One of the implications of john
b. watson’s work was that human phobias might be the result of classical conditioning.
a. true
b. false

The correct answer is A, as the statement is true. One of the implications of John B. Watson's work was that human phobias might be the result of classical conditioning.

As professor of Psychology at John Hopkins University (United States) between 1908 and 1920, Watson was considered one of the most influential and decisive figures of the last century. His work is studied today in all faculties of psychology around the globe, and is one of the bases of learning and treatment of some psychopathologies such as phobias. Therefore, his conclusions can not be absent in any book of introduction to psychology.

He was a radical behaviorist, an anti-mentalist, and, as such, criticized Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis, since he claimed that the study of consciousness and introspection had no place in psychology as a science. The psychology according to Watson, only made sense through the observable and measurable behavior, and for that reason, his experiments were carried out in the laboratory, where he could manipulate the environment and control the behavior of his subjects.

Watson's contributions to behaviorism are due to his experiments of classical conditioning, a type of learning that involves automatic or reflex responses, and which is characterized by the creation of a connection between a new stimulus and an already existing reflex. That is to say, it is a type of learning according to which a neutral stimulus, which does not provoke a response, becomes able to provoke it thanks to the associative connection of this stimulus with the stimulus that normally provokes this response.

John Watson was inspired by the research of the Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, but also thought that classical conditioning also explained learning in humans. Watson was clear that emotions were also learned through conditioned association, so that differences in behavior between humans were the cause of the different experiences that each one lived.

To test his hypothesis that emotions could be learned by conditioned association, Watson used an 11-month-old boy named Albert as the experimental subject. It should be mentioned that this study could not be carried out at the present time because it does not comply with scientific ethics.

Albert was taken to the laboratory where he was presented with a white rat. When the little one approached to touch her, Watson hit a metal bar with a hammer. As a result of the strong blow, the baby got upset and as result of fear began to cry. Watson repeated this process half a dozen times, and observed that, after various trials, little Albert was frightened simply by the sight of the white rat. Albert had learned that every time the rat appeared, the hammer would hit the metal board. That is, he anticipated the strong blow.

This is the most frequent mechanism of phobia acquisition, a strong irrational fear suffered by some people as a consequence of associating negative experiences with the presence of something (flying in an airplane, spiders, clowns, among many others).