 days later, noticed a generalisation of fear (e.g. rabbits, cotton wool and santa beard)
Emotional reactions lasted at least one month
Played well with blocks
What are the conclusions of Watson and Rayner?
Phobias of objects can be learned when a neutral stimulus (the rat) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (the loud noise)
Generalisation of this phobia can occur
What are two ethical improvements which could be made to Watson and Rayner?
What is a strength of Watson and Rayner’s procedure?
Standardised e.g.exact procedure of exposure to the rat which could be repeated so we can repeat this with other children using the same loud noise and rat to see if the results are reliable
What is a weakness of Watson and Rayner’s sample?
One individual male child from a single location means his results about learning may not be representative of a wider population of how they learn phobias through association
How is Watson and Rayner high in intra and inter-reliability?
Recorded so could be reviewed and analysed, others can recheck footage to see if they would analyse it in the same way
Why is Watson and Rayner low in mundane realism?
Exposure to rat and loud noise is not how you would normally develop a phobia so structured interaction with phobic stimulus is not applicable to how people really learn phobias
How do Watson and Rayner prevent extraneous variables?
Moved to a different room to ensure that it was not the environment causing him to cry
Why is Watson and Rayner unethical?
Frightened and caused Little Albert to develop a phobia so it is unethical as he was clearly distressed in the situation and continued beyond the scope of the experiment (protection from harm)
