The Little Albert Experiment - Essay Example

The Little Albert experiment The experiment on little Albert deserves the criticism it earns in modern day as an unethical experiment, since, the test was undertaken on little Albert when he was just at a tender age of 9 months (Sternberg, 2003). This experiment went along way surpassing the ethical boundaries established by APA regarding ethics in any psychological test and experiment. According to Principle E: Respect for Peoples Rights and Dignity, under the Ethical codes of APA, psychologists are required to respect the dignity and worthy of all people, as regards race, ethnicity, gender, age among others aspects of individuals life and privacy (Hock, 2005). As required by these provisions, psychologist ought to seek appropriate supervision or referrals while undertaking experiments that have to do with such aspects of individuals, as age, gender ethnicity, and race, among others. To undertake such experiments, psychologists need to acquire relevant experience and training as well as consultations. It is also the provisions of this code of conduct to avoid any exploitative relationships with the people with whom they are involved. As such, they are supposed to avoid exploiting those persons over whom they have authority, such as patients, research participants or their clients (Green, Shore & Teo, 2001). The experiment on little Albert served to undermine all these provisions, through having Watson pay for the use of little Albert in his experiment, just because his mother had no sufficient sources of money. In this case, Watson took the advantage of this situation to exploit his client by offering money in exchange for her son. The current ethical principles in psychology would require that the experiment should be undertaken otherwise. The experiment should be undertaken with an individual of an appropriate age. The Age of little Albert was too tender to allow such an experiment be undertaken on him. Under the present provisions of the APA Ethical codes for psychologists, such an experiment should be undertaken in a different environment, as it is against the provisions of the codes to have human beings exposed to conditions of fear under a controlled laboratory environment (Hock, 2005). Such an experiment can only be undertaken, on condition that the client or the patient has requested that he be exposed to such conditions of terrifying fear. Under the current requirements, the experiment could not be allowed to take place, since it is against the requirements of the ethical provisions guiding the psychologists to expose a human being to conditions of distress or harm (Sternberg, 2003). The welfare of individuals involved is paramount in such experiments, more so with protected groups of people, such as children. In the case of little Albert, his welfare was completely undermined by exposing him to the conditions of fear, in a controlled environment such as a laboratory. Under the current guidelines of the psychologists’ code of conduct, the experiment could not be allowed to be undertaken, as the fear instilled on little Albert was not extinguished, a fact that would have affected him later in life. As the requirements of the code of ethics underlines, the need to have obtained the full consent of the participant before undertaking such an experiment on them, then the experiment would be prohibited under the current ethical principles (Green, Shore & Teo, 2001). There are several controversies that have surrounded Watson’s life. Most conspicuous of his controversies is the sex scandal with Rosalie Rayner, who was at the time acting as his research assistant, which saw him get fired from his position at Johns Hopkins (Sternberg, 2003). This controversy was of a particular great ethical magnitude, in that it was highly publicized in the media, due to the status he held as well as the rich nature of his wife’s family. This eventually saw him divorce his wife, and get married to his former research assistant. To add more to his controversies, it was rumored that he undertook sex studies with the help of his research assistant, which were said to involve the measurement of the physical characteristics of participants during sexual intercourse (Green, Shore & Teo, 2001). Another of his controversies lies with the little Albert’s experiment, which became a controversial later, after it was undertaken, as it undermined the major provision of the Ethical code of conduct for psychologists (Sternberg, 2003). He is accused of taking advantage of a woman who did not have sufficient sources of money to pay for and use his son in an experiment. This is against the provisions of the APA code of conduct for psychologists. The use of a boy who was of a tender age of 9 months is still not as per the provisions of the ethical codes (Hock, 2005). This controversy was widely publicized, having some of the love letters that Watson wrote to Rosalie being published in the newspapers. Worse to this is the fact that he had been given a choice between keeping his job or continuing his relationship with her, of which he opted to resign from his job and later get married to her, notwithstanding that she was half his age (Hock, 2005). Another ethical controversy is between him and his children, since he based his study on human behaviors to his children, a fact that served to strain their relationship with him. At the age of 42, after losing his job at Johns Hopkins, he had to seek for another job, where he opted for advertising, since many academia institutions did not wish to grant him a job due to his soiled reputation (Hock, 2005). He began working for the American Advertising agency, where he started off as a shoes salesman. With his psychological skills and a long-term understanding of human behaviorism, he excelled very much at his advertising career, which saw him rise to the position of vice president of the organization (Green, Shore & Teo, 2001). His understanding of the skills of advertising did not take long, since by the end second year in his new job, he had rise to this rank. He headed major advertising campaigns in the organization, a fact that has served to indicate that understanding human psychology is a relevant asset for any individual wishing to indulge in the advertising business. References Hock, R. (2005). Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research. 5th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Green, C.D., Shore, M.T., Teo, T. (Eds.) (2001). The transformation of psychology: Influences of 19th century philosophy, technology, and natural science. Sternberg, R. D. (Ed.) (2003). Psychologists defying the crowd: Stories of those who battled the establishment and won. Read More