Little Albert Classical Conditioning

Research Essay: Elements of Classic Conditioning In the Little Albert experiment of Conditioned Emotional Reactions, baby Albert was exposed to various stimuli which were paired with a loud banging noise on a bar. A rat was put next to Albert and when he would reach for the rat, they would bang that bar to get baby Albert to display fear by crying. Albert was conditioned to the point that by simply showing him the rat he would cry and want to crawl away. He knew that along with the rat, came the loud clanging noise, therefore he felt that by avoiding the rat, he would also be able to avoid the noise. “In classical conditioning, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response” (Cherry). In this study, the unconditioned stimulus (US) is the noise of the banging bar. The conditioned stimulus (CS) is the rat and the conditioned response (CR) is that of baby Albert crying and crawling away from the rat. The conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that was once neutral, but
First, I have to wonder what the effects of this experiment had on Little Albert later on in his life. The article stated that right up until the day he left the hospital, the experiment continued. There was no evidence of follow up or desensitization with this young infant. The other area of concern for me is that this experiment was conducted with a loud banging noise in propinquity to Little Albert’s ear. Exposure to loud noises especially noises in close proximity to the ear, can cause Noise Induced Hearing Loss (Bredenkamp & Gnaupp). There was no indication that this was even considered. These are only a few of the unethical conditions under which this experiment was conducted. This experiment cannot be conducted today because Little Albert’s well being was not protected, and in my opinion this experiment could have been quite detrimental to his overall