Little Albert

appellative One Mini Lit Review. The modest Albert Study. Not everyone believes that biology is our destiny. many a nonher(prenominal) scientists whole-heartedly believe it is our experiences in life that count. They believe that it is our up-bringing, education, and our purlieu that form our behaviour, beliefs and characteristics. header among scientists in this field of thought is psychologist John Watson. Watson developed a supposition that we atomic number 18 not restricted to our genetic introduce-up, but instead we bum down into the world as a blank except the ticket and all our schooling is intimate.There is continuous dispute over this theory with the nature nurture dig potently in play (McLeod, 2007). On the nature side of the debate, it is believed that idiosync defectics differences argon determined by their unique genetic make-up. They argue that all other characteristics that develop later in life are caused by maturation (McLeod, 2007). The other side is nurture which John Watson strongly supports. This side says that we come into the world as a blank slate and done experiences our slate is gradually filled (McLeod, 2007).To support the theory that environment is more powerful than genetics, Watson designed an taste on an infant ordinarily k at a timen as the Little Albert experimentation. This experiment focused on Ivan Pavlovs process of authoritative teach. Watson believed and wanted to prove that all human psychological science can be explained by this process (McLeod, 2008). The other studies that I get let on be comparing the Little Albert experiment to will be overhead rail substance panic conditioning to socially relevant un instruct stimuli in kind Anxiety Dis cast (Lissek, Levson, Biggs, et all, 2008) and the learning of Pavlovs dogs (Pavlov, 1928).These studies will enable me to make a justified evaluation of the Little Albert turn over by make comparisons to these twain other studies. The Little Albert experiment was conducted by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner in 1920. They chose baseball club month old Baby Albert for the interpret because Albert had been reared almost from return in Harriet Lane home for In validated Children where his mother was a unshakable nurse. Albert was deemed extremely stable and well developed which determined his suitability for the experiment (McLeod, 2007).The focus of their contemplate was to continue on from Pavlovs experiment involving the classical conditioning of dogs, and determine whether this empirical evidence was also evident in humans (Watson, 1924). More specifically, they were focusing on conditioned emotional rejoinders. In determining these aspects they conducted a series of different tests involving a variation of stimulus. before the experiment commenced, they gave Albert a sequence of baseline tests to determine his initial tending responses to stimuli.They presented him with burning paper, a monkey, a dog, cotton wool, a f ur rise (seal), various masks and a white rat. During the baseline, Albert showed no initial apprehension to these items. passim the study these items (fluffy white objects) served as the indep give upent variables. The dependant variable was whether or not Albert cried or showed distress. During the study Albert was positioned on a mattress on a table. Albert was presented with a white rat and just as he reached out to touch it, a metal bar was struck with a forge behind him.Albert jumped and fell forward, burring his head into the mattress, but did not cry. After these two stimuli were paired on several occasions, Albert was presented with only the white rat. As the rat appeared in front of him he became distressed and turned a bearing, puckered his lips, began to cry and crawled away (Watson, 1924). From this, it became obvious that Alberts fear had been conditioned. Albert had associated the white rat with a forte noise producing fear, thus having conditioned fear of the w hite rat. The experiment showed that Little Albert generalized his response from furry puppets to anything furry.Albert showed the same answers as the initial experiment when Watson presented him with a furry dog, seal-skin coat and even a Santa-Claus mask (Watson, 1924). The way in which Alberts responses were taproomd was through the amount of distress to the stimuli he presented. The Little Albert study is a highly popular study oddly across the field of psychological science. Although the study has provided valuable knowledge and understanding of learned behaviours and the development of phobias, its procedures considering ethics are questionable.The fact that Albert was only nine months old deems this study unethical. Alberts mother was obviously desperate for bills to support her son, so the bribe of money probably out-weighted the possible ill-treat caused to her son. Alberts mother probably wasnt entirely aware of the potency risks involved. Alberts fear was supposed to be extinguished at the end of the experiment, but he moved away. Other ethical codes that have been profaned in this study are that of the distress that it caused.Little Albert was never desensitized from the conditioning undergone kernel that because he had a