John B Watson and the "Little Albert Experiment"..what a jerk!

Hi Jen, sorry to take so long to answer this ...I needed to think about it a bit. That poor little Albert. I'm sure all that conditioning probably made him a very nervous person, regardless of the actual objects used to stimulate a response. Yes, I think Watson's experiments were unethical and I'm surprised that that fact isn't mentioned in the report. Razor blades, wire coat hangers, acrophobia and claustrophobia are my own personal phobias. The coathanger one came about when I was beaten with a bunch of them at a very early age. All my coat hangers are pretty, padded ones. The razor blade thing comes from a time when I was about 8 and in the bathroom fooling with things I shouldn't have. I cut my finger rather badly on the blade and it bled heaps. I was wearing a blue dress with white stars on it and I used the skirt to wrap my finger...the blue turned purple and the stars turned pink. I was so scared someone would find me because I knew I would be in big trouble. One day, a friend took me 4 wheel driving in a state forest. We ended up at the top of a mountain at a fire tower. I had to climb this very narrow, very high ladder to get to the observation room. There was no door, you had to climb in a low window. The view was just incredible and because the room was windows all the way round, it was a 360 degree view. It was quite an experience. Climbing back out the window to go back down, I froze. My body would not move, it was as if I was somehow stuck. I finally got out with help then had to go down the ladder which was one of the scariest things I have ever done. My partner had to go first in case I fell and he had to prise my hands loose every now and then. I have been afraid of heights ever since. I can't remember where the claustrophobia began.,. I just remember being in a lift one day and finding it hard to breathe and needing to hang on to the rail and close my eyes. I hate lifts and I cannot sleep with my face covered. I feel sick in a train with automatic doors and windows that don't open. I hate feeling like I'm trapped. There are other more personal instances of this but I won't go into detail except to say that there are moments when I'm confined or held down, feeling trapped and I feel like I'm going to have a huge panic attack. Obviously I think some phobias are self induced as in there is a reason for them to occur but I think others are triggered by something we may not even be aware of. Gee, this became quite long, didn't it?

Oh Good God.... What a psychotic psychologist!!! They generally experiment these things on mice and declare the results... And this idiot used a mouse as his tool... He can't be congratulated... I wonder, what he got after proving this... Theorotically, it wasn't hard to come to this conclusion... I pity the kid who suffered through this... May God be with him... Haven't they punished the doc yet????

That is just sick!

Hi JenInTN Unfortunately, things like these keep happening. Though this discussion is about Phobia but its implications are in all spheres of medicines. Every year thousands (if not millions) are made scapegoats and specimens (willingly or unwillingly). Here when I was working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (they have an AIDs Awareness and Charity related program) I came to know that there are many people who are victims. They had been asked to consume special medicines (which were not approved yet and in the development phases) and many had got more critically ill and some even will never get cured. This fact will continue on as long as they are developing and experiments have to be performed on real humans because without that, the organizations (or the researchers) will not be able to find the right cures. I dont think that it is appropriate but then they do not have choices. They do need to experiment out on real people and then get the results right.

Never heard of John B Watson, but I know they use the same method to control dogs barking. When they bark a detector picks it up and plays a loud noise which the dogs don't like. It works on dogs so ergo it will work on humans. I've also never heard of the "Little Albert Experiment" but knowing the world as it is, I suspect there are many similar experiments going on around the world as we speak! Scary or what.........was that noise?

that how these scientist are. as you written in you tag" little" i am all thinking about the great scientist albert einstine. but you are dissussing about psychological expert any way does not matter who he is more is he is experiment maker and what he has show with his little experiment. great one.

I had never heard of this, but I know that things like this happen. Not as much now as in the past, but probably more than I have heard about. It makes me think of the experiments the Nazis did. Not right at all.

no I dont think they should do things like that specialy to babies! how cruel that is. I dont like red and white checked lcothes but I know its from fallin in the irrigation ditch and going over the small falls fight to get out of the water I had on a dress made of that matirel Never wore it again but then it wasnt the dresses fault I should have tried to walk agross that mossy falls it was slick but then I was 6 or 7 . I could wear that kind of clotheing now but DOnt see anything like it anymore

Happy New Year, Jenn, hope u had a big ol' time enough for both of ud, lol.U are way over my head w/this discussion but i don't think what they did to that child was right.Children have a hard enouhj time w/out some braniac messing w/their minds.

No, I don't think this is right at all. They need to go through the right channels and respect others through out all of their experimentation. And young children being abused like this is ludicrous. I hate to think what i might do to a scientist if they took any of my kids and did this sort of thing with them.

I haven't heard of that experiment, but that sounds really terrible! I think that's the problem with people who think that they are 'mad-geniuses'. The line of ethical reasoning becomes blurred. They are so focused on the objective, that they don't mind losses along the way.

It is not necessary that a deliberate attempt needs to be made to create phobias in people or even animals. Life's accidental experiences do generate these phobias that will be there to stay. Take me for example. I dread to go into the swimming pool because as I was in the pool I suddenly got choked one day and could not breathe and now I simply refuse to go there fearing a repeat of that experience.

I'm a psych major and Watson always pops up in the textbooks for his experiments. The Little Albert Experiment was done before there were rules and ethics set up for experiments, so really he didn't do anything wrong...even though today we see this as cruel. I definitely think that certain behaviors are conditioned, especially phobias. A person may have had a bad experience with certain things or situations, and this caused the phobia to develop. However, there may be some cases that someone is born with a phobia or a natural fear for something which then develops into a phobia. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what causes things in psychology, since there are different perspectives that seem to contribute to disorders that people have.

Wow to actually implant a fear into a child is in my opinion sickening. Why didn't he just research adults who have fears that their parents had when they were going up. My husband for example when he was younger was never afraid of spiders and actually thought they were kind of cool. However, when he was about three or four, his parents moved into a place that had more spiders. While he was still not afraid of spiders, every time his mother saw one she freaked out. Now years later, my husband has really bad arachnophobia to the point when a spider crawled on him he pretty much wanted to cry. He never had any true 'bad' experiences with spiders, just the occasional 'oh there is a spider there' that most people have at least once in their life. So his reaction and fear completely came from his mother. Older subject: I love reptiles and arachnids. I have never had a problem with spiders nor a fear even when i held a tarantula. I've known my husband since high school, we've been together for five years, every time I see a spider I freak out. No bad experiences or anything. In fact I used to go walking through nature trails with lots of spiders.... and now if one crawls on me or I see one I freak out.... I've been horribly afraid of spiders from watching my husband react for about three years. I hope this guy never gets to practice this again. There is no reason to use children like that.