Watson and Rayner

Watson and Rayner

1. aim

   • to find out if cc works on humas
   • if a fear response can be conditioned into a 9 months old

2. procedure

   • at 9 months
     • white rat, rabbit + other white stimuli
     • no fear response
       • NS
   • hammer struck against steel bar behind head
     • bust into tears
   • over 11 months
     • white rat + secs later stricking 7 times over next 7 months

3. generalisability

   • sample of 1
     • unrepresentative
     • can be unusual in all sorts of ways
   • deliberately selected for his normalcy
     • fearless
     • emotionally stable
     • no unique personal response to unusual phenomenom
       • furry animals
       • loud noise

4. reliability

   • standardised
     • control over extraneous variable
       • check for reliability
   • surviving footage
     • inter-rater

5. application

   • flooding
   • exposed to fearful stimulus
     • panic
       • panic reaction fear off
   • learn stimulus not harmful

6. validity

   • conclusions in line with what would be predicted by cc
   • when study fits well established theory
     • construct
   • lack ecological
     • learning in everyday life?

7. results

   • showed similar reaction to rat + rabit
   • lesser reaction to dog
     • crawled away
     • = generalisation of response

8. ethics

   • not protected from harm