Little Emotional Albert Summary

“Little Emotional Albert” Article Report In 1920, the search to prove that humans learn their emotional reactions was started by J.B. Watson and his research assistant Rosalie Rayner. The research that was conducted was to help Watson’s movement, behaviorism, which has the viewpoint that behaviors are created from outside factors of the person because of many different environmental stimuli, say a rat. The rat would become the main focus of fear during this experiment. Watson recruited a young male, about nine months in age, named Albert B. who was raised as an orphan from birth. From the basic examination, Albert seemed to be a healthy baby, not mentally and physically. Since Albert was able to pass these first test, the researchers would

Extreme fear was shown almost immediately, as though the metal bar was being struck. As we know, the loud noise was no longer present. Albert had been conditioned to think that when a white rat was placed in front of him, that something that was frightening would occur. Thus, anytime a white rat is present, Albert will experience fear. To test if the fear had been learned specifically for the white rat or was generalized, Watson brought in similar stimuli. First, Albert was tested to make sure he still experienced fear with the rat and he did. Then, a white rabbit was placed in front of him and he experienced fear almost immediately. Many other stimuli were tested (dog, white fur coat, and cotton) and the same response, fear was present. Watson wanted to know if this fear would transfer outside of an experimental setting. Albert was taken to a brighter room with more people and placed the same stimuli in front of him. Fear was still present on Albert’s face, but he seemed to be less fearful than before. Finally, Watson was wondering if the learned response would continue over time. Testing would stop for a period of 31 days. At the end of this period, all of the stimuli would be tested again showing that Albert still remained afraid of these