Evaluation of Watson and Raynor

The results of this study are consistent with Pavlov’s results in training dogs to show a specific response to a particular stimulus, showing that classical conditioning works across species.  Jones, 1924, used the same basic procedure to de-condition a phobia of small furry animals in a child of a similar age (Little Peter) by changing the association of rabbit and fear to rabbit and pleasure she was able to overcome Peter’s phobia.  This shows that phobias are affected by learning therefore supporting Watson’s findings.

There are ethical concerns with this study as Albert was conditioned to fear numerous white furry stimuli. His mother removed him from the experiment before the researchers were able to remove this fear. This goes against the present day guideline of protection which govern psychological research.  However, you could argue that the benefits to others through the development of therapy outweigh the costs to Albert.

The study is high in reliability as the use of standardised procedures allows for high control over all extraneous variables, this means that it is possible to replicate the study and check that the results are consistent.

However, as this was a study of one young child it lacks population validity as  the findings cannot be generalised to others. Albert had been reared in a hospital environment from birth and he was unusual as he had never been seen to show fear or rage by staff. Therefore Little Albert may have responded differently in this experiment to how other young children may have, these findings will therefore be unique to him.

This research also lacks ecological validity, so the findings cannot be generalised to other settings outside the laboratory situation as the method used created an unnatural situation which may not reflect learning in everyday life.

However, this artificiality did increase the experimental validity of the study due to the strict controls, e.g. Albert had no prior learning due to his age that could have influenced the fear response to rats.

This research has demonstrated that phobias can be learnt through the process of classical conditioning. Therefore, if we can understand how phobias do develop we can incorporate this into treatment of this form of behaviour, as shown in the case of Little Peter.