Watson and Raynor

• What were the aims?

  1. Can a fear of a previously neutral stimulus be conditioned by presenting it with a negative stimulus?

  2. Could the conditioned response be transferred to other animals or objects?

  3. Does this conditioned response change overtime?

  4. How might these emotional responses be removed if they don't die out?
• Sample/pps


  -Little Albert (aged 9 months at start and 11 when conditioning began)

  -Alberts mother was a wet nurse at the hospital W and R worked at

  -She was paid $1 for participating

  -opportunity sample

  -Albert chosen because he seemed healthy and quite fearless and 'practically never cried
• Methodology


  -Controlled observation lasted 6 weeks-Classical conditioning (by association)-Location: hospital where his mother worked as a wet nurse-Little Albert was 9 months old when preliminary testing began (check for existing fears e.g. rat, cotton wool, white rabbit, dog) and 11 months 3 days when conditioning began-Albert was afraid of loud noises initially

  5 observations:1st.11 months 3 days- can phobia be conditioned?2nd.11 months 10 days- can phobia be conditioned?3rd.11 months 15 days- can conditioning be generalised?4th.11 months 20 days- change of location5th.1year 21 days- does conditioning change over time?
• Procedures


  1.11 months 3 days-2 joint stimulations

  2.11 months 10 days- rat presented alone, played with blocks (neutral stimulus),further 7 joint stimulations, rat alone

  3.11 months 15 days- played with blocks, rat alone, rabbit alone (stimulus generalisation), +blocks, dog, +blocks, fur coat, cotton wool, Watsons hair, Santa Claus mask

  4.11 months 20 days- +blocks, rat alone,joint stimulation, rat alone, rabbit alone, +blocksFRESHEN REACTION TO RABBIT AND DOG BEFORE CHANGE IN ENVIRONMENTjoint stimulation with both dog and rabbitIMMEDIATELY AFTER, TAKEN TO LARGE LECTURE ROOMrat alone, rabbit alone, dog alone,joint stimulation with rat, rat alone +blocks, rabbit alone, dog alone

  5.1 year, 21 days (test of time)- Santa mask, fur coat, +blocks, rat, rabbit dog
• Findings


  1.11 months, 3 days- fell forward, fell forward and whimpered

  2.11 months, 10 days- fell to the right, cried instantly, crawled away. Fell to left, puckered face, withdrew body and crawled away

  3.11 months, 15 days:rat - fell overrabbit - whimpered and crieddog - shrank backcotton wool - kicked away with feetwatson's hair - completely negativesanta mask - pronouncedly negative

  4.11 months, 20 days:rat - bent over cryingrabbit - leaned away to leftCHANGE OF LOCATIONrat - hands updog - fell over when barked

  5.1 year, 21 days:santa mask - whimpered and criedfur coat - withdrew bodyrat - covered eyesrabbit - shuddereddog - cried with hands over face
• Further qualitative findings


  -Little Albert used thumb sucking as a way of blocking fear

  -He only resorted to thumb sucking in the presence of fearful stimuli
• Conclusions


  1. no fear response shown in preliminary testing, 7 joint stimulations brought out complete reaction. This shows that directly conditioned emotional responses do occur when there was no previous response

  
  

  2. in 5 days, fear response was transferred to rabbit, dog, fur coat, cotton wool + in a different location

  
  

  3. a month later, response was still there. Observations showed that directly conditioned emotional responses will persist and modify personality throughout life

  
  

  4. didn't have the opportunity to establish this as Albert was taken out of the experiment early. Therefore, no counter conditioning occured
• Methodological issues 1


  (negative)

  Point - representativeness of the sample and whether generalisations can be made

  Example - sample consisted of 1 pp (calm/even tempered child) and his mother worked at the hospital

  Explain - use of one pp and the characteristics he possessed makes it difficult to draw conclusions as other children may have had different behavioural responses
• Methodological issues 2


  (negative)

  Point - procedures weren't completed as originally planned

  Example - W and R intended to counter-condition Albert in the final stages of the study to replace the fear response with more functional, adaptive learning

  Explain - Albert was removed from the research by his mother before this stage was completed, so he left with multiple specific phobias
• Ethical issues 1


  (negative)

  Point - right to withdraw

  Example - Albert cried and tried to crawl away multiple times throughout the research

  Explain - he's too young to verbally express his discomfort but these actions suggest that he wanted to leave
• Ethical issues 2


  (negative)

  Point - protection from harm

  Example - in this study, Albert was conditioned to fear certain stimuli

  Explain - this is harmful as Albert was never counter-conditioned so the fear could affect him later in life
• Social implications 1


  (positive)

  Point - application to advertising and marketing

  Example - advertising that uses music is taking advantage of classical conditioning

  Explain - music is happy so makes consumers feel happy when they hear it. Repetitive nature of ads means that they associate the feelings of happiness with the product making them more likely to buy it
• Social implications 2


  (positive)

  Point - development of successful therapies from this study

  Example - SD (operates on principles of classical conditioning)

  Explain - its been stated that around 5.2 americans suffer from PTSD so with the help of SD, these numbers can be significantly reduced