Little Albert: Ethics and Pragmatics

Abstract

The modern quest to uncover the historical outcome of Watson’s LittleAlbert is scrutinized through a pragmatic lens and found to be of nominalscientific worth. The Douglass Merritte hypothesis and the Albert Bargerhypothesis both have strong supporting evidence, but key flaws intheir positions exist which cannot withstand pure scientific rigor. If theidentity of Little Albert cannot be proven with absolute certainty, thenthe only field in which this study has any substantive worth is in the fieldof scientific ethics. This study is helpful in illuminating the contextualnature of scientific ethics. It serves as a historical tether emphasizing theethical evolution of the field of psychology and as a cautionary tale thatarticulates the importance of tempering scientific inquiry with ethicalquestions.

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