Watson and Rayner (1920) - Classic Study Flashcards
Main aim?
To investigate whether a phobia could be created in a child through classical conditioning
Other aims?
whether a fear would be transerred to other animals and objects and to investigate the effect of time on the conditioned response
How did they carry it out?
By simultaneously presenting the animal and striking a steel bar to make a loud noise to frighten a child
Little Albert was chosen as a participant for the experiment as he
had been reared from birth
The experiment took place in a ______________ so the environment was___________
hospital, not unsual for Little Albert
Researchers thought they would do little harm as Albert was
healthy, unemotional and well developed
The first thing researchers did was test Albert for his fear reactions to
various stimuli (rat, rabbit, cotton wool etc) when he was 9 months old, he showed no fear, they rechecked at 11 months
Researchers hit a metal bar while presenting a rat to LA and then tested to see if
the response had been generalised or transferred to other objects such as building blocks, a fur coat, a rabit, a dog and santa
How old was Albert when he was chekced for the effect of time on conditioning and when was he removed?
1 year and 21 days
When the researchers first introduced the banging of the metal bar and the rat together,
Albert jumped on both occasions and on the second occasion he started to whimper and would move away from the rat
Eventually Albert started to respond
negatively to stimuli such as rabbits, a fur coat and a santa mask
At 11 months and 20 days when the rat was presented on its own, Albert’s response was
less severe than previous instances
At 1 year and 21 days, Albert face a negative response to the
Santa mask, a fur coat, a dog, a rat and a rabbit
The study was carefully documented, witnesses helped record the data and there were strict controls as
only one variable was changed at a time, if it could have been repeated ethically, it would have been replicable
The study is evidence the cc can occur in humans as previous studies were on animals and generalisability was difficult, from this:
treatments for phobias that focus on deconditioning phobic stimuli (systematic desensitisation) could be used to help individuals overcome their issues - application
The study is not ethical, researchers made sure Albert was easily frightened and they thought it was acceptable because he would get scared in real life, but there is
little doubt that he was distressed and although they allowed him to rest they continued despite his distress, they did not extinguish fears
The setting and the task was artificial and Albert was in a lab situation which may have made him scared therefore
it may be the situation rather than the stimuli that induced fear in him, lacks internal validity
It could be argued that the noise from a hammer and a steel bar could represent
a real life noise and that playing with white fur and having fears to animals natural
It is also questionnable that Albert’s fear was even created in the first place as
there were random intervals during testing when Albert seemed completely fine with the rodent
It was speculated that Little Alber may have suffered from hydrodephalus, along with other medical conditions whcih may have made his
reaction different to those of others who are not suffering from those conditions which makes it difficult to generalise to the conlcuiosn that CC works in humans
