What Is The Little Albert Experiment Unethical

Many psychological studies have been carried out over the years, mostly ethical practices in the interest of knowledge, however there have been some experiments carried out that have had serious negative consequences on their test subjects. Two experiments of this type are the ‘Little Albert’ experiment where a child was conditioned to fear a white rat to test whether fear is innate or conditional. The second experiment was carried out on young orphans to find out if stuttering was a genetic trait or something that can be cured or induced. Both experiments left their subjects permanently affected and neither one would be doable today due to their unethical natures.

In the 1920s an experiment was conducted on a 9 month old baby, to test whether
Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was caught with difficulty before reaching the edge of the
Firstly, the experiment was not constructed carefully enough to provide conclusive findings. Watson and Raynor didn’t find an objective way to assess the infants reactions, instead relying on their own interpretations to draw a conclusion from their experiment. Later it came out that the child used in the experiment may have suffered from hydrocephalus. This would have seriously jeopardized any conclusions drawn from the experiment as in the experimental notes, Albert was described as ‘a healthy child.’ Furthermore, it is immoral to carry out an experiment of this type on anyone unwilling or unable to give their explicit consent. As Albert was an infant, he was unable to give his consent and this point is strengthened due to the fact that Albert was not de-sensitized after the experiment. He was removed from the hospital by his mother, leaving Raynor and Watson unable to de-sensitize him due to a lack of time. It is unclear whether Albert’s mother a) knew about the experiment b) if she did indeed give consent for her child to be used in this experiment and c) knew if he would have to be de-sensitized