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  • Essay / Report on Ivan Pavlov

    Ivan Pavlov was the first psychologist to use the term “classical conditioning”. He discovered this phenomenon while studying the secretion of stomach acids and salivation in dogs in response to the ingestion of different types of food. His study showed that just the sight of the food bowl, or the person who brought the food, or that person's footsteps, was enough to make the dog salivate. 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, then activated a tuning fork before presenting food to the dog. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay After repeated testing, Pavlov discovered that the dog salivated even at the simple sound of the tuning fork without being presented with food later. Indeed, 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 frequently 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 it. Behaviorism deals primarily with observable behavior and completely banishes internal processes or events like 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 combined and produced a conditioned response of salivation, gradually increasing until only the sound of the tuning fork provokes the salivation response. Therefore, this experiment converted a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response showing 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 deals primarily with observable behaviors, cognitive psychology is less interested in visible behaviors and more in the mental processes that underlie them. Behaviorism rejects all processes or events of the mind and assumes that they are too subjective to study and unimportant. With cognitive psychology came imaging technologies and brain mapping mechanisms allowing experiments on the mind that were previously prohibited. Behaviorism helps treat people with phobias and obsessive disorders, while cognitive psychology has led to advances in forensics and the courts. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay While these schools of psychology have their differences, the two branches are different approaches with a common goal: to study and explain human behavior. Both theories have now been overtaken by other approaches such as cognitive behaviorism - the better of the two theories - and social psychology - which examines how our interactions with others shape our behavior..