J.B. Watson and Little Albert

J.B. Watson and his study of Little Albert was not the most ethical way of psychological study in any way. However, he teaches us a lot about the creation. He believes that all humans inherit the emotions of fear, rage, and love. Further, he believes that those emotions change into more specific emotions such as pride, hate, and jealousy. When we experience certain stimuli in association with these, often negative, emotions, it changes our response to them. The way we experience situations influences how we will react to them in the future regardless of the situation. In the study with Little Albert, Watson placed a rat in front of the baby. At first Little Albert was friendly toward the rat and reached out to interact with it. However, through making loud frightening noises to the baby, when reaching out, Little Albert slowly became afraid of the harmless rat. This shows how negative experiences can influence our attitudes toward stimuli. When presented, in the future, with a rat and without the noise, he was still afraid of the rat and would avoid it at all costs. Also, when presented with other furry stimuli, he still showed a fearful response. This shows how even though we may experience some negatively a few times, it can influence how we react in the future regardless of the circumstances. Little Albert was not presented with any kind of loud noises or anything that would elicit fear in him other than the rat that he was conditioned to be afraid of or the furry objects he associated with that fear as well. Watson is associated with creation because he was able to further explain, through less than ideal methods, that what we experience and what stimuli we associate with each other can create who we are and how we react to the world around us.