John Watson
Published on Nov 25, 2015
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PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Little Albert B., a healthy, stolid 9-month-old baby, was shown a live rat, a rabbit, a dog, and a monkey. He showed no fear.
Photo by Faugel
But he cried when a researcher struck a hammer against a steel bar. Hopkins psychology professor John B. Watson and his assistant, Rosalie Rayner, then made a clanging sound each time the boy touched the rat.
Photo by Pete Prodoehl
After seven such pairings, Albert B. cried and avoided the animal--even when there was no loud noise. In fact, days later, he showed fear when he saw the rat, the rabbit, the dog, and a sealskin coat. He also had a "negative" response to a bearded Santa Claus mask and the hair on Watson's head.
Photo by Seattleye
As the months went on, young Albert didn't cry consistently at the sight of the white rat. So the researchers let the animal crawl against the child's chest. Watson and Rayner reported: "He first began to fret and then covered his eyes with both hands."
Thus describes one of the classic experiments in psychology, often cited in oversimplified form in Psych I textbooks to prove how conditioning can modify human emotional behavior. The 1920 study became part of social science folklore and clinched Watson's fame as the father of behaviorism.
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors," he wrote in 1924. "I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years."
Photo by Kaptain Kobold
Watson's advocacy of behaviorism in child rearing was harsh and influenced more than one generation of parents afraid of coddling their children, a practice he called "mawkish and sentimental." He declared that infants should be brought up by a rotation of "parents" and nurses, saying that family life destroyed the child's individuality and independence. A bit of his advice on children from his 1928 book: "Never hug and kiss them, never let them sit on your lap. If you must, kiss them once on the forehead when they say good night. Shake hands with them in the morning."
Photo by Leo Reynolds
