Flashcards
Watson and Rayner (1920)
Cards in this deck (15)
- 1What year did Watson and Rayner take place in?1920
- 2What was their first hypothesis?They could classically condition fear of an animal by simultaneously presenting the animal and striking a steel bar to make a loud noise to frighten the child
- 3What was their second hypothesis?The fear acquired would be transferred on to other animals and objects that resembled the original animal
- 4What was their third hypothesis?Time would have an effect on the conditioned response
- 5Watson and Rayner chose Albert as their participant. Who was he?He was the son of a wet nurse. He had hydrocephally. He was 11 months old when the experiment began.
- 6What happened on Little Albert's first day of classical conditioning?Albert was introduced to a white rat which he had no fear response to. Then, as he reached for the rat, a steel bar was struck behind his head. He got scared and hid his face. When Albert went to reach for the rat again, the steel bar was struck again. This time, Albert began to cry. Hence, they stopped the tests for a week.
- 7What happened during Alberts second session with Watson and Rayner?Albert was presented with the rat again. After last time, he didn't reach for the rat as much as he would retreat his hands if the rat sniffed at him. After noting this, they continued with the classical conditioning by pairing the presence of the rat with the steel bar being hit.
- 8What happened after full classical conditioning?When the rat was presented alone, Albert would begin to cry. He would turn and try to crawl away from the rat. He showed a full fear response.
- 9What objects were tested with Albert a few days after the classical conditioning of the fear response to the rat was successful?He was presented with a rabbit (negative responses to it), a dog (Albert showed some fear but not as much as towards the rat), a white fur coat (Albert cried and tried to escape), cotton wool (showed resistance but not fear) and a santa mask (negative reaction).
- 10What did Watson and Rayner conclude from their experiment?They had succeeded in classically conditioning the fear response into an infant. There was also stimulus generalisation meaning Albert was scared of more things than just rats, but also things that resembled rats. The fear was still present at least 31 days after the experiment, but Albert was taken from their experiment before they could condition the response out of him.
- 11How is the generalisation of Watson and Rayner?Low as it only had one participant - a baby boy. It cannot be generalised to others, his results were unique to him.
- 12How is the reliability of Watson and Rayner?High as it uses a standardised procedure of classical conditioning, which can be replicated. However, it is also arguably low as there was only a single participant meaning it hasn't been repeated and it is also too unethical to repeat nowadays, so we can't rest for reliability.
- 13What is the application of Watson and Rayner?It helped us understand how fears can be obtained in humans and it led to treatments for this form of behaviour, such as aversion therapy (bad), systematic desensitisation (good) and flooding (good).
- 14How is the validity of Watson and Rayner?Low in validity as there is no control group to compare results to so we can't be sure of cause and effect. It is low in ecological validity as it took place in a lab where the findings cannot be generalised outside of the lab as it wouldn't reflect every day life and it was low in validity as Watson's observations were subjective
- 15How was the ethics of Watson and Rayner?Terrible. Albert was not protected from deep psychological harm. He was given a fear that could be problematic for the rest of his life (although he did die at a young age) and they didn't uncondition the phobia. He was also a vulnerable participant to use as he was only a baby.
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- A level Psychology (Learning Theories) Flashcards on Watson and Rayner (1920), created by Emma Lloyd on 22/05/2017.
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