Psi Chi Distinguished Lecture
FRIDAY, APRIL 27, 2012
Finding Little Albert: Adventures in the Search for Psychology's Lost Boy
10:00–11:00 a.m., Grand Peninsula ABC
Speaker: Hall P. Beck, Appalachian State University (NC)
Chair: Jon Grahe, Pacific Lutheran University (WA; Psi Chi Western Regional Vice-President)
In 1920, John Watson and Rosalie Rayner claimed to have conditioned a baby boy, Albert, to fear a laboratory rat. In subsequent tests, they reported that the child’s fear generalized to other furry objects. After the last testing session, Albert disappeared, creating one of the greatest mysteries in the history of psychology. This presentation summarizes the efforts of Dr. Beck, his students, and his collaborators to determine Albert’s identity and fate. Examinations of Watson’s personal correspondence, scientific productions (books, journal articles, film), and public documents (national census data, state birth, and death records) suggested that a wet nurse at the Harriet Lane Home was Albert’s mother. Contact with the woman’s descendants led to the individual believed to be “Little Albert.”