Topic > Report on Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov was the first psychologist to use the term “Classical Conditioning”. He discovered this phenomenon while studying gastric acid secretion and salivation in dogs in response to the ingestion of different types of food. His study showed that the mere sight of the food bowl, or the person who brought the food, or that person's footsteps were enough to make the dog drool. To further study this phenomenon, Pavlov conducted an experiment in which he attached a tube to the dog's salivary gland to measure the amount of salivation and then played a tuning fork before presenting food to the dog. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay After repeated tests, Pavlov discovered that the dog would salivate even at the sound of the tuning fork without being presented with food afterwards. This is because, according to Pavlov, the dog had been classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of the tuning fork. According to some textbooks, “classical conditioning is a phenomenon for describing psychological phenomena strictly in terms of observable stimuli and responses,” and is often used by behaviorists who believe in behaviorism (considered by many to be a branch of functionalism). Pavlov was one of the leading behaviorists and his experiment on classical conditioning proves this. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior and completely bans internal processes or events such as introspection and thinking because they are subjective. It also strives to predict and control behavior, which was shown in the reference video: the unconditioned stimulus, the meat powder, and the neutral stimulus, the tuning fork, were paired and produced a conditioned response of salivation, gradually increasing until the mere sound of the tuning fork causes the salivation response. So, this experiment converted a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response which shows that Pavlov was a behaviorist. Cognitive psychology studies the mind and assumes that humans possess the ability to think and organize thoughts in their minds. Many articles describe the main goal of cognitive psychology as “conducting scientific research into the processes of the mind.” While behaviorism is primarily concerned with behavior that can be observed, cognitive psychology is less interested in visible behavior and more interested in the mental processes behind it. Behaviorism rejects all processes or events of the mind and assumes that they are too subjective to study and also unimportant. With cognitive psychology came imaging technologies and brain mapping mechanisms to conduct experiments on the mind that were previously prohibited. Behaviorism helps in the treatment of people with phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorders, while cognitive psychology has enabled advances in the fields of forensic medicine and the courts. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay While these schools of psychology have their differences, both branches are different approaches with a common goal: studying and explaining human behavior. Both theories have now been superseded by other approaches such as cognitive behaviorism – the best of both theories – and social psychology – which examines how our interactions with others shape our behavior..