John B. Watson and his student Rosalie Rayner conducted the Little Albert experiment in the 1920s. The experiment is used by behaviorists to explain how emotional responses can be classically conditioned in humans.
Watson and Rosalie Rayner exposed the nine-month-old Little Albert to a white. The infant showed no signs of fear as he touched the white rat. Post this, both Watson and Rayner exposed little Albert to the loud sound of the hammer striking the metal bar. The nine-month-old infant clearly did not like the loud sound of the hammer striking the metal bar and started crying.
Then, a few days later, both the experimenters exposed little Albert to the white rat again. However, this time they combined the presentation of the white rat with the loud sound of the hammer striking the suspended metal bar. This was done repeatedly until little Albert feared the mere presentation of the white rat. That is, he started crying the moment one of the experimenters held his hand to help him touch the white rat with no sound being present. Thus, Albert had associated the white rat with the loud sound and thus started fearing the white rat.
Not only this, his fear for white rats also got transferred to other objects similar to the white rat. These included the fur coat, cotton wool, rabbit, etc.
Though Watson laid the foundation of Behaviorism with his study, he was criticized for the unethical means adopted by him as he undertook the experiment.
In order to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the little Albert experiment, let’s first have a look at the ethical issues in little Albert experiment.
Ethical Issues in Little Albert Experiment
Many researchers condemned the experiment and considered the Little Albert experiment unethical. Following are the grounds on which the experiment is considered unethical.
1. Watson Did No Follow the Principle of Informed Consent
At the time the experiment was conducted, there was no code of conduct that the psychologists and researchers had to follow. As per today’s code of conduct, psychologists need to take the consent of the participant or anyone authorized on his behalf. Unfortunately, Watson did not take any such permission from little Albert’s mother.
2. Little Albert Was Not Given the Right to Withdraw
Likewise, the current day code of ethics postulates that researchers need to provide the subjects the right of withdrawal. That is, the participants are free to leave the experiment at their will. No such right was given to Albert and his mother at the time the experiment was undertaken.
3. Watson Harmed Little Albert
Watson and Rayner conditioned little Albert for the fear of white rats, a fear that did not exist previously. Such conditioning had a higher probability of causing lifetime suffering to the infant.
4. No Standard Methods Were Adopted
Waston is also criticized for not adopting standardized methods while undertaking the experiment. For instance, he drew conclusions by conducting the experiment on only a single participant. Likewise, he did not conduct the experiment in a controlled environment.
How Could the Little Albert Experiment Be More Ethical?
The little Albert experiment could be made more ethical by following the current day code of ethics laid down for researchers. For instance:
- The researchers could take the permission of Little Albert’s mother for conducting an experiment on him
- Little Albert and his mother could be given the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time
- The experiment could be conducted by adopting standardized methods
- The experiment should not have involved any such activity that had the potential of causing long-lasting harm to the participant.
Since we now have a background of the experiment and its unethical practices, let’s have a look at its strengths and weaknesses.
Little Albert Experiment Strengths and Weaknesses
The following are the strengths and weaknesses of the Little Albert experiment.
Strengths
1. Helps in Understanding Phobias
The Little Albert experiment is actually a good starting point to understand phobias in humans. Thus, researchers used this experiment to understand how people develop unreasonable fears such as fear of spiders, height, water, etc. It also helped them in coming with various methods to treat such phobias.
2. Humans Can be Classically Conditioned
One of the biggest things that were presented by Watson to the world through this experiment was that human entities could be classically conditioned for various emotional responses. In other words, they could be conditioned to fear stimuli that they previously did not fear.
Weaknesses
1. It Adopted Unethical Practices
As discussed above, the little Albert experiment was unethical on numerous grounds. From harming the subject, not taking consent, giving the right to withdraw to following unstandardized methods, it was unethical as per today’s code of ethics.
2. Experiment Had a Small Sample Size
Little Albert was the only infant on whom the experiment was carried out. Watson and Rayner did not apply their conclusions to other subjects.
3. Watson Could Not Recondition Albert
Another weakness was that Watson and Rayner could not undo the fear of white rats in Little Albert. This is because Albert’s mother took him from the hospital due to which he could not be reconditioned.
4. It is Not Clear if Fear of White Rat Was a Phobia
Watson could not find out if the fear of white rats was a phobia. This is because as the little Albert sucked his thumb, Watson could not locate any fear response in him.
