Classical Conditioning: Pavlov's Effects On Everyday Life

Classical conditioning is the process by which a response that is normally elicited by one stimulus becomes elicited by another conditioned stimulus. A classic example of this is Pavlov’s dog experiment. Pavlov ran his experiment by seeing whether a dog would salivate under certain conditions. He first presented the dog with food, which of course elicited salivation. He then rang a bell near the dog, which caused no response. He began to ring the bell while giving the dog its food, causing the dog to salivate and begin to associate food with the ringing of the bell. Finally, he rang the bell near the dog again, which caused it to salivate. The reason it did this, is because it learned that when the bell rang it was going to get food. Therefore, …show more content…
Fear is more beneficial to us than we might think, as it helps us to survive. One of the most famous examples of this is the case of Little Albert. Little Albert was a baby boy who was conditioned to fear white rats. The rat was initially a neutral stimulus, as Albert was not afraid of it at all. He was, however, afraid of loud noises (unconditioned stimulus). The experimenter began to pair loud noises with Albert’s exposure to the rat. Whenever he would play with the rat, something he originally had no fear of, he would hear a loud noise that he was afraid of. Eventually, Albert began to show fear responses such as crying and crawling away whenever he saw the white rat, even when there was no loud noise present. This became the conditioned response. Albert was conditioned to be afraid of the white rat because he associated it with something he feared; loud noises. We can be conditioned to fear seemingly trivial things in our everyday lives because we are conditioned to do so. For example, if there is a bully on the playground who threw basketballs at you every recess, you may now duck whenever you see a basketball. You are not afraid of the basketball, but are instead afraid of being hit by it, yet you associate your fear to the basketball …show more content…
Classical conditioning plays a major role in addiction, especially drug addictions. With drug addictions, the unconditioned stimulus is whatever drug the person is taking and the unconditioned response is pleasure. The drug alters the person’s mental state and often gives them a sense of contentment or even euphoria, depending on the drug. With addiction, the conditioned stimulus becomes the environment the person is in when they are doing the drug. This environment is then associated with the feelings of content or euphoria. When a person is put back into that environment, they are likely to want to do the drug again. This is why it is so easy for a person to relapse even after being sober for years. If they are put back into an environment associated with drug use, it is more likely for them to use drugs. This can be a helpful tool in the recovery process, however. If addicts are presented with stimuli associated with doing drugs, in a safe place like a rehab, yet are unable to do the drug or do not feel the euphoria from the drug, then eventually the stimulus will lose its power and will no longer elicit a