CBA45
Module 2: Psychology
Rasmussen University CBA45:
General Psychology
The Little Albert Experiment
John B. Watson, who performed an experiment "The little Albert experiment" in the 1920s
was performed because he wanted to see if humans were pre-programmed with emotions (Kind
of like a robot pre-programmed) when were born or we as humans develop emotions, like fear-
based on events in the course of our lives. He wanted to find out if it was an innate trait or not.
Watson was a respected social psychologist at John Hopkins University. The experiment
consists of a 9-month-old baby boy who introduced cute animals (rat, bunny, some friendly
dogs), even used things that didn't move like a Santa mask, fur coat. Baby Albert demonstrated
no fear of these animals or objects, even the monkey that moves all around him. This seems to
enhance the baby boy's curiosity but not his fear, this provided Watson with a baseline.
So, then Watson decided to add a conditioning stimulus for every time baby Albert was
presented by his animal friends; the conditioning stimulus consists of Watson standing behind
baby Albert and bang a hammer to a piece of metal right behind Albert's head. So, when Albert
saw the "friendly" bunny again, Watson would just bang the hammer and metal to scare baby
Albert. For each animal and non-moving object after the "bang" each time; created fear in baby
Albert every time he saw each animal and object. The outcome was Albert would cry every
time he saw the animals/objects without even the "bangs". Yes, the Scientific method was
followed, because there was a baseline to compare too. And hypothesis was proven that fear is a
conditioned response. Pieces that were a part of it was some randomization, and the study type
was a controlled experiment.
Module 2: Psychology
Rasmussen University CBA45:
General Psychology
The Little Albert Experiment
John B. Watson, who performed an experiment "The little Albert experiment" in the 1920s
was performed because he wanted to see if humans were pre-programmed with emotions (Kind
of like a robot pre-programmed) when were born or we as humans develop emotions, like fear-
based on events in the course of our lives. He wanted to find out if it was an innate trait or not.
Watson was a respected social psychologist at John Hopkins University. The experiment
consists of a 9-month-old baby boy who introduced cute animals (rat, bunny, some friendly
dogs), even used things that didn't move like a Santa mask, fur coat. Baby Albert demonstrated
no fear of these animals or objects, even the monkey that moves all around him. This seems to
enhance the baby boy's curiosity but not his fear, this provided Watson with a baseline.
So, then Watson decided to add a conditioning stimulus for every time baby Albert was
presented by his animal friends; the conditioning stimulus consists of Watson standing behind
baby Albert and bang a hammer to a piece of metal right behind Albert's head. So, when Albert
saw the "friendly" bunny again, Watson would just bang the hammer and metal to scare baby
Albert. For each animal and non-moving object after the "bang" each time; created fear in baby
Albert every time he saw each animal and object. The outcome was Albert would cry every
time he saw the animals/objects without even the "bangs". Yes, the Scientific method was
followed, because there was a baseline to compare too. And hypothesis was proven that fear is a
conditioned response. Pieces that were a part of it was some randomization, and the study type
was a controlled experiment.