conditioned fear of white furry objects, he would forever be terrified of white furry objects (Watson, 1924). In nowadayss code of ethics, the welfare of the instrumentalist/s is the most all-important(a) factor and under no circumstances should this protection be hindered, unless the participant has given consent to be put under this distress. It is also now deemed unethical to purposely cause distress to a participant in laboratory circumstances (Weiten, 2008).These unethical procedures could have been corrected quite simply. In the study of fear conditioning in people with social fretfulness dis magnitude, they conducted what called an extinction process where the participants were desensitized from any fear conditi oning that in like mannerk part passim the experiment (Lissek, Levson, Biggs, et al, 2008). This experiment is clearly ethical as it was only conducted in 2008 and would have had to have been passed by the ethics board in order to be conducted. The Little Albert study is a valid study yet it was not measured effectively.The way in which Little Alberts fear was measured was just whether or not he cried or showed distress. The way in which they measured this could have been improved in order to get more valid and reliable results. In this case, the studies operational definition was not valid. The Little Albert study could have used apparatus in order to get more valid results. For example, they could have measured Alberts fear by assessing his skin conductivity. This would have measured Alberts distress through touchstone the arousals in his skin i. e. weat. They also could have used the blink-startle response measuring stick as used in kick upstairs fear conditioning to sociall y relevant unconditioned stimuli in companionable Anxiety complaint (Lissek, Levson, Biggs, et al, 2008). This method measures how much the participant blinks when presented with a stimuli. If the participant is galvanize (scared) by something, they will blink a lot more than if they are not startled. The reliability of the Little Albert study is not strong. If the same study was conducted today, the same results would not be found.Little Alberts responses to the stimuli that he was presented with could have been a result of his general fear of animals, not that he conditioned a fear of white fluffy objects. Most people would agree with me when I say that if you were a nine month old baby and an animal was jumping up at your face, you would be scared and would become distressed. cosmos a nine month old baby, Albert also could have just been tired, bored, and hungry or just missed his Mother. None of these factors were accounted for during the trials.If the same study was conduc ted today, it would become extremely obvious that times have changed and so too should the design of the study. The reliability of the experiment is hindered by the fact that the method of measurement is simply observation and there is no concrete evidence being analysed. For example if they were to measure brain activity or use the blink-startle reaction measurement, these results would be a lot more concrete and therefore the study would be classed a lot more reliable.In comparison, the 1928 study of Pavlovs dogs (Pavlov, 1928) is a lot more reliable even though it is only a few years newer than the Little Albert study. If Pavlovs experiment was replicated today, very akin(predicate) if not the same results would be found. The fact that Pavlov used concrete methods of measuring his data deemed his study a lot more reliable. If he was to measure the amount that the dogs salivate by just observing them, it would not be as valid.To conclude, through the evaluation of the Little Albe rt study and comparison to Elevated fear conditioning to socially relevant unconditioned stimuli in Social Anxiety Disorder (Lissek, Levson, Biggs, et al, 2008) and Pavlovs dogs (Pavlov, 1928) it has come to my attention that the Little Albert study does not comply to todays code of ethics, the reliability is not strong and could be improved on however it is a valid study, but the operational definition could be improved.I feel that the contributions to knowledge of conditioned fear are valuable to society and has proved useful in various situations and other studies. Future studies on this topic would prove extremely valuable to society and our understanding on fear conditioning. References McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply psychology Nature Nurture in Psychology. Retrieved 3 April 2012, from http//www. simplypsychology. org/naturevsnurture. hypertext markup language McLeod, S. A. (2007). Simply Psychology Pavlov. Retrieved 3 April 2012, from http//www. implypsychology. org/pavlov. htm l McLeod, S. A. (2008). Simply Psychology Classical Conditioning. Retrieved 3 April 2012, from http//www. simplypsychology. org/classical-conditioning. html Pavlov, I. P. (1928). Lectures On Conditioned Reflexes. (Translated by W. H. Gantt) London Allen and Unwin. Watson, J. B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. diary of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1, pp. 114. Weiten, W. (2011). Psychology Themes and Variations. Belmont, Calif Wadsworth Cengage Learning.