Psychology: Classical Conditioning

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BEHAVIORISM

Classical conditioning is a type of learning through which an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another. It can also be known as respondent conditioning. The stimulus is any event or object in the environment to which an organism responds. The components of classical conditioning are as follows: Unconditioned response (UR) which is a response that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus without prior learning. Unconditioned Stimulus (US) which elicits a specific unconditioned response without prior learning. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) which is a neutral stimulus that after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus becomes associated with it and elicits a conditioned response. Conditioned response (CR) which is a learned response that comes to be elicited by a conditioned stimulus as a result of its repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus.

Operant conditioning is a type of learning that has the consequences of behavior that are manipulated so as to increase or decrease the frequency of an existing response or to shape an entirely new response. The process will being with an operant which is the voluntary behavior and accidentally brings about some kind of consequence. Then there is the reinforcement. The reinforcement is the consequence that increases the frequency of an operant. The punisher is the one that decreases an operants frequency.

There have been several contributions to the psychological field from several different doctors and their experiments. The first we are going to visit is Ivan Pavlov. His discoveries were accidental. Initially Pavlov was always conducting experiments that were related to the psychology of digestion. While doing this he noticed that saliva was collec...

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... it comes to what theory I believe is most accurate in describing human learning, it would have to be observational learning. I think this is so because you always hear that people are a product of their environment, and it works in both a negative and a positive manner. It is like saying that the negative produces the negative and the negative can also produce a positive. Once someone sees the consequences of how their life will turn out depending on what steps they take, then it is up to them to make the choice. Life for people learning about how to live, does not have to be a history repeating itself cycle. It can be making a better life, if they make the right decision.

References

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen R. Green. Wood, and Denise Roberts. Boyd. "Chapter 4/Consciousness." Mastering the World of Psychology. 5th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2013. 115-35. Print.

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