Watson and Rayner - Conditioning of Little Albert.

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  • Watson and Rayner
    • Process
      • Emotional tests were conducted before hand to test the stability of Little Albert, this was done by presenting Albert with rats, dogs, coats etc
      • Stages 1 & 2
        • Watson and Rayner established the conditioned fear by striking the bar behind the child head multiple times while he was presented with the stimuli
      • Stages 3 & 4
        • Watson and Rayner wanted to test the extent of the conditioned fear. They firstly present Albert with different stimuli eg, cotton wool, dogs, fur coat
        • They then took Albert to a different environment to test if the fear was still as strong. They took him to a large, dark room .
      • Stage 5
        • Watson and Rayner brought Albert back after some time to see if the conditioned fear had stood the test of time.
    • Findings
      • In the Emotional tests Albert was found to have no fears and was a ROBUST child
      • Stages 1 & 2
        • Albert whimpered and fell forward the first time. The second session left Albert crying and he even tried to crawl away.
      • Stages 3 & 4
        • Albert was given blocks to calm him down. He cried to most of the stimuli but his reaction wasn't as bad towards cotton wool.
        • While in a different eniroment the fear wasn't as bad but it was evident that it was still there
      • Stage 5
        • When Albert returned it was found that while the fear was no longer as extreme, Albert was still scared of the rat
    • Conclusions
      • Time will only slightly weaken a conditioned fear
      • Fear can infact be conditioned in humans
      • Fear can be generalised to similar stimuli
    • Evaluation
      • Effectiveness?
        • Can not be generalised due to such a small sample, only particular to those who share Albert's features.
        • High potential for reliability due to standardised process
        • Was not under realistic circumstances so may not apply to real life situations
      • Ethics?
        • Any ethics that were used were just consideration as this was before bps guidelines
        • Long term psychological harm caused
        • Did Provide Albert with blocks to stabalise him
        • No consent from Albert himself as he is under 18
        • No right to withdrawal, tried to crawl away but was placed back into situation
        • No debrief
      • Social implications?
        • Lead to systematic desensitization and curing of phobias

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