What was the dominant view of introspection?
- behaviour is explained by looking within
- observing environment, describing experiences
- interested in the structures of the mind, looking inside yourself and report what you’re feeling
- criticisms: not reported reliably, subject to bias, not all available to conscious awareness
What is the dominant view of psychodynamic?
- experiences may not be available through introspection
- unconscious mind is experiences, ideas and feelings hidden away from conscious awareness
- psychoanalysis is the study of psychological forces that underlie behaviour
Aims of the study?
- can an infant be conditioned to fear an animal?
- would such fear transfer to other animals or inanimate objects?
- how long would such fear persist for?
- how can persistent fears be removed?
How were the different stimuli tested?
- neutral stimulus was tested by having the child play with animals/objects he had no fear or emotional reaction to
- unconditioned stimulus was tested through loudly striking a steel bar with a hammer behind Albert’s head
- upon repetition of the striking Albert cried (fear response)
What was the initial conditioning trials?
- white rat presented
- touches the rat so the steel bar is struck
What occurred in the conditioning?
- Albert was presented with rat and made tentative advances
- there were 4 NS/UCS pairings
- conditioned response of when rat is presented alone Albert cries
What were the findings?
- Albert created association between NS, UCS and UCR
- NS turned into CS and UCR turned into CR
What is generalisation and how was the conditioning tested for generalisability?
- tendency of a new stimulus to evoke responses or behaviours similar to those elicited by another stimulus
- several stimuli were tested at different time-points
What were the conditions used 5 days later?
- experimenters had to establish CR still existed
- given blocks to play with (no fear, not generalised to inanimate objects)
- rat alone (cried, conditioned response)
Was there any generalisation after 5 days?
- when presented with rabbit alone he cried
- presented with dog alone he cried
- presented with fur coat he withdrew and cried
- presented with cotton wool he withdrew hand but didn’t cry
- touched his hair there was a negative reaction
- when presented with Santa mask he withdrew
What were the findings 1 month later?
- conditioned response continued to generalise
- lower intensity of negative reaction
What is detachment and what did W&R propose as an alternative?
- removal of conditioned emotional response
- Albert went to hospital though so it couldn’t be tested
- proposed habituation (decline in responsiveness due to familiarity), re-conditioning (adding positive stimuli to create positive associations) and modelling (building up constructive activities, imitating what role models do) instead
What is the nature vs nurture debate?
- nature is behaviour explained by hereditary factors, pre-programmed for certain behaviours
- nurture is behaviour that’s the result of the environment, social influences, experiences etc
What are the ethical issues of the study?
- treatment of Albert
- no consent
- conditioned a fear response that they weren’t certain would subside
- persistence of emotional conditioning
What are the scientific issues of the study?
- single case so difficult to generalise
- experimenter bias
- choice of stimuli
What are the theoretical contributions?
- foundations of behaviourism
- instigated important research (Skinner, social learning theory)
- still used extensively academically
What are the applied contributions of the study?
- generated important practices (treatments like systematic desensitisation, triple P program)
- used extensively in advertising
