Psychology report on Behaviorism

[Lotos]

Yeah, I posted this at Boyah, but I'm bringing it here too.

I have to pick a behaviorist psychologist and explain their theory.  After three days of bullpoopting around in the computer lab, I pick John B. Watson.  Gotta love his Little Albert experiment.  I feel sorry for Albert and the emotional stress this had to have put on him.

...His goal was to determine if the reaction of fear can be brought out by other stimuli rather than loud noises and the "sudden removal of support".  After observing that children fear loud noises, he decided to conduct the experiment with Albert B. at nine months of age, the most "stable" of the children.  Whenever Little Albert would reach for the white rat provided in this experiment, a steel bar would be struck, causing a loud, sharp noise.  By the second run, the subject's lips puckered and he began to shake.  On the third run, Little Albert broke out crying.

I think they also got him to fear:

A rabbit, a dog, and

1. Santa Claus mask. Withdrawal, gurgling, then slapped at it without touching. When his hand was forced to touch it, he whimpered and cried. His hand was forced to touch it two more times. He whimpered and cried on both tests. He finally cried at the mere visual stimulus of the mask.
2. Fur coat. Wrinkled his nose and withdrew both hands, drew back his whole body and began to whimper as the coat was put nearer. Again there was the strife between withdrawal and the tendency to manipulate. Reached tentatively with left hand but drew back before contact had been made. In moving his body to one side his hand accidentally touched the coat. He began to cry at once, nodding his head in a very peculiar manner (this reaction was an entirely new one). Both hands were withdrawn as far as possible from the coat. The coat [p.11] was then laid on his lap and he continued nodding his head and whimpering, withdrawing his body as far as possible, pushing the while at the coat with his feet but never touching it with his hands.

[Spam]

God that's cruel...

[Ridley]

I loled but then I felt bad about it. :(

[PsychoYoshi]

It's a Pavlovian reaction.

*A bell rings*

* PsychoYoshi starts salivating.

[Jono2]

^haha

yeah, we learned about that in Psychology... 3 weeks before the end of classes, i believe.

[Rius]

Yes, and Little Albert fled with his mother. All in all, typical behaviorist... behavior.