The Little Albert Experiment

a. Who developed the experiment?

- The Little Albert Experiment was conducted by the behaviorist named John
B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
b. When did it happen?

- The Little Albert Experiment was performed in year 1919, at the Johns
Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
c. What did the experimenter want to know in conducting this experiment?

- Watson and Rayner want to know what would be the emotional responses
that they could get in performing the classical conditioning in humans and
those conditioned emotional responses could be transferred to other stimuli
such as cotton wool, rabbit, fur coat, etc., since Pavlov only test the classical
conditioning in animals.
d. How does the experimenter implement the experiment? What are the
methods used?

- The 9 months baby, known as Little Albert was exposed to a series of stimuli
such as masks, white rat, burning newspapers, and monkey. After exposing
the kid to a number of stimuli, they have observed that the boy initially
showed no fear of the objects that have been shown. So, they decided to
exposed little albert, first to the rat, but the only difference there is that,
Watson made a loud noise by hitting the metal pipe with a hammer, and after
hearing that loud noise, the child began to cry, so Watson repeatedly paired
the white rat with a loud noise whenever they exposed it to albert. After that,
little albert began to expect a loud and frightening noise whenever he saw the
white rat. Furthermore, based on the video, Rayner & Watson have also
observed that generalization has occurred. After the classical conditioning,
little albert also began to be afraid of any objects that has similarity of a white
rat including the seal fur coat, and a Santa Claus beard.

e. What ethical standards did the experimenter violate in this experiment?

Please explain briefly.

- The Little Albert Experiment was criticized as an unethical experiment

because of its method and also, based on what I have research, it is also
violated the ethical standards firstly because, Watson and Rayner don’t have
a consent from the parents, second is, the “do no harm” principle was
violated, because the child has been harmed mentally that resulted by having
a fear/trauma in white rats.
The Bystander Effect Experiment

a. Who developed the experiment?

- The bystander effect experiment was developed by the psychologists John
Darley and Bibb Latane.
b. When did it happen?
- The bystander effect experiment happened in year 1968 after following the
murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964
c. What did the experimenter want to know in conducting this experiment?
- John Darley and Bibb Latane was curious on how people would take
responsibility and accountability if someone needs help or if something bad
happens to the person in front of them whether they are alone or there are
other people beside them.
d. How does the experimenter implement the experiment? What are the methods
used?
- On the video that I have watched, the First experiment was conducted inside
a classroom, on the first scene there was only one student answering a
questionnaire and he suddenly go to the counter/reception to tell that there is
a smoke under the door, and the second situation is same with the first
sitation, but the only difference is that there were 3 students, and when the
two students notice the fire, they just ignore it and just proceed in answering
the questionnaire, and when the third student notice the fire, he also ignores
it.

The second experiment was conducted by recruiting some university to

students and told them that they will be participating in a discussion about
personal problems, but they didn’t know that they will be actually participating
in an experiment. The first situation was that an individual alone would be
doing one-on-one conversation wherein she talks to someone who is
confessing that he is prone to seizure, and then suddenly, the person whose
she’s talking to on the phone starts having a seizure(but it is a recorded
voice) for them to know how a person would act if she is alone, so the girl,
leaves the room and begin to ask for help. The second scenario is also same
with the first situation , but the only diference is that there are three of four
participants and when the person they are talking to starts having a seizure,
no one responded and no one leaves the room to ask for help.

This experiment have showned that a person were more likely to help if
he/she is alone, but if a person is with someone, they are most likely to just
observed others around them and base their action according on how the
people would respond.
e. What ethical standards did the experimenter violate in this experiment? Please
explain briefly.

- I think that the safety standards was quite violated, because the experiment
might harm the participants if something unexpectedly happens at the time of
the experiment