In my articles, I have repeatedly talked about AVA-therapy. This direction is now very popular in the field of correctional work with children. There are ardent fans of AVA-therapy, there are those who call it training. Today I want to talk about the ancestor of behaviorism, namely, within the framework of this theory, the now popular AVA-therapy was born.
John Brodes Watson developed the theory that the subject of psychology is human behavior, not some internal processes. Behavior is caused by external causes and you can learn to form a particular behavior. As proof of his theory, he conducted a series of experiments, the most famous of which was the so-called “Little albert”.
Watson, along with his assistant Rosalie Rayner as a subject took 11-month — old boy albert (real name-Douglas Merritt), the child was an orphan and lived in an orphanage.
In the first part of the experiment, albert was shown different objects: a white rat, a mask of Santa Claus, burning paper, etc.All these items the child was not afraid of a drop.
In the second part, Watson moved on to the stage of forming the fear reaction. At the moment when the child touched the white rat the experimenter struck an iron hammer on a metal plate fixed beyond the sight of albert. After 5 days, the blows on the metal plate followed at the moment when the rat was placed in the crib to the child, by which time albert had already avoided touching the animal. After that, it was decided to check whether the child will be afraid of similar objects. It turned out, that Yes, will. Albert showed a strong fear at the sight of the white rabbit, a little less at the sight of the dog and other objects similar to the main object of his fear. Thus Watson concluded that the fear reaction is characterized by transference.
Further experiment suggested that they will try to remove the fear reaction by the same reinforcements, but positive. Only here is continuation of not followed. Part of sources argues, that Watson and not plan continuation of, and only wrote about how can be will to remove reaction of fear, part of says, that child [suddenly and to continue they simply not typically recognized.
Only this particular experiment did not become Watson’s finest hour. The results were questioned. So, it turned out that the experimenter was not completely honest and periodically reinforced the reaction of fear in the child, already in the second part of the experiment. In addition, he stopped the child’s attempts to use finger sucking as a way of complacency, which was also not reflected in the findings. When the American Psychologist magazine published the story of the boy known as albert in 2012, it turned out that the child suffered from hydrocephalus and died at the age of 6. Watson was aware of the child’s illness, but in the reports presented the child as perfectly healthy.
Interestingly, John Watson was fired from George Hopkins University for an ethics scandal. Do you think the experiment on little albert was the cause? No. The reason was his affair with his colleague and assistant Rosalie Rayner, and Watson at that time was legally married (by the way, in the future the lovers married and lived together for 15 years). Such immoral behavior he could not forgive and many doors were closed to him. Watson left psychology for advertising.
It is worth noting that by the time of the experiment, behaviorism has already gained considerable popularity in the West, many of its followers still. Of course, the theory developed, in the future it even divided into different directions and made a great contribution to the development of the science of psychology.