Question

I’m struggling on this question. Please help!

What does the story of Baby Albert demonstrate about ethics?

Answer 1

The story of Baby Albert was related with a procedure or experiment that was done to demonstrate the type of learning that occurs when different stimuli are associated. This type of learning is known as classical conditioning. Albert was an 11-month-old boy who was examined to see if he was afraid of certain animals with hair. It was observed that the baby was not afraid of these stimuli but felt fear when he heard loud sounds. The experiment was to show him a white rat and at the same time a noise that scared him. After several trials, the boy showed fear in the presence of a rat, other animals and other hairy objects.

This experiment opened an ethical debate on experimentation with human beings, since for this case a phobia was introduced in a child and there was no opportunity to eliminate it later with some other procedure. As we see, in this experiment a child is used as a test subject and profound psychological consequences are left. At that time there were no ethical definitions for experimentation such as those currently available.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The story of Baby Albert was related with a procedure or experiment that was done to demonstrate the type of learning that occurs when different stimuli are associated. This type of learning is known as classical conditioning. Albert was an 11-month-old boy who was examined to see if he was afraid of certain animals with hair. It was observed that the baby was not afraid of these stimuli but felt fear when he heard loud sounds. The experiment was to show him a white rat and at the same time a noise that scared him. After several trials, the boy showed fear in the presence of a rat, other animals and other hairy objects.

This experiment opened an ethical debate on experimentation with human beings, since for this case a phobia was introduced in a child and there was no opportunity to eliminate it later with some other procedure. As we see, in this experiment a child is used as a test subject and profound psychological consequences are left. At that time there were no ethical definitions for experimentation such as those currently available.