Little Albert

What Ever Happened to Little Albert?

As a student first entering the discipline of psychology in the early 21st century there is so much to learn. Amidst countless new vocabulary words and hundreds of lists of people and their theories it is easy to get lost. There are, however, several key people or stories which serve as landmarks and allow for organization of thoughts. These key aspects are usually the most memorable and are useful in comparing other aspect of psychology back to them to facilitate understanding and continuity. Some of these aspects include Freud and the Oedipus complex, Pavlov’s dog, Skinner’s pigeons, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Fowler’s stages of faith and of course Watson’s experiment with a boy now known as ‘Little

As far as William Albert Barger/Martin is concerned the name fits. William was known as Albert throughout his whole life and Barger was the last name that he used at the time so quite literally his name was Albert B., the same name used by Watson and Rayner to identify the child they were experimenting on (Powell et al., 2014). To make a case for Douglas Merritte then becomes infinitely more difficult. Although there is some speculation that Watson could have used a pseudonym for the child, and Albert B. is not an impossibility for such a name that he would use, it was not within his nature to do so in this particular case (Beck et al., 2009; Powell et al.,

However, after all considerations it only seems appropriate to consider the importance of such a question as this. What it should come down to is whether having a concrete answer to this question will benefit the discipline of psychology or will only serve to satisfy historians seeking to find inconsequential details in order to provide interested readers with the satisfaction of an answer. Although the discipline of the history of psychology is extremely important for the growth and understanding of psychology itself some questions simply must remain unanswered. Having a certainty as to the identity of the child from the Little Albert study will in no way change the course of history or provide valuable insights into psychology as a whole or behaviourism as a discipline. Even Powell et al., after all of their work supporting the William Barger theory, realized that his fear of dogs in his later life could in no way definitively be linked to his conditioning as a young child (2014). With that in mind it seems fitting that this question remains effectively unanswered (in a definitive sense) and continues to be an area of interest and discussion for historians for years to come. That’s all