Evaluation: Classical Conditioning

Evaluation: Classical Conditioning

1. Supporting Studies

   • Pavlov found that he was able to condition a behaviour in dogs through classical conditioning. He found that by associating food with a bell ringing, the dogs were conditioned to salivate after just hearing the bell, without food being present.
     • Classical conditioning is the idea that behaviours can be learnt through the association of two stimuli - an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and a neutral stimulus (NS). An UCS is a stimulus which elicits a response naturally/reflexively, whereas the NS elicits no response. However, after the association between the stimuli is made, the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) which produces a conditioned response (CR), which is the same behaviour that the UCS produced.
   • Watson and Rayner found that they were able to create a phobia in a young boy, Little Albert, through classical conditioning. Through associating a white rat (which gave no response) with loud banging of bars being struck (which gave the reflexive response of fear), Watson and Rayner conditioned Albert to be afraid of white rats. This was also generalised to other white furry objects.
     • Stimulus generalisation is when, after conditioning, the conditioned response is elicited by a stimulus which is very similar to the conditioned stimulus.

2. Criticism of Supporting Studies

   • Both Pavlov's study and Watson and Rayner's study lack generalisability. Pavlov's study was only conducted on dogs, so cannot be fully generalised to humans as human behaviour is a lot more complex that the behaviour of dogs, and also the biological differences make it difficult to fully generalise. Watson and Rayner only conditioned a fear into one, male child, so it cannot generalise to the general population due to the results not necessarily reflecting different genders, ages and may have been influenced by individual differences. Therefore, the supporting evidence for classical conditioning may not present an accurate reflection of how humans learn behaviours.

3. Opposing Evidence

   • Classical conditioning has been criticised for only providing a partial view on how behaviours may be learnt. For example, it can only explain a limited number of behaviours, mainly simple, reflexive behaviours such as salivation, anxiety and sexual arousal. Therefore, it cannot be used to explain more complex chains of behaviour and fails to view the acquisition of all behaviours.
   • Furthermore, although it explains how some behaviours are acquired, it fails to explain how these behaviours are maintained over time, from the point of learning through to the point of extinction, if that occurs.
     • Extinction occurs when the CS fails to elicit the CR after the CS and UCS have not been linked to one another over a long period of time.
     • Spontaneous recovery may occur after the extinction of the behaviour. This is when the CS once again elicits the CR without being linked to the UCS again.

4. Different Theories

   • Operant conditioning suggests that behaviours can be learnt through reinforcement which encourages the desired behaviour, and punishment which discourages the undesired behaviour. This can help explain the maintenance of behaviours, which classical conditioning fails to explain.
   • Social learning theory suggests that behaviours are learnt through observing role models and replicating the behaviour that has been observed. This is particularly effective when the role model is the same sex as the observer.

5. Application

   • Classical conditioning can be used as a therapy for many behaviours. Flooding and systematic desensitisation are used as therapies for phobias and are based on elements of classical conditioning - for example, systematic desensitisation is used to associate the stimulus that produced fear (e.g. spiders) with relaxation, eventually leading to a relaxed response to the original stimulus that once produced fear.
   • Aversion therapy is another therapy based on the foundations of classical conditioning. This is used as a way of treating bad habits, such as nail biting on a small scale, and alcoholism on a larger scale. For example, something will be put in the patient's alcoholic drink to make them sick, creating an association between alcohol and feeling ill, with the idea being that they will be put off drinking alcohol.