Classical Conditioning - Essay Example

ical conditioning is where you are able to influence a behavior by changing the conditions by which a person perceives and reacts to a specific stimulus. Watson, a behaviorist, was able to show that not all behavior is genetically predetermined. He was able to accomplish this by creating a phobia in a famous experiment, which became associated with Little Albert. Little Albert was a child that he conditioned to have a fear of with white objects. At first, they exposed Little Albert to things such as a white mouse (US) and allowed him to interact with the (UR) object.

Then they started making loud noises (CS) whenever Little Albert would come into contact with the white mouse. He developed a phobia not only for the mouse, but for all white things (CR). He developed a generalization phobia of all things white. This was because Little Albert had not reached the correct form of thinking that is hypothesized by developmental psychologists such as Piaget. Therefore, he began to fear everything that was white. The one fundamental concept about classical conditioning is the idea behind repetition and reinforcement.

If the relationship between response and stimulus is not maintained, then extinction occurs. When extinction occurs, the relationship between the stimulus and response is lost. In this case, Little Albert would not associate the loud noise and fear with things that were white. This research study could not be done today due to ethical concerns. This is because it is causing psychological harm to the individual. Especially at a young age, there are rules that the APA, American Psychological Association, has in place which prohibit experimentation on children without parental consent as well as a wide variety of other restrictions.

The only way in which this experiment could possibly be replicated is if there was therapy and techniques given at the debriefing of the experiment, which would ease or get rid of any/all effects from the experiment.