M2D2 Writing Assignment: The Case of Little Albert

THE CASE OF LITTLE ALBERT
Name:
Institution:
Date:
The Case of Little Albert
Watson and Rayner set out to find out if fear is innate or learned behavior. The experiment may not have been very scientific and ethical by modern standards, but it has become a hallmark case in the study of classical conditioning CITATION Noa14 \l 1033 (Strycker, 2014). The experiment is similar to Pavlov’s psychic secretion experiment done on dogs that showed anticipatory salivation whenever they heard the sound of a tuning fork CITATION Ell11 \l 1033 (Pastorino & Doyle-Portillo, 2011). When little Albert was exposed to white rats and other furry objects at first, she was calm and found pleasure in playing with them. After a while, a steel bar at the back of her head would be hit whenever she touched the objects she had previously been playing with. Later, she showed signs of distress and...