John B. Watson is said to be the pioneer, or first generation of behaviorism in the 1920’s in which Watson and colleagues had begun to look at different ways to help their patients with something more than psychoanalysis. It wasn’t until after World War II that Watson’s Behavioral Therapy began to develop a working model to help their patients where psychoanalysis was lacking. The behavioral therapy can be categorized into three generations. The first generation was in part nonconformity to the way psychotherapy and psychoanalysis was being carried out. The idea was to change the behaviors that were coming from reactions of an individual that were negative. Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck came along with the second generation of behavioral…
Classical conditioning experiments have been performed on humans with a large degree of success. One of the most notable and most controversial classical conditioning experiments done on humans was Watson’s “Little Albert” experiment. This experiment was conducted to test the fear response in humans. The experiment started off by introducing Albert to several animals, a white rat, monkey, bunny and a dog (Creelan). When Albert started to play with the rat, Watson banged a hammer on a metal pipe scaring Albert causing him to cry. Over time the sight of the rat without the banging of the hammer caused Albert to cry. Albert associated the loud scary noise to touching the rat, thus being successfully conditioned to fear the rat. By today’s standards, this experiment would never be allowed due to the ethical standards set forth by the American Psychological Association…
Imagine having a family member that suffers from a mental illness and is not always in full control over his actions. He has not gotten the help he needs yet and has become addicted to medication with life dangering side effects. Then one day he unexpectedly goes out and commits a horrific crime. Should he have to go through the same process that a perfectly sane criminal would go through? Should he be detained or actually get the help he needs through rehabilitation to overcome his illness? This story summarizes exactly what happened to James Holmes. On July 20, 2012 during The Dark Knight Rises premier, James Holmes allegedly killed 12 people and injured 58 others in Aurora Colorado (Press). It was not Holmes’ complete fault for committing the crime. Holmes should have the opportunity to be rehabilitated because his mind is a great asset to society; he also suffered from psychiatric problems that can be fixed through rehab.…
How were Watson and Rayner able to condition Albert to react to different stimuli such as masks, other animals, and a fur coat? Explain the concept of generalization. “Watson again subjected Albert to noise and rat pairing, but the dog barked in the middle of the session, rendering the session particularly problematic.”( Watson J. B., & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(1), 1–14.) After thirty-one days, Albert was said to show "fear" when touching a mask, a sealskin coat, the rat, a dog, and a rabbit. At the same time, however, he…
The study of behaviourism, as Watson outlined was the idea: of only focusing on physical behaviour Watson’s study was first developed by Pavlov called classical conditioning: Pavlov found that dogs salivate when they see food and attempted to provoke salivation with an alternative stimulus. To achieve this Pavlov sounded a bell whenever food was presented. Later the bell became a trigger for the dog and even if there were no food present the dog would still salivate. Pavlov found that for the associations to be made the two stimuli had to be presented close together in time. He called this the law of temporal contiguity. The study of Pavlov therefore explained that there was great influence from the environment to shape behaviour, so behaviour was explained through interactions with the environment you might hear the music the stimulus (S) and start to dance the response (R). Pavlov clearly explained that…
The aim of the study conducted by Freud was to report the findings of the treatment of a five-year-old boy for his phobia or horses.…
The Little Albert Experiment was conducted and published in 1920. This experiment happened at Johns Hopkins University by John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner. The study was conducted to prove that there was evidence of classical conditioning in humans making them fear things, such as white mice, by the unconditioned fear of loud noises. Watson felt that fear was learned and that children were not born with it, and he wanted to find support for that. He believed that fear was innate and caused by unconditioned responses, and that if he used that classic conditioning, he could cause a child to fear some other thing that most children aren’t typically afraid of.…
Infants are general used as test subjects in areas of Psychology. However, this can cause problems. For example, when infants are used as test subjects in laboratory setting they can experience distress; as a result, ethical issues should be raised. It is the experimenters’ task to safeguarding the interests and protects infants from harm. However, the rules were not always so strict, which is how John B. Watson famous study in psychology came about.…
For example, the little Albert experiment which was carried out by Watson and Rayner, where they conditioned an infant boy, which they called Albert B also known as little Albert, to fear a white rat. This experiment was the first ever study within psychology that proved classical conditioning can transpire within humans not just within animals.…
“Watson again subjected Albert to noise and rat pairing, but the dog barked in the middle of the session, rendering the session particularly problematic.” (Watson J.B., 1920) After thirty-one days, Albert was said to show ‘fear’ when touching a mask, sealskin coat, the rat, a dog, and a rabbit. At the same time, however,…
Raynor & Watson carried out a controversial experiment in 1920 using classical conditioning to try and understand the origins of different fears and phobias. They observed the behaviour of a boy named Albert and found that he took a liking to a white rat and did not demonstrate any fear when subjected to the rat; the only thing that he expressed any fear of was a loud noise which would make him cry. They combined the loud noise with the rat which he later developed a phobia of. Both experiments demonstrate the effects of classical conditioning.…
J.B Watson, who is generally regarded as the founder of behaviorism (Cornwell & Hobbs, 1976, p. 9) and R. Rayner was able to conduct many experiments such as one called the “Little Albert” experiment, in the year of 1920. These psychologists were trying to test the fear that this infant had on certain animals and masks. In other terms, they were testing his reactions to different objects or events that elicit sensory or behavioral responses. Watson believed that a child is born with a limited number of emotional reactions which develop through complex emotions of adulthood (Cornwell & Hobbs, 1976, p. 9). Watson and Rayner had four aims to direct to this experiment. One, to see if it is capable to activate the fear of neutral stimuli through classical conditioning. Two, to see if the fear will be relocated to similar looking objects. Three, to see how long it takes for the fear to trigger. Four, to see how possible it is to remove fear in their lab. Albert B was the infant's pseudonym (a fictitious name) given to protect his identity since he was put to be a test subject for these psychologists. He was “on the…
Before becoming a professor at John Hopkins in 1908, Watson worked as an instructor at the University of Chicago. Watson 's colleagues did not consider him successful at introspection and this may have helped direct him to an objective behavior psychology (Schultz, 2008). When Watson published his dissertation, it was apparent that he had a preference for animal…
Hello! I have chosen to look at Watson’s Little Albert study. I remember learning of this experiment in high school psychology, and it has always stuck in my mind – mainly because I feel so bad for the little guy! He thinks he is going to play with a nice, cute little animal (rat), and then he ends up getting terrified!…
In 1920, Mary Cover Jones attended a lecture given by John B. Watson on a child named “Albert” who was conditioned…