How to Condition Little Albert

The book PSYCHOLOGY APPLIED TO TEACHING by Robert F. Bienter was published in Boston in 1971 and was recommended for use in Introduction to Educational Psychology courses in universities in the early 1970s .

In Chapter 5, under the sub-heading of S-R Associationism and Programmed Learning, Bienter refers to the writings of John B. Watson, a psychologist who had founded Behaviorism in 1920:

"Based on of his most famous experiments on the observation that young children have a "natural" fear of sudden loud sounds, he set up a situation in which a two-year-old boy named Albert [an orphan residing at a hospital] was encouraged to play with a white rat.

After this preliminary period, Watson suddenly hit a steel bar with a hammer just as Albert reached for the rat, and the noise frightened the child so much that he came to respond to the rat with fear.

He had been conditioned to associate the rat with the loud sound.

The success of this experiment led Watson to believe that he could control behavior in almost limitless ways, by arranging sequences of conditioned responses.

He [Watson] trumpeted his claim in this famous statement:

" 'Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own special world to bring them up in, and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select--doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and yes, even beggarman and thief--regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestry.' "

I might favor such "educational" approach if it resulted in a high literacy rate, low poverty rate or lower drug abuse and crime rates.

However, a brief look at our deteriorating education and, consequently, culture, proves its failure and harm!

It is this sort of teacher training that has mislead our educators away from traditional education and into "conditioning" their students.

And the results? Increased drug abuse and crime.

If we are going to change our culture, we must reach our children with real education, with truthful and useful information; and must teach them to think for themselves on the subject of drugs and morality.

While our good teachers have their hands full just teaching reading, writing and arithmetic, it is up to us to provide a helping hand in those specialty areas, such as drug prevention and education.

On the wings of Narconon's 40th anniversary, I invite you to join in and help us reach more kids than ever with the "Truth About Drugs."

Help us change their minds and save their lives !

SPONSOR A SCHOOL NOW.

It only costs $200 to sponsor a school with our drug education videos and materials.
Each video can reach over 3000 students during its life (only 7 cents per student!).

Purchase your own DVD for $47.

Contact Donna Miller at Friends of Narconon.

CALL: 1-800-882-6862.

Sincerely,
Robert Hernandez, CCDC*
President, Friends of Narconon, Intl.
*Certified Chemical Dependency Counselor

P.S. If you'd like to sponsor a school, just click here (or copy and paste into your browser):
http://www.friendsofnarconon.org/drug_education/school_sponsorship_program/

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