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Rosalie Rayner
Rosalie Alberta Rayner (1898-1935) was the assistant and later wife of Johns Hopkins University psychology professor John B. Watson, with whom she carried out the famous "Little Albert" experiment.

Childhood
Rayner was born in Baltimore, Maryland on September 25, 1898. Her father and grandfather, Albert William Rayner and William Solomon Rayner, respectively, were successful businessmen. She had a sister, Evelyn, and her mother was Rebecca Selner Rayner. The family made a comfortable living in railroads, mining, and shipbuilding. The Rayner family also supported Johns Hopkins University, where they contributed $10,000 for research. Her uncle was also a prominent public figure. Isidor Rayner was a senator in Maryland who managed public inquiries into the sinking of the Titanic and also served as Attorney General of Maryland for four years.

Education
Rosalie Rayner continued her education at Vassar College in New York, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1919. Here she studied alongside Mary Cover Jones, who would become a prominent woman psychologist whose focus was on lifetime development. Upon graduation, she enrolled at Johns Hopkins University with the intention of earning a graduate degree in the field of psychology. She was hired as an assistant to John B. Watson, who is best known for pioneering the approach to behaviorism. Behaviorism was a term that Watson had introduced into the field of psychology, where the goal was to predict and control behaviors.

Over her time at Johns Hopkins University, she conducted research on alcohol in the body, but most prominently did research on behaviorism. During the 1920's, she influenced the field of behavioral psychology tremendously, though often overshadowed by Watson. Her and Watson had goals of altering people's family lives so that their family life would reflect a scientific laboratory. They were attempting to prove that behaviors could be conditioned and controlled. He believed that behaviors were not hardwired at birth, but they gradually built up through conditioning.

In her time at Johns Hopkins, she and Watson studied over 500 children, with the "Little Albert" study being their most famous psychological experiment. Today, the "Little Albert" study would be deemed highly unethical. This study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology. The results of the Little Albert experiment and what followed are highlighted in the "career" section.

Personal life
Rayner's collaboration with Watson developed into an affair, which resulted in him divorcing his previous wife, Mary Ickes. The public divorce became very bitter between the two. Watson's love letters to Rayner were made public in the newspapers for everyone to read. Due to the scandal, Watson was then forced to leave academia, however, Rayner stayed with him. Rayner also left the university before she finished her degree and the two married on December 31, 1920 and moved to Connecticut, with Watson working for the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. The couple had two sons together, William and James.

After Watson was fired from Johns Hopkins University, rumors began to circulate that the reason for Watson's firing was because he and Rayner were collaborating on physiological sex research. Speculators included James V. McConnell who believed that this research was the primary reason for Watson's dismissal. However, these claims have never been meaningfully substantiated.

Career
Rayner's most famous experiment, the "Little Albert" experiment, was conducted when Albert was 9 months old and studied classical conditioning. During this experiment, Rayner and Watson exposed Albert to many furry animals to see if he had a preconditioned fear. They then made a very loud sound behind Albert's back every time a white rat was presented to condition a fear of the rat. Rayner and Watson's results showed that Little Albert generalized his fear of white rats to other furry, white stimuli, such as fur coats, rabbits, and a Santa Claus mask. This study was published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Publications
Rayner and Watson worked together on an article in which they studied over 500 children at different stages of development. This article drew conclusions about behavior and how it is always the result of some type of stimulus. It also stated that if the relationship between a stimulus and behavior could be seen, more forms of emotional expression could be taught. Rayner and Watson believed that children could have a personality set by the age of two.

Rayner also contributed to a how-to book called Psychological Care of Infant and Child. This book encouraged mothers to approach child-rearing with scientific principles. In the chapter Too Much Motherly Love, the maternal bond was addressed. Rayner described how too much tenderness and love towards your child could be dangerous and wreck their future and marital happiness.

In 1930, Rayner's first sole-authored article I Am the Mother of a Behaviorist's Son was published. This article was Rayner's only access to a voice without Watson. Rayner's views portrayed in this article were in favor of breaking the mother attachment as early as possible. However, in this book she did portray her affection toward her own sons.

Death
Rayner unexpectedly died on June 18, 1935 in Horwalk Hospital, Connecticut. She had contracted dysentery from eating tainted fruit. Watson was troubled with her death and never remarried. In later years, their two sons reflected on their childhood as they both developed depression in adulthood. Both sons attempted suicide, while William had successfully. James stated that his father’s principles on behaviorism in their strict parenting practices inhibited his and his brother’s ability to effectively deal with human emotion, adding that it undermined their self-esteem later in life.