John B. Watson famous “Little Alert Experiment” was best known as a case study showing and proving evidence of classical conditioning and also an example of stimulus generalization. It was carried out by John B. Watson and his graduate student, Rosalie Rayner, at Johns Hopkins University and its’ first findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.…
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…
* Conditioning comes from Pavlov’s determination to discover the “conditions” that produce this kind of learning…
Behaviour is, by definition, “everything an organism says and does” (Miltenberg, 2012). For example, if a person walked or an elephant slept, this would be considered behaviour. Skinner (1968) suggested that behaviour consists of both public and private events; this idea became classified as radical behaviourism. It has become a philosophy of the science of behaviour; an experimental analysis of behaviour that attempts to explain all behaviour, including private behaviour (Chiesa, 1994). The idea contrasted from the traditional methodological behaviourism of Watson (1913) and developed the empirical study of behavioural analysis.…
During Pavlov's experiment dogs were hooked up to a machine that collected and measured saliva. He noticed that the dogs started salivating not only when offered food, but also in response to events immediately preceding the feeding. He referred to the salivation that occurred when the dogs where presented with food as an unconditioned response, an inborn reflex or instinct that did not require learning, caused by the presence of the food which he referred to as an unconditioned Stimulus; as food is necessary for survival it is instinctual to crave it. Through his experiments he discovered that if a particular neutral stimulus, with no inborn reflex response, such as a bell ringing, was combined with an unconditioned stimulus such as food then the dogs would learn to associate that Neutral stimulus with the Unconditioned Stimulus, and the neutral stimulus would trigger salivation on its own. The neutral stimulus had now become a conditioned stimulus, and the unconditioned stimulus a conditioned reflex,…
Watson’s theory of caring is associated with attitudes and behaviors that are related to one’s will, intention, or an obligation that displays itself in their behavioral acts (1985). Watson’s theory has ten interventions characterized as Carative Factors that centers on helping people across the life course. The manifestations that were associated with the Carative Factors were include manifested as having a higher degree of harmony within their minds, bodies, and souls. Watson’s 10 Carative Factors include: (1) Establishing a humanistic-unselfish system of values, (2) Inspiring faith-hope to increase well-being, (3) Promoting sensitivity to self and others, (4) Building a helping-trusting, human care relationship (5) Stimulating a safe…
mid 1900s two doctors arose with a new level of Dr. Pavlov’s experiments, Psychologist John Watson and B. F. Skinner sought to explain behavior without resorting to such…
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.…
Classical Conditioning is a form of behavioral learning in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires the power to elicit the same innate reflex produced by another Stimulus (Jonson, Zimbardo & McCann, 2009, p.95). By pairing the banging bar and the white rat, Watson and Rayner were able to use classical conditioning by hitting the bar at the same time Albert touched the rat. This created and association of the loud bang, which drew out the reaction of fear, to the rat itself. With the rat having no original reaction, the banging now caused the reaction to be the same in the presence of the rat.…
Using an eight-month old little boy named Albert;Watson hit a steel rod and got a fearful reaction from Little Albert. Every time the rod was struck they would show him a white rat. After just seven times of striking the rod and showing him the rat, they were able to just show Albert the white rat and get a fearful response. Albert also showed a generalization of his conditioned response by reacting fearfully to other white furry items (Meyer, 2001). With the results of this experiment, Watson concluded that adult fears and phobias must be simple conditioned responses that we established when we were very young and they have stayed with us throughout our…
Watson defined behaviourism as “a natural science that takes the whole field of human adjustments as its own. It is the business of behaviouristic psychology to predict and control human activity” (Watson J, 2009). There are three different aspects to the perspective of behaviourism, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning theory. Classical conditioning refers to an individual or animal learning through association. Research was carried out in 1909 by Ivan Pavlov. When he experimented on his dogs, they were offered food and saliva production increased. He also noticed something particularly interesting, salivation increased as the researcher opened the door to bring them the food. The dogs had now learnt the link between the door and their reflex response of salivation .Pavlov then added a bell into the equation, every time he fed the dogs he rung the bell, eventually the dogs would salivate to just the sound of the bell ringing. Pavlov had demonstrated classical conditioning through association (Eysenck, 2005).…
Lots of people have heard of the Little Albert study performed by John Watson. The first I had heard of it was in my psychology class that I took in my junior year of high school. There, we learned what Watson supposedly did to the nine-month-old little boy named Albert. The short version of this study is that Watson conditioned Albert to fear certain objects, such as a Santa Clause mask, and animals, such as a white rat, with a loud banging sound produced by a steel bar, a sound that scared the little boy. John Watson was a behaviorist and wanted to study things that could be observed (unlike Freud). Now, it looks like I know a few things about this study, but I learned a couple things about Watson and little Albert from the podcast too.…
John Watson, after learning Ivan Pavlov’s theory of Classic Conditioning, believed it was worth exploring further, but should be taken further. If the conditioning could be done with animals, then it should also pertain to human subjects as well. He believed that every person learned and perceived differently, which explained why there were differences in behavior. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Raynor conducted an experiment with a 9 month old infant known as Little Albert. According to Watson and Raynor, he was a healthy and well-adjusted boy with mild mannerisms. The experiment would attempt to condition fear of a white rat into Albert. First, Rosalie Raynor introduced Albert to multiple items, similar in sensation and texture; introduced…
(2006). Caring theory as an ethical guide to administrative and clinical practices. Jona 's Healthcare Law, Ethics, and Regulation, 8(3), .…
Classical Conditioning was first discovered by Ivan Pavlov in 1903. This theory is also known as the respondent conditioning (Olson and Fazio, 2001). Pavlov became well known for this theory through his series of dog experiments that tested the connection the dogs made with the ringing of the bell and its relation with food (Ormrod, 2012). This is explained through stimuli and responses.…