Psychological Ethical Controversy. Watsons experiment on the Little Albert - Research Paper Example

? Psychological Ethical Controversy John Broadus Watson is one of the most famous psychologists in the profession of psychology. He fueled the change of comparative psychology to experimental psychology and finally to behavioral psychology. He carried out an experiment on the Little Albert although his experiment received criticism. Some of the critics of his experiment said that it was psychologically unethical. The reason being he carried out an experiment without the child’s consent. With time, Watson changed his career from a psychologist in the advertisement field. History still recognizes him due to his work in the field of psychology (Cherry, 2013). The essay brings out the controversy and the criticism surrounding John Watson and the little Albert episode. Lastly, the essay discusses how the departure from the profession of psychology and entry into the advertising profession opened the door for practical applications of psychology that changed the American Zeitgeist. The aim of John Watson experiment was to prove that, emotional responses could be conditional or learned. He believed that the environmental factors would influence once response to stimuli despite once biological make up. In his experiment, he took 9 months child commonly known as Albert in psychology history. He performed an experiment where he presented a rat and cotton. He observed the reaction of the child in order to come up with his conclusion. In his experiment, Watson wanted to test the belief that fear can be acquired through classical conditioning (Ruthus, 2013). In addition, he wanted to find out if loud noises prompted fear in children and how they reacted to unconditional responses. In his experiment, he used the principles of classical conditioning. According to this principle, an organism responds after the occurrence of a second stimulus (Cherry, 2013). . In the first stage of his experiment Watson exposed the child to a white rabbit, a monkey, a dog and cotton wool, at the first stage of the experiment little Albert showed no fear. In the second stage of the experiment, Watson exposed the child to a white laboratory rat. The child showed no response of fear instead he started playing with it. In his later trials, Watson made a loud noise behind Albert’s back with a hammer (Mash, 2003). The child responded by crying and moving away from the rat. The little boy responded after the introduction of a second stimulus. Afterwards, Albert was presented with only the rat, he responded by crying and moving away from the rat. The rat is the neutral stimulus presented to the boy; noise followed which is the conditional stimulus, which evoked the noise, which is unconditional stimulus. Seventeen days after the experiment, he sent non-white rat and Albert showed the same response. By using Pavlov, classical conditioning principle that stated that conditional response is learned as a result of previous neutral stimulus. After continuous avoidance of objects presented to him, Watson moved Albert out of the hospital to know if the conditional stimulus could be removed from him. Watson discovered that the conditioned fear continued even after the experiment. Since then Watson experiment, gained recognition and he would give lectures on Little Albert experiment. However, after Little Albert death occurred criticism arose on Watson’s experiment (Cherry, 2013). Some of the critics claimed that, Albert was sick at the time of the experiment so the experiment was not accurate. They also claimed that Watson was aware of the child’s health thus his experiment was not valuable. Evidence has shown that during Watson experiment, Albert developed an animal’s phobia and they evoked anxiety once he saw them. Watson’s experiment prompted subsequent research in the field of psychology. For instance, after a lecture talk, Mary Jones who is referred to as the mother of behavior therapy carried a subsequent experiment on a three year old child known as Peter. In her experiment, she used direct conditioning to reduce the fear in Peter. Jones carried out subsequent experiment to reduce the fear of rabbits that Peter had developed. Jones presented the rabbit along with Peter’s favorite food. Peter was able to eat his food and touch the rabbit without fear (Cherry, 2013). . Different controversies surround Watson’s experiment; some of the authors claim that Albert’s mother was a wet nurse at the hospital. Due to her low social status, she could not turn down a request of her baby to be use in Watson’s experiment (Cherry, 2013). The authors said that no parent would give her child to participate in an experiment, in which their babies are terrified. However, Albert’s mother dependent on her employer and she could not turn down the request. In today’s society, Albert’s experiment is considered unethical because of various reasons following the American Psychological Association ethical code. This is because the experiment carried out by Watson was harmful to the little boy’s health. Some critics claim that the little boy-developed water in the brain, which caused his death, was because of the experiment performed by Watson. In the 21st century, different commissions are established to protect human participants in research experiments. One of the principles is that experiment should not be carried out on young children or on a person without his or her consent. The commissions such as The National Commission for the protection of Human Subjects and Public Health Service provide a certain framework that regulates the protection of people during an experiment (Mash, 2003). In today’s society, it is considered immoral to evoke someone’s fear in a laboratory experiment. This is to say that Watson’s experiment is not applicable in today’s society because of its unethical context. Ethical framework states that human beings should not be subjected unnessary distress because of laboratory experiments (Ruthus, 2013). The framework concerns itself with the welfare of human beings especially young children. Although, Albert had fear when different stimuli were administered to him, today’s ethical standards would not allow this study to be replicated. Research has shown that the experiment was carried out without Albert’s mother consent. Others claim that she agreed but it was because she was pressured by her current situation. She lived in low social status and she did not want to loss he job as a wet nurse at the hospital. The other concern was on the child health, recent research has shown that the baby was ill during the experiment and Watson knew this but he proceeded with the experiment. In today’s society, this is ethically wrong researches should be concerned with human life rather than the laboratory experiments. John Watson is regarded as the founder of school of behaviorism. In 1922, he claimed that he wanted to join the field of marketing through advertising. In his profession in advertising, he found out that, marketing goods dependent on not the appeal to reason but on the stimulation of desire and emotional conditioning. He based his scientific study on knowing the consumer needs. He saw the market place as a laboratory for the advertising industry. In his advertising field, he carried out a research on the marketing of cigarettes. In his study, he tested different subject reactions to smoking different brands of cigarettes without knowing the brands. He shielded the brands and the customers could now distinguish the brands. By doing this, Watson developed the loyalty of customers to a certain brand. In his advertisement profession, Watson employed different testimonials to evoke consumer’s emotions thus more sales. Watson direct testimonials stimulated an appeal to a given product. The consumers bought the products because of Watson’s appealing testimonials and not because of the usefulness of the products. By this, we see that Watson applied psychology in his profession in advertising. In today’s American zeitgeist, testimonials are used as a way of advertising products. For instance, direct testimonials are seen in women magazines (Cherry, 2013). Concisely, the essay above gives criticism on Watson’s advertisement and the ethical controversies that surrounded his life. According to the essay above his experiment deserved criticism because it is a good example of unethical behavior in the psychology. The essay show how current psychological principles are approached differently in the modern study of psychology. According to the essay above different commissions have been set to ensure that laboratory practical do not interfere with a person’s life especially young children. For instance, an experiment should not be carried out on person’s life without his or her consent. Watson departure from the profession of psychology and entry into advertising profession opened the door for practical application of psychology that changed the American zeitgeist. This was through the introduction of testimonials. References Cherry, K. (2013). The Sad Tale of Little Albert. Retrieved from: http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/sad-tale-of-little-albert.htm [Accessed: 5 Nov 2013]. Mash, E. J., & Barkley, R. A. (2003). Child psychopathology. New York: Guilford Press. Rathus, S. A. (2013). Psychology: Concepts & connections : brief version. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 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