1. Pavlov’s experiments and his discovery of classical conditioning helped us understand what lies beneath certain dysfunctional behaviors, such as phobias. He didn’t just explain the path in which phobias and fears are developed, but also gave us the pattern that can be used for eliminating those fears. Classical conditioning is the form of learning which can serve us till this day as a model for examining general principals of behavior modification. He discovered important phenomena in classical conditioning such as generalization, differentiation etc. He also provided his understanding of psychopathological phenomena gave his typology of nervous system which later influenced on several psychologists such as Eysenck and Grey.
2. Parents bath a child and a child slips from their arms and falls in the bathtub. Later a child in the same situation manifests fear.
UCR-fear from falling
N- Situation of bathing
CS-the fall which occurred during bath time
CR- fear from bathing
3. Yes, my aversion to pasta remained till this day. I ate pasta in a restaurant and later had to drive with my mother to another place. Since she was in a hurry, she was driving fast and I was about 7 years old and unused to this kind of drive so I was sick and threw up. The feeling of sickness and nausea became associated to the pasta that I threw up. This way all the elements for creating aversion to pasta were there.
4. It is a very meaningful study as it provides an explanation for development of fears and conditioning of emotions. It provided numerous methods for helping people who suffer from irrational fears. Psychotherapy has developed greatly thanks to this study.
5. The difference is that in classical conditioning there is an association between two stimuli and in operant learning behavior is associated with the consequence of that behavior. There are differences in the behavior of the subject who is involved in the process of learning. In classical conditioning the subject is passive while in operant learning he is active. In classical conditioning a subject learns conditional reflex (unwilling behaviors) while in operant he learns behaviors that brings him to the aim. Different biological systems are included in these two types of learning. In classical conditioning it is the central nervous system and endocrine system and in operant conditioning it is the muscle system, skeletal system and verbal behaviors.
6. Positive reinforcement would be an excellent grade. Negative reinforcement is the pain that I experienced when I teased my cat. Punishment by application is when my parents are angry if I came back home late at night. Punishment by removal is when my parents are very angry and they ground me for coming home late at night.
7. I think that punishments are effective but the behavior can be modified only by using reward as stimuli. If we would always use rewards for positive behaviors and be indolent to negative behaviors every being would manifest only those behaviors which have effects. This means that they would only manifest behaviors that are rewarded and eliminate behaviors that didn’t cause any effect (negative behaviors).
8. I tried to play basketball and it seemed that whatever I did was not good enough so I felt helpless and stopped trying. I don’t play it anymore.
9. I watched my sister training aikido and learned several moves without any intention. Later I found out that I know how to perform them correctly.
10. It has a significant effect on behavior. We can see girls who are dressed in a same fashion manner every day in school. That is due to television. I also think that certain values are presented on television and since these values are persistently appreciated and presented through screens, individuals who watch it can interiorize those values and strive towards them. Their behavior becomes greatly modified by this.
11. This video demonstrates the importance of learning even during the prenatal period. It is associated with the material in the chapter since it also talks about learning that we are not aware of. The same is with classical and operant conditioning. Fetus learns to adapt to the upcoming situation and it is the same with types of learning that are described here. It does not matter whether those learned behaviors are later functional or not.
