Contents
The history of modern psychology has some truly infamous chapters. Ones that psychologists would rather not remember. The case of Little Albert is a crowning example. This shocking experiment on an infant really happened and was carried out by the father of behaviorism, John Watson.
- Little Albert was 11 months old when he became a participant in John Watson’s most famous experiment
- He was largely in line with Ivan Pavlov’s famous classical conditioning, where dogs were “programmed” to drool over the sound of a bell
- The difference, however, was that this time a small child was “programmed”. And the main tool was fear
- More information can be found on the Onet homepage
In the beginning, there was Pavlov and his dogs
Before the experiment with Little Albert, another scientist, Ivan Pavlov, discovered that “programming” was possible. At least when it comes to animals. The scientist noticed that dogs began to drool at the sight of food. So he wanted to see if this reaction could also be triggered by some additional stimulus.
For some time, the administration of food was also accompanied by the sound of the bell, which in the dog’s mind was to be associated with the information that it would receive food. After a short time, the animals began to drool at the mere sound of the bell, even if it was not accompanied by food. This phenomenon has been called classical conditioning.
The rest of the text is below the video.
Little Albert is to be scared
In 1920, the psychologist John Watson, inspired by the work of Ivan Pavlov, decided to go one step further. He wanted to see if emotional responses such as fear might be due to external factors rather than individual characteristics. In other words, is a person suffering from arachnophobia afraid of spiders just because she was born like this, or that it was caused by some specific circumstances (e.g. a child saw his mother panic when she saw a large arachnid appeared at home, which makes him associate him with a threat).
- Also check: He fell ill as a child. He has been living in an iron lung for almost 70 years
John Watson needed a young child to conduct the experiment. One that is not yet marked by possible “programming” from the outside. The choice fell on an orphan who had been in hospital since birth. For the purposes of the experiment, the identity of a 9-month-old child was concealed. From now on he was just “Little Albert”.
There was still a choice of target. Watson decided that he would determine whether Little Albert, who was positive about animals, would begin to fear them if he was “programmed” to do so.
Little Albert – an experiment. Panic at the sight of Santa Claus
The Watson experiment has begun. A white rat was placed in front of an unaware 9-month-old baby (some sources say it was a rabbit). As the boy confidently stretched out his hand to pet the animal, there was a terrifying sound (it was a hammer hitting a metal rod). Little Albert got scared and started to cry. The same attempt was repeated many times.
Thereafter, “programming” was interrupted for five days. It was about checking if the reaction to the stimulus would become permanent in Little Albert’s consciousness. And in fact – the boy reacted with fear and crying at the sight of the rat, even though the loud noise was no longer heard. In addition, the child also had a transfer. Other animals, the fur itself, and even … the mask of Santa Claus caused him fear.
- Editors recommend: Boy in a plastic bubble. He spent his whole life in it
Then the experiment was stopped. And while it may seem extremely unethical at this stage, it will get even worse. Little Albert was left by the researchers with a phobia created for the purpose of the experiment. Nobody tried to undo the effect of the study, and thus cure the boy of fear of animals.
Who was Little Albert and what happened to him afterwards?
With Little Albert’s personal details left undisclosed, it was hard to find out what happened to the child involved in the infamous experiment. There are, however, two clues.
In 2009, Hall P. Beck, Sharman Levinson, and Gary Irons presented evidence to prove that Little Albert was actually Douglas Merritte. A boy with this name was born with congenital hydrocephalus and died when he was only six years old. If this information were to be confirmed, Watson’s experiment would prove even more unethical, because his victim would be a sick child.
Soon after, however, the researchers’ theory was challenged by psychologists Russ Powell and Nancy Digdon. In their opinion, William Barger, not Douglas Merritte, was involved in the Watson experiment. He was born at the same time as the boy with hydrocephalus. In addition, his family called him “Albert”. Barger died in 2007 at the age of 87. Interestingly, his irrational fear of dogs was remembered by members of his family. He was even the subject of jokes.
Could Barger really be Little Albert? If so, his biography may be proof that an experiment conducted on him in his early childhood made the man fear animals for the rest of his life. The fear that he did not have when he was born. And the fear that he could get rid of, if Watson, after the experiment was over, found a way to simply remove this artificially created fear.
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time we devote it to the problems of the perineum – a part of the body just like any other. And although it concerns all of us, it is still a taboo subject that we are often ashamed to talk about. What do hormonal changes and natural births change? How not to harm the pelvic floor muscles and how to care for them? How do we talk about perineal problems with our daughters? About this and many other aspects of the problem in a new episode of the podcast.
Also read:
- Mrs. Beata from Świecie woke up during the operation. She was traumatized
- What is Schumacher’s condition? The neurosurgeon from the Clinic “Alarm Clock for Adults” talks about the possibilities
- The newborn was born with blue skin. It turned out that there were more people like him
- “Toxic Lady”. The medics in the emergency room lost consciousness and suffered from convulsions
- All the sins of Oscar Pistorius. Was he really an outstanding athlete?