PSYCHOLOGY LITTLE ALBERT EXPERIMENT 4
PsychologyLittle Albert Experiment
PsychologyLittle Albert Experiment
Researchershave a responsibility to uphold integrity, safety, and humanity intheir established procedures and practices. However, there has beencases of ethical lapse in several historical professional activities,leaving the morality and ethical objectives questioned (Boynton,Portnoy, & Johnson, 2013). Little Albert experiment was such anincidence whose procedures and objectives are dubious based on theexperience subjected to the infant and thus, unethical. Learningfrom theexperiment,medical researchers should adhere to the established legal andprofessional policies that seek to uphold respect, human dignity, andkindness through prevention of deception, psychological stress,and physical pain when conducting their procedures and after.
In1920, Watson and Rayner embarked on a classical conditioning study inwhich they used a ninemonths baby to learn some behavioral responses and development(Youngpeter,2008).The procedure required little Albert tobe exposedto a white rat accompanied by a loud bang on a steel plate with ahammer to induce phobia, for seven years. Asa result,Little Albert developed a general phobia of anything similar to awhite rat including a roll of wooland would startleeven inthe absence ofthe loud noise.
Theexperiment unethicalfor it subjected an infant to negativeconditionsof instilling fear, and this is a psychological harm. Albert alsodeveloped a fear every time a rat appear,and this caused trauma and stress (Youngpeter,2008).While a consent is highly valuable in the medicalfield, Watson and Rayner did not obtain one from the mother who was anurse. Besides, Albert as an infant wasforced into the experiment. Finally, no medical care was provided toremove the negative impacts.
Today,medical practitioners have the APA, the medical ethics, and WorldsHealth Organization’s guidelines for human research toobserve to ensure theyuphold dignity, kindness, respect and ultimate care in research(Boynton, Portnoy, & Johnson, 2013). Importantly, they shouldupdate and develop them for increased improvement and coverage.
Inconclusion, researchers should ensure they protect the specialpopulations such as infants, prisoners or physically challenged frompain, suffering, embarrassment, stress and other negative effects oftheir activities by strict observation of ethical guidelines.Consequently, cases of little Albert’s experience, Stanford Prisonexperiment and the Aversion Project (1970-90) can never happen again.
References
Boynton,M. H., Portnoy, D. B., & Johnson, B. T. (2013). Exploringthe Ethics and Psychological Impact of Deception in PsychologicalResearch.IRB: Ethics & Human Research, 35(2), 7-13.
Youngpeter,K. (2008). Controversial psychological research methods and theirinfluence on theDevelopment of formal ethical guidelines.StudentJournal of Psychological Science, 1(1),4-12
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