MetaFilter posts tagged with Voluntary

A New Twist in the Sad Saga of Little Albert

Blasdelb — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:59:30 -0800

A relatively new twist in the sad saga of Little Albert is challenging the traditional understanding of the already troublingly unethical classical experiment. "The experiment was conducted by John Watson in 1920 and was part of the psychologist’s attempt to prove that infants are blank slates and therefore infinitely malleable. It has been recounted in countless papers and textbooks. One of the longstanding mysteries about the experiment, the identity of Little Albert, was apparently solved in 2010 by Hall P. Beck, a psychologist at Appalachian State University. He and his co-authors argued that Little Albert was Douglas Merritte, the son of a wet-nurse who worked at the Johns Hopkins University, where the experiment was carried out. Merritte died in 1925 at age six from convulsions brought on by hydrocephalus (also known as “water on the brain”). Now comes another twist–one that, if accurate, would change how the Little Albert experiment is viewed and would cast a darker shadow over the career of the researcher who carried it out. A paper published this month in the journal History of Psychology [ABSTRACT] makes the case that Little Albert was not, as Watson insisted, “healthy” and “normal.” He was probably neurologically impaired. If the baby indeed had a severe cognitive deficit, then his reactions to the white rat or the dog or the monkey may not have been typical–certainly reaching universal conclusions about human nature based on his reactions wouldn’t make sense. The entire experiment, then, would be a case of a researcher terrifying a sick baby for no valid scientific reason (not that using a healthy baby would have been ethically hunkydory). But what makes it worse, the authors of the paper argue, is that Watson must have known that Little Albert was impaired. This would turn a cruel experiment of questionable value into a case of blatant academic fraud."

Keeping it simple, voluntarily

Toekneesan — Mon, 19 May 2008 12:02:56 -0800

"We want to be in clean country with like-minded people with access to clean food. . . . The question is, Do I have Internet access in the woods?" The New York Times has the story of an Austin family that has decided to give away almost all of their worldly possessions in exchange for a simpler more sustainable life. Could you do it? Most folks credit Duane Elgin's book with giving rise to the Voluntary Simplicity movement, though some might argue Thoreau was a practitioner, and Helen and Scott Nearing were certainly modern pioneers. But could you simplify your life? Gandhi said "Be the change you want to see in the world", but Gandhi never had an iPhone to give up. Need inspiration? The Good Life Center at Forest Farm Helen and Scott Nearing's book, The Good Life (Excerpt) Thoreau's book Walden Other blogs and sites with helpful information: The Simple Living Network Simply Living Off the Grid Choosing Voluntary Simplicity The Great River Earth Network The Northwest Earth Institute Cage Free Family The blog of the family featured in the Times article.

Lending a hand

LittleMissCranky — Thu, 10 Jul 2003 11:36:30 -0800

Since we're being morbid today, how 'bout a dose of Body Identity Integrity Disorder? People with this disorder really, really want to amputate part of their own body. Here's a first-person account from a so-called wannabe, a story about a doctor who used to perform amputations of healthy limbs for BIID patients, and the article in today's Slate about a new documentary. A couple of these sites raise an interesting question: why do psychiatric disorders seem to come and go with the times?

Kidnapped for Kicks!

hmgovt — Thu, 01 Aug 2002 06:32:12 -0800

Kidnapped for Kicks! "Brock Enright, a 25-year-old artist, has created a business where people pay him thousands of dollars a time to be violently abducted." Brings a new meaning to escapism...