Where do emotions come from?

For many centuries, the question of how our minds work was left to theologians and philosophers. But at the beginning of the twentieth century, a new science, experimental psychology emerged, in which the speculative theories of the past were confirmed or disproved by the scientific method. At the forefront of this research was J B Watson. His area of interest was the origin of human emotions. Do we learn them, or do we have them when we are born? In particular, Watson wanted to study fear, and was prepared to go to whatever lengths to study his theory.

Watson’s subject was a 9 month old infant, Albert. During the experiment, Watson presented the child with things which are often considered frightening – a rat, fire, a clown mask. At first, Albert was unafraid of these things. But then Watson tormented the child with loud, unexpected noises as he was playing with them. Sure enough, Albert learnt to associate these things with the unpleasant experience. Even when the noises were stopped, Albert withdrew his body and puckered his face when presented once more with the rat and mask.

Such abusive and disturbing experiments would never be permitted nowadays. The film which Watson made of the experiment makes discomforting viewing, as the child is interminably and cold-heartedly tortured by the items which he has been taught to fear. Nonetheless, this was a landmark work with profound influence. Through it, Watson confirmed that humans learn fear by association, and as a result they can ‘un-learn’ it, a discovery that still impact s the work of behavioural therapists today.

http://www.examenglish.com/cpe/cpe_reading_part2.htm