Perception of Psychology: The Journals

Through the years the development of psychology has changed drastically. I wanted to look and see how through the years experiments had changed, with the add of technology, or just new scientific information. Now just from looking through the journals of the psychologist, we can further our understandings of their work.

John B. Watson: 1920

I am here today with graduate student Rosalie Rayner, to use the methods of Ivan Pavlov. The patient is Albert B, age 9 months. We have exposed the patient to a series of objects. Those objects being:a rabbit, a white rat, masks,a monkey, and burning newspapers. The boy has shown no fear of any of the objects thus far.

We are now adding a loud sounds, while showing Little Albert the same objects. His reaction is followed by a cry, and the baby crawled away. For each object shown. Now after repeating these, he still cries, even without the loud noise.

This shows growth in the baby's brain. He is now afraid of the old objects.

Watsons’ science may not have been logical but it was what he had. He used research from a Russian doctor, despite what everyone had said. The experimental process wasn't carefully constructed. Watson and Rayner used their own personal judgement as a means of measurement, making it at risk for many ethical concerns. In today's society, “The Little Albert” experiment would not be allowed, because the standards are much higher, and it would be unethical to do the experiment. With more digging, psychologist Hall P. tried to find the boy in 1925, finding out that the boy that Watson described as “normal”, was suffering from a brain abnormalities, such as fluid built up. This rendered his work untrue, and even more unethical. But after many years more theories were shed to light, with new advances. Future:2020-Beyond

The mechanics behind “The Man”

Today I had to repair the thing that does my old job. The thing that has changed my life and everybody else's. “The Man” is a robot, a new highly equipped robot that scans the brain, in two minutes. It has the patient lie down and close there eyes. All it has to do is scan the body, and it has a clear picture of the brain. Now that we know so much of the brain things have changed. It finds the answers, faster, and people say it's more accurate. But this machine I fix everyday doesn't seem reliable to me. I spent years in college to become a psychologist, just for it to be over run by scraps of metal, and an x ray machine. It has no feeling, no connection to the patient, yet they believe everything it says. They rely on “The Man” to be accurate, much more accurate than us; the errors. We know nothing now. Everything was a lie. The talking cure is proven wrong, even though it's what I've studied and seen with my own eyes to be true and real experiences for patients. Now, we are nothing and it is everything.

This psychologist talks about his past life. The one where he was helper, the one behind the books, finding new ways to help people. Now it's different. Now he is an error, a miniscule thing that fixes “The Man”. One change is neuroscience, can lead to a whole new world. A world where we don't talk to people anymore. A place where we are told what is wrong with us by a fake man, a machine. Is this ethical? Is this really what people wanted? An object, reading their minds, changing there brain cells to help them overcome. With all this change I see development pushing forward, yet backwards.

What happens when jobs start to become robots? When people don't matter anymore? Technology has great power, and with great power comes responsibility. The responsibility to do good. “Little Albert” was unethical and harsh. It was very unfactual and there were many errors. But we moved from that into 2017, our current time. This is where ethics became a priority. There is patient confidentiality, and health ways to help the brain. But for what? Will technology really take a toll on us for the better? I think it will lose our jobs, and change things that we know are okay, ethical and right. The power of technology has advanced lots in our time, from neuroscience, to complex new machines, yet we are still afraid. Psychologist have done research for years upon years. Every experiment getting better and more developed about the human brain. Nobody knows what's really next. It could be amazing advancements. We will just have to wait and see.

Schwartz, Steven. Classic Studies in Psychology. Classic Studies in Psychology, Mayfield Publishing , 1986.