How classical conditioning explains responses to petrol fragrance

Psychology Learning Experience

Understanding Psychology through Learning Experiences and Learning Theories

Faculty Name

Homo sapiens are referred to as human beings because they possess a complex mind that processes and stores information received as stimulus. While learning may seem easy to some people, psychologically it happens through certain processes. The learning theories are not just theoretical; they are applicable to our daily professional and personal lives. It is important to understand that learning is not only something that teachers make us do. It is also what experiences make us do. We learn through everything that we experience and then we react accordingly to similar situation.

Describing a Learning Experience

People go through different experiences. Some of the experiences are so unique that you start observing the experience process unconsciously. Due to the same reason, some people develop phobias and some develop likes and dislikes for certain things. It wouldn't be wrong to describe phobia as a learned fear that becomes persistent for example claustrophobia, fear of being locked in with no exit. However, in this essay we will keep our focus on how some people develop a liking for the fragrance of petrol and how some people feel nauseous because of it.

Classical Conditioning and My Learning

If I wasn't self-motivated to learn about the petrol fragrance, it was easy to make me learn to respond in a certain way. Through classical conditioning, one could make a person to respond in a certain manner by pairing the conditioned and unconditioned stimulus. Since the actual trigger of feelings occurs due to the agent, the classical conditioning will involve the chemical agent (x) used in petrol.

Unconditioned Stimulus: In this particular case the unconditioned stimulus will be the chemical agent. Each human body is different. People have different addictions and allergies because each human body reacts in a different manner. Hence the chemical agent will result in a natural reaction by the human mind and body.

Unconditioned Response: The natural reaction produced by the unconditioned stimulus will be the unconditioned response which depending upon the human body type will either be liking the petrol fragrance or disliking the petrol fragrance.

Conditioned Stimulus: Petrol will be the conditioned stimulus. Since it possesses the chemical agent, petrol will act as a conditioned stimulus. The response that the body generated for the chemical agent will slowly began to be the response that the body generates for petrol.

Conditioned Response: The conditioned response will be the feeling associated with the chemical agent. You no longer have to provide the chemical agent to get that response, petrol will do the trick.

Similar to the example given above, it is important to understand that classical conditioning can be applied in different ways. For example, if you want a response towards petrol pump to be learned then you can keep petrol as the unconditioned stimulus and petrol pump as the conditioned stimulus. Due to this you will slowly start developing the same feelings for the petrol pump that you have for petrol.

Operant Conditioning and My Learning

You can also trigger learning via Operant Conditioning i.e. By altering consequences. Through operant conditioning the learning is assisted by behavior, reinforcement and punishments. Behavior is the act that is under consideration, punishments are the consequences while reinforcement is where the actual operant conditioning takes place.

Behavior: In this particular scenario the behavior will be referred to as how one would react to petrol fragrance.

Consequences: There will be two consequences of the operant conditioning. Negative punishment and positive punishment. Negative punishment is also known as the penalty. If I am supposed to like the petrol pump and I don't then I can be forced to learn to like it by negative punishment. In this scenario the negative punishment will be no petrol fragrance until I visit a petrol pump. Positive punishment will be given by associating petrol with the petrol pump. However in my case, negative punishment will be preferably used.

Reinforcement: When a behavior is rewarded with a positive result it is known as positive reinforcement and when it is rewarded with a negative result it is known as negative reinforcement. In this particular case, positive reinforcement will be preferred if a liking for petrol fragrance has to be developed and negative reinforcement will be preferred if a disliking has to be developed.

Learning via Cognitive Social Learning

As the name represents, people learn by watching people or by observing there environment. If I am greatly impressed by a friend and I watch him/her being addicted to the petrol fragrance, I'll automatically condition my mind towards liking it. While there are many other aspects to cognitive social learning, I think identification is the most applicable here. If I want to be like someone or if I identify with someone i.e. I feel someone is more or less the same, I am most likely to follow what they do.

Conclusion

Hence you can learn through various ways and you can condition responses according to your own will. The only trick you need to learn is the trick of controlling stimuli and consequences.