Classical conditioning: principles and applications

Classical Conditioning

The subject of conditioning is something that has been established and proven for quite some time. Many point solely or at least mainly to Pavlov's Dog. However, there is a litany of other examples and situations that can be identified as conditioning and thus are worthy of further review. Even though Pavlov will not be the focus in this report, Pavlov did set the tone for what was picked up by John Broadus Watson starting talking about behaviorism. While it might be possible to attribute too much behavior to classical and other types of conditioning, it is without a doubt that conditioning is what influences and causes a lot of what makes up human behavior in the world today.

Watson & Conditioning

Watson had some things to say that would be quite controversial today. Indeed, he said that he could take a dozen healthy infants and that, given the right upbringing and resources, could turn any of those babies into whatever he wished in terms of life and career outcomes such as doctor, lawyer, artist and so on. Watson noted that there were three stages that one could witness when it came to conditioning. There is a stimulus that can be applied to any random person. For someone that is not yet conditioned, the stimulus will probably do nothing. However, if such the stimulus occurs after conditioning takes place, then a certain reaction or set of patterns of reaction would take place (McLeod, 2014).

The aforementioned Pavlov had his famous dog. However, he also had a conditioning experiment with humans called the Little Albert experiment. Albert was a nine-month-old infant and his reactions to certain stimuli were tested. He was shown a set of animals that included a rat, a rabbit, a monkey and a series of masks. At first, there was no fear or horror expressed by Albert as these animals or masks were shown to him. However, another thing that was tried was someone slamming a hammer on an iron bar just above Albert's head. Predictably, this alarmed Albert and made him cry. What then happened is that Albert was shown only the rat several times over seven weeks. Each of those seven times, the iron bar incident above was done as well. Each of those seven times, Albert would cry. After those seven times, Albert was shown the rat but without the bar being slammed. Yet, Albert still cried even though one half of the stimulus was shown or heard. In other words, Albert was previously only reacting to the bar. However, they associated (over time), the bar and the rat and thus Albert would react to the rat by itself. This was Pavlov's dog all over again but using a human. When it comes to human conditioning, there is also the nature vs. nurture paradigm. Indeed, it is commonly agreed that some genetic precursors exist and these genetic precursors and traits, by themselves, can tend to lead to problems as a human develops. This would seem to fly in the face, at least in part, of what Watson asserted. However, to suggest that environment and upbringing are irrelevant would be less than accurate (McLeod, 2014).