Rosalie Rayner facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Rosalie Rayner
Rosalie Rayner with Little Albert
Born	25 September 1898  Baltimore
Died	18 June 1935  (aged 36) Norwalk
Nationality	American
Occupation	Psychologist
Known for	Little Albert experiment

Rosalie Alberta Rayner (September 25, 1898 – June 18, 1935) was a research psychologist. She worked as an assistant to John B. Watson, a psychology professor at Johns Hopkins University. Later, she married him. Together, they conducted the well-known Little Albert experiment. Rosalie Rayner studied at Vassar College and Johns Hopkins University. During her career, she wrote articles about how children grow and how families connect. She wrote some with Watson and some by herself.

Early Life and Family

Rosalie Rayner was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on September 25, 1898. Her father, Albert William Rayner, and her grandfather, William Solomon Rayner, were successful business owners. They worked in areas like railroads, mining, and shipbuilding. Rosalie's mother was Rebecca Selner Rayner, and Rosalie also had a sister named Evelyn.

The Rayner family was very supportive of Johns Hopkins University. They donated a large sum of money, $10,000, to help with research there. Rosalie's uncle, Isidor Rayner, was also a well-known public figure in Maryland.

Education and New Ideas

Rosalie Rayner went to Vassar College in New York. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919. While at Vassar, she studied with Mary Cover Jones, who later became a famous psychologist. Mary Cover Jones focused on how people develop throughout their lives.

After graduating, Rayner went to Johns Hopkins University. She planned to get a higher degree in psychology. There, she became an assistant to John B. Watson. Watson is famous for starting a new way of thinking in psychology called behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that we can understand and control how people act by looking at their observable behaviors. Watson believed that behaviors are learned, not something we are born with.

Research and the Little Albert Study

While at Johns Hopkins University, Rosalie Rayner did research on how alcohol affected the body. She also continued her behaviorist research with Watson. They believed that family life could be studied like a science experiment. They thought that behaviors were learned through conditioning, not set at birth.

Rayner and Watson said they studied over 500 children. The Little Albert experiment was their most famous study. In this study, they tried to make a 9-month-old baby, called "Albert," afraid of a white rat. Before the study, Albert was not afraid of the rat. The goal was to see if they could make him fear it through conditioning.

Some textbooks say that Albert's fear spread to other white, furry things. These included fur coats, rabbits, and a Santa Claus mask. However, the rabbit used was brown. Also, the fear Albert showed was not very strong or long-lasting when people look back at the film Watson made. The results of this study were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. Today, the "Little Albert" study is seen as very unethical because of how it treated the baby.

Later Life and Family

Rosalie Rayner and John B. Watson continued their work together. Rayner left the university before finishing her degree. They got married on December 31, 1920. They moved to Connecticut, where Watson started working for an advertising company.

Rosalie and John had two sons, William and James. They raised their children using some of the ideas from behaviorism.

Death

Rosalie Rayner passed away unexpectedly on June 18, 1935. She was in Norwalk Hospital in Connecticut. She became sick with dysentery from eating bad fruit. She was only 36 years old.

After her death, her two sons, William and James, later talked about their childhood. They felt that their father's strict parenting, based on behaviorism, made it hard for them to deal with their feelings as adults. James said it hurt their self-esteem later in life.

See also

In Spanish: Rosalie Rayner para niños