Stephen, maybe the "emeritus" status suggests you have more time on your hands than those of us wasting away, grading essays all day and all night.....(ok, and thinking up punch lines for 3 psychologists walk into a bar....but that's a triviality that lightens up the essay reading.)
;-) Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [email protected] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 21:14:08 -0500 >From: [email protected] >Subject: Re: [tips] Who put the "Little" in "Little Albert"? >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > >I continue my lonely toil in seach of an answer, in dank and >dreary dungeons, amid flickering candles and moldy tomes. And >not a cask of Amontillado to spur me on. > >On my last attempt I nominated Daniel (1944) as the earliest >adopter of the term "Little Albert" to describe Watson's stolid >subject. I now push the boundary another 15 years back. > >The new candidate is: > >Clarke, Edwin Leavitt (1929). The art of straight thinking: a >primer of scientific method for social inquiry. > >On p, 16, Clarke says this: > >"In this case of little Albert we have two important phenomena >illustrated. First is the conditioning of a stimulus by an unlearred >stimulus-response". > >This is 9 years after the original publication by Watson and >Rayner in which we were first introduced to Albert (but not to >little Albert). I was not able to discover anything about the >author, Edwin Clarke. However, the work is undoubtedly not >"juvenile fiction" as Google Books seems to think. > >A slightly later source is this: > >Shirley, Mary Margaret (1933). The first two years: a study of >twenty-five babies, vol. 3, p. 209. > >She says: > >"Whereas Jones saw the babies only once or twice and the >Ohio State group observed the baby during only the neonatal >period, Watson apparently kept an experimental eye on "little >Albert" for more than a year. " [full text at >http://tinyurl.com/yhunr7y ] > >Shirley sounded to me as someone familiar, unless I was >confusing her with that kid from Prince Edward Island. Sure >enough, the Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science lists >her as an American psychologist, born 1899, Ph.D. University of >Minnesota 1927, death date unknown. [see >http://tinyurl.com/yglwoqz ]. > >I believe "The first two years" is her major work, and her >adoption of the descriptor "little Albert" may have been >influential. However, I still think that Eysenck's frequent use of >the same term starting in 1959 may have been the impetus for >its modern use. Difficult to prove, however. > >Stephen > >----------------------------------------------------------------- >Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. >Professor of Psychology, Emeritus >Bishop's University > e-mail: [email protected] >2600 College St. >Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 >Canada >----------------------------------------------------------------------- > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
