My cats’ behaviors and psychology
Psychology was a new thing to me when I enrolled in this class. I used to think that
psychology was only judging the mental state of a patient by asking what they have
dreamt of or how they felt. However, after I have participated in several lectures about
psychology, I knew that psychology is more than that. Every move, every perception, every
memory can be classified into psychology and there are always theories explaining
people’s behaviors and their perceptions. Psychology can be even used to explain how
animals behave, like the skinner’s box proposed by B.F. Skinner. I have observed how my
cats behave and I reckon that their behaviors are associated with psychology.
I noticed that my cats would …show more content…
I think the action of I moving to
the place where the snacks are is a kind of conditioned stimuli and the cats following me is
conditioned response.
When I was teaching my cats to obey instructions, like ‘sit’, I was actually using the theory
of operant conditioning by B.F.Skinner. Using positive reinforcement and negative
punishment is not an extraordinary method in teaching animals. I also use this method to
teach my cats. Food is the most common reinforcer. Therefore, I took food as a temptation
to my cats. I would only give them food after they set. And soon, it became an
unconditioned response. Now, when I am holding some food, no matter it is for them or for
human only, they would sit in front of me without any command given. Meanwhile, I used
negative punishment to stop my cats from stealing food. They always observe the way I
took out the food and try to imitate. In order to cease their misbehavior, I just simply took
the box away from his sight. Following several repeated punishments, my cats stop
stealing food from the box, instead they just yelled at me for …show more content…
Animals are not merely robots but have capacity for great behavioral flexibility
(Snowdo, 1991). With regard to this saying and the observation, I can conclude that cats
are not born to fear dogs. To explain this phenomenon, I believe the theory that I have
learnt from psychology can help. NipNip has lived with my dogs since he was a one-
month-old baby. Baby cats usually have weak cognitive function as their minds are not yet
mature. They only know how to play, eat and sleep without frightening of anything or
noticing any hazard. Hence, he could live with my dog peacefully and when he grew up
with my dog, Smokey, he just ignore the fact that my dog is so huge that can just eat him
with one bite. This ignorance is probably related to sensory habituation. He realized that
my dog pose no threat to him and therefore, his brain stop attending to present of my dog.
However, my another cat, Sugar, has divergent situation. She lives with my dog after she
was nearly six-month- old. Because of her mature mind and well-defined cognitive function,
she was afraid of the enormous size of my dog. And as a result, she treated my dog
Psychology was a new thing to me when I enrolled in this class. I used to think that
psychology was only judging the mental state of a patient by asking what they have
dreamt of or how they felt. However, after I have participated in several lectures about
psychology, I knew that psychology is more than that. Every move, every perception, every
memory can be classified into psychology and there are always theories explaining
people’s behaviors and their perceptions. Psychology can be even used to explain how
animals behave, like the skinner’s box proposed by B.F. Skinner. I have observed how my
cats behave and I reckon that their behaviors are associated with psychology.
I noticed that my cats would …show more content…
I think the action of I moving to
the place where the snacks are is a kind of conditioned stimuli and the cats following me is
conditioned response.
When I was teaching my cats to obey instructions, like ‘sit’, I was actually using the theory
of operant conditioning by B.F.Skinner. Using positive reinforcement and negative
punishment is not an extraordinary method in teaching animals. I also use this method to
teach my cats. Food is the most common reinforcer. Therefore, I took food as a temptation
to my cats. I would only give them food after they set. And soon, it became an
unconditioned response. Now, when I am holding some food, no matter it is for them or for
human only, they would sit in front of me without any command given. Meanwhile, I used
negative punishment to stop my cats from stealing food. They always observe the way I
took out the food and try to imitate. In order to cease their misbehavior, I just simply took
the box away from his sight. Following several repeated punishments, my cats stop
stealing food from the box, instead they just yelled at me for …show more content…
Animals are not merely robots but have capacity for great behavioral flexibility
(Snowdo, 1991). With regard to this saying and the observation, I can conclude that cats
are not born to fear dogs. To explain this phenomenon, I believe the theory that I have
learnt from psychology can help. NipNip has lived with my dogs since he was a one-
month-old baby. Baby cats usually have weak cognitive function as their minds are not yet
mature. They only know how to play, eat and sleep without frightening of anything or
noticing any hazard. Hence, he could live with my dog peacefully and when he grew up
with my dog, Smokey, he just ignore the fact that my dog is so huge that can just eat him
with one bite. This ignorance is probably related to sensory habituation. He realized that
my dog pose no threat to him and therefore, his brain stop attending to present of my dog.
However, my another cat, Sugar, has divergent situation. She lives with my dog after she
was nearly six-month- old. Because of her mature mind and well-defined cognitive function,
she was afraid of the enormous size of my dog. And as a result, she treated my dog