Kristen Hurst
Professor Swain
Psychology 101
29 October 2016
Little Albert & Conditioned Emotions
In the early 1900s, classical conditioning, inspired by Ivan Pavlov, had become quite a topic. John B. Watson noted this theory, and wondered if it was possible to classically condition human beings. Watson chose to classically condition a healthy infant, who almost never cried, so that the child would not have witnessed any negative experience prior to this study. Because Albert never cried, it was decided that Watson would classically condition him to emote fear. The boy, Albert, was classically conditioned so that whenever he saw something white, he became afraid. Watson injected the youngster with fear by “striking a hammer upon a suspended steel bar” simultaneously to exposing the kid to a white rat (Watson 1).
“It was suggested there that the early home life of the child furnishes a laboratory situation for establishing conditioned emotional responses. The present authors have recently put the whole matter to an experimental test” (Watson 1). Fear was the studied component of Little Albert’s case, for the fact he never cried. John B. Watson wanted to classically …show more content…
For example, if I wanted to eliminate Albert’s fear, I would go about the situation as if he had a phobia to white objects. I would use positive reinforcement, by adding things such as going to a pet store, and playing with the white animals. By adding the white furry animals, Albert would begin to realize that the animals are harmless, his behavior of associating fear with white objects would decrease. While Albert would be participating in these events, it would be very important for him to have a therapeutic program as well because his anxiety levels would likely increase for the mere fact that he is associating with objects that he has a fear of. Over time, Albert’s phobia of white furry objects would be
Professor Swain
Psychology 101
29 October 2016
Little Albert & Conditioned Emotions
In the early 1900s, classical conditioning, inspired by Ivan Pavlov, had become quite a topic. John B. Watson noted this theory, and wondered if it was possible to classically condition human beings. Watson chose to classically condition a healthy infant, who almost never cried, so that the child would not have witnessed any negative experience prior to this study. Because Albert never cried, it was decided that Watson would classically condition him to emote fear. The boy, Albert, was classically conditioned so that whenever he saw something white, he became afraid. Watson injected the youngster with fear by “striking a hammer upon a suspended steel bar” simultaneously to exposing the kid to a white rat (Watson 1).
“It was suggested there that the early home life of the child furnishes a laboratory situation for establishing conditioned emotional responses. The present authors have recently put the whole matter to an experimental test” (Watson 1). Fear was the studied component of Little Albert’s case, for the fact he never cried. John B. Watson wanted to classically …show more content…
For example, if I wanted to eliminate Albert’s fear, I would go about the situation as if he had a phobia to white objects. I would use positive reinforcement, by adding things such as going to a pet store, and playing with the white animals. By adding the white furry animals, Albert would begin to realize that the animals are harmless, his behavior of associating fear with white objects would decrease. While Albert would be participating in these events, it would be very important for him to have a therapeutic program as well because his anxiety levels would likely increase for the mere fact that he is associating with objects that he has a fear of. Over time, Albert’s phobia of white furry objects would be