Think you know a lot about the little Albert experiment conducted by John Watson? Well, guess what - you’d be surprised at how much of the story is simply not true. If you’re wondering whatever happened to little Albert, whether the little Albert study created a lasting phobia in a small boy, or even what place this story has in the history of behaviorism, then I suggest you take a listen to this episode of The Psych Files and get the facts on this fascinating part of psychology’s history.
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Notes Regarding Little Albert’s Supposed "Phobia"

• When Albert was conditioned again to the rat, 10 days after the initial trials, Albert,
  

  Fell over to the left side, got up on all fours and started to crawl away. On this occasion there was no crying but strange to say, as he started away he began to gurgle and coo, even while leaning far over to the left side to avoid the rat…

  - in addtion, on this same day he was again conditioned to fear the rabbit, alberts response was reported as,
  

  …fear reaction slight. Turned to the left and kept face away from the animal but the reaction was never pronounced.

• 31 days after being shown the rat, Watson reports that when in the same room as the rat "He allowed the rat to crawl towards him without withdrawing"

• On the final day of testing when albert was exposed to the rabbit to which he had been conditioned to fear, he did not avoid the rabbit at all. Watson (1920) reports:
  

  ..after about a minute he [Albert] reached out tentatively and …touched the rabbit’s ear with his right hand…

Objects Albert was supposedly afraid of, but for which there is no evidence:

• Cats
• Fur muffs
• White furry gloves
• Albert’s aunt (who wore fur)
• Albert’s mother’s fur coat
• A teddy bear

Most overlooked facts:

• The study is not an experiment (an experiment requires at least two levels of an independent variable). It is a pilot study at best.
• The study had only one subject.
• The study has never been replicated.

Resources for This Episode on Little Albert

• Harris, B. (1979). Whatever Happened to Little Albert? American Psychologist, 34 (2), 151-160. Click here to download the article to your desktop.

• Samuelson , F. (1980). J.B. Watson’s Little Albert, Cyril Burt’s Twins, and the Need for a Critical Science. American Psychologist, 35 (7).

• Watson, J.B. & Rayner, R. (1920). Conditioned Emotional Reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-14. This article is available online at Christopher Green’s excellent Psych Classics site.

• If you’re interested in learning more about the history of psychology, Chris Green’s excellent podcast (which is no longer being produced but which is still available in iTunes) is called This Week In The History of Psychology.

• Watson’s video of the little albert study is available on YouTube in several versions. Here’s one.

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What’s wrong with thinking positively? Could be a lot. Let’s take another look at the "positive psychology" movement in this episode of The Psych Files podcast. I’ll share some ideas for bringing about more positive events in your life, talk about social comparison theory, and then discuss how important "negative" - that is sad - feelings are in our lives. Those are moments not to run from, but to embrace.

Resources For This Episode

• Newsweek article (January 28, 2008): "The How To of Leading a Happy Life" by Jennifer Barrett. Summarizing the work of Sonja Lyubomirsky in The How of Happiness: A Scientific Approach to Getting the Life You Want
• Prevention magazine (February, 2008): “Joy - How to make it last” by Siri Carpenter. Summarizing the work of Fred Bryant, Ph.D.
• Time magazine article (February 11, 2008): “Happiness: Enough Already” Sharon Begley
• Sharon Begley’s Blog
• Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy
• Chronicle of Higher Education (January 18, 2008) "In Praise of Melancholy", by Eric Wilson, Ph.D.

Social Comparison Theory

• Definition: whenever we are uncertain about ourselves, our skills, our talents, etc., we tend to compare ourselves to other people. Typically we compare to people similar to ourselves in some way (same age, similar background, belong to the same group for example). But we can make upward and downward comparison.
• Upward Comparison: you compare your self to someone who is either older, more experienced, more talented, more well off, etc. Comparisons of this type will probably make you feel worse about yourself.
• Downward Comparison: the opposite of the above: you compare yourself to someone who is less fortunate than you. These comparisons will probably remind you of how fortunate you are and will make you feel better about yourself.

Sad Songs mentioned in this episode

• Played at the end of the episode: the "Intermezzo" from the opera Cavaleria Rusticana by Mascagni. You can learn more about Mascagni and hear another version of the Intermezzo on Erik Bruchez’s excellent Mascagni website.
• "O Mio Babbino Caro" from the opera Gianni Schicchi by Puccini
• The Moonlight Sonata by Beethovan
• Tristesse by Chopin
• Lakme Duet (also called the Flower Duet) from the opera Lakme by Delibes
• Claire de Lune by Debussey
• Feel free to suggest other beautiful sad songs in your comments to this post!

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Independent variables, dependent variables, t-tests, anovas, experiments, between subjects, within subjects, confounds…confused? You won’t be after you watch this week’s video episode. Learn research methods in psychology the fun way - by choosing an interesting topic. In this video I explain the basic concepts of research while examining the effect of gray hair on credibility. More fun than…let me think…well, trust me, it’ll be interesting.

Resources for This Episode

• The web site where you can change your appearance by mixing your photo with celebrities is called Hairmixer.

Notes

• Independent Variable: the variable you manipulate (”type of hair” in this example).

• Dependent Variable: the variable you measure (”credibility” in this example).

• Operational Definition: the exact data that you will collect. In this example, a subject’s rating on a 1 to 10 credibility scale is my operational definition of credibility.

Related Episodes

• Why Do Statistics Make Us So Queasy?

• Check out episode 3 in which I discuss hypotheses and Popper’s important concept of falsifiability.

• Looking for more fun with research? Check out my episode on how consumer researcher’s carefully watch your behavior in the grocery store.

• If you want to review many of the psychological research terms mentioned in this episode, check the “the mappr” - an audio review program I wrote.

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