Ivan Pavlov and His Theory on Classical Conditioning

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Classical conditioning is the conditional programming of an organism to respond to a conditioned stimulus that seeks to enhanced and enforce a certain behavior in an organism. This is achieved through the use of classical conditioned stimulus or object that is presented with an unconditioned stimulus in an organism. Classical conditioning involves the use of a neutral stimulus in order to instil a classically generated behavior or response in an organism. Classical conditioning was first advanced by Ivan Pavlov who was the founding father of behaviorism. Behaviorism was a study in psychology that specially dealt with the study of behavior and behaviorism and how behaviorism is achieved in humans. The theory of behaviorism was later advanced by JB Watson who argued that any behavior can be instilled in a child. Watson argued that any child can be classically conditioned to become anything or to acquire any behavior. The study off classical conditioning involves presenting to an animal or organism to a conditioned stimulus. There is no connection between the conditioned stimulus and the organism. The organism is then exposed to an unconditional stimulus which is then followed repetitively with the exposition of the conditioned stimulus over a certain number of times until the organism learns to associate the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response even at the absence of an unconditioned response. In the process the organism was found to elicit an unconditional response at the exposure to the conditioned stimulus. The organism was also found to have associated the conditioning to other related objects. Thus stimulus generalization occurs as a result of exposure to the stimulus genera... ... middle of paper ... ... behavior in children. In the case study involving Mavis, who has always enjoyed playing 'catch' with her friend's Great Dane “angus” we see a great example of classical conditioning. Mavis in this case experienced a psychological change of behavior. Her fear of the dog bite which occurred accidentally was generalized to other dogs. Her generalization of dogs as unfriendly and harmful would transcend to other dogs which are indeed not harmful, this is known as stimulus generalization due to classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is the leading behavioral motivator and shaper. Higher order conditioning would lead to classical conditioning where an organism is conditioned to generalize stimulus that is closely related to the conditioned behavior. This will lead to a child say, Marvis to be afraid of all pets and four legged domestic animals of the cat family.

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