Little Albert Studies

The Effects of the Little Albert Studies on Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning has been impacted by many studies. The Little Albert experiment which was done by Watson and Rayner in 1920 showed empirical evidence of classical conditioning in humans. Although this case study is widely disputed in it’s methods, it added a world of knowledge to the field of psychology. This was a huge breakthrough for behavioral studies. Up until this time it was shown that classical conditioning was possible in dogs but there wasn’t any research on if it would work for humans as well. Research on classical conditioning can apply to many different areas including prejudices, phobias, paraphilias, drug addictions, and many more (Mary Baldwin College,
In 2009, psychologists Hall Beck and Sharman Levinson discovered the true identity of Little Albert. They looked through libraries and census records to find that his true identity was Douglas Merritte, the son of a Johns Hopkins wet nurse (Cosh, 2012). His death certificate showed that the child died of hydrocephalus after acquiring meningitis three years prior to his death. Hall Beck and Sharman Levinson came across something quite interesting in their research of Douglas Merritte. They found evidence that Douglas was not as normal, healthy, and well-developed as Watson had said. The first sign of a disabled child being used in this study was that it should not have taken 3 years for him to die of meningitis during the pre-antibiotic era. Also, in the videos of the experiment done by Watson which were filmed late in the first year of his life he had slow reaction times, his motor skills were poor, and he didn’t make eye contact with any of the adults around him or “consult” their emotional reactions (Cosh, 2012). Whether or not Watson had knowingly used a brain damaged baby in his study willingly is still highly debated but nonetheless his research showed that classical conditioning was possible in humans, opening a huge field of study for
It is important to remember that this research is all possible due to the findings in the Little Albert study. As previously mentioned, Pavlovian conditioning can also be used in the treatment of phobias. A study by Garakani, et al. used Pavlovian conditioning as a model to add to the understanding of the causes of anxiety (Garakani, 2006). This study took a more biological approach to determine the causes of anxiety. They found the important areas of the brain that relate to the fear response. They concluded by stating that through further investigation of these pathways and neuropeptide systems will lead to the finding of novel therapeutic interventions for a wide range of anxiety disorders, such as generalized anxiety, phobias, panic, and PTSD (Garakani,