Poor Little Albert

Class,

In a classic study in 1919, John Watson conducted research using a little 9-month-old boy named "Little Albert" as his test subject. He introduced Little Albert to harmless things such as a rabbit, a stuffed animal, and a ball of white wool. However, when Little Albert was 11 months old, Watson smashed a metal rod against a pipe and scared Little Albert about out of his pants! He immediately cried and covered his ears. Little Albert began to associate those normal items with the painful, loud sound and wanted nothing to do with them.

Some people say this was cruel as one should do no harm to another. Investigators tried to track down Little Albert later in life and it was said he died at age 87 in 2007 and did not like dogs and held his ears if ever they barked.

Here is a short video with the actual footage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5duLMjaTL0U

What does this mean?We can learn fear responses through classical conditioning! We can be conditioned to fear something! Share what you think about the ethicality of this study (Little Albert had the permission of his mother for this study but he was an infant so he had no choice in the matter).

Do you have fears that might have been conditioned through classical conditioning?

Professor Elliott NOTE!! Please respond to the above substantively in the first-person point of view. Thanks.