Why do our minds work the way that they do? Many theories have been developed in an attempt to answer this question. Many studies have also been conducted to investigate, prove and disprove these said theories. The information gained from these investigations into the inner workings of the human mind, have assisted in the construction of more effective methods for educating children and different methods for treating issues such as fears (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2012). In this essay, I will focus on two developmental theories that have proven to be significant to my life, namely, these are Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory (1928) and Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory (1977). The former manifested in relation to my fear of spiders while the latter correlates to my humorous personality. Both of these theories will be discussed in further detail and applied to myself below.
The first developmental theory I will discuss is Ivan Pavlov’s Classical conditioning theory. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who created an artificial exterior stomach pouch for dogs which he used to conduct research on their digestive systems (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2012). Classical Conditioning Theory, or Pavlovian conditioning (1928), was an accidental discovery that Pavlov made in his observations while working with these dogs. He noticed that the dogs would begin to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who fed them even when there was no food present (McLeod, 2013). Further experimentation led to the definition of classical condition which “ involves learning to associate an unconditioned stimulus that already brings about a particular response with a new conditioned stimulus, so that the new stimulus brings about the same response.” (Gonzalez-DeHass, 2012).
So in what ways have I been classically conditioned? Well, when I was a child, I was bitten by a black widow spider