Background Information

Ivan Pavlov is a psychologist whom I find interesting, born in 1849. He has made a name for himself in the field of psychology and has had an impact on the way that people see and understand dog behavior. Ivan Pavlov was born out of wedlock in Russia, where his father was employed by the Orthodox Church as a priest and his mother was employed as a cook for their family. The only evidence of Ivan’s existence is through baptismal records from 1847 until 1861 when he began attending school near St. Petersburg. His father had him sent to a boarding school for boys, and he proved to be an exceptional student, graduating at age 14. He then attended the University of St Petersburg, where he graduated in both science and math at age 16. He married a pedagogical student and spent the next few years teaching at a school, but also began researching his interest in physiology. Ivan Pavlov was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1905 for his contribution to psychology. He died in 1936 at age 73 after suffering from illness for many years (Derouesné, 2021).

Theory

Pavlov’s Theory of Conditioned Response is considered as the foundation of modern psychology and is based around the theory of conditioning. The theory states that every animal learns through association, or what Pavlov called Classical Conditioning. The first stage of classical conditioning consists of increases in the response to a stimulus with repeated presentations, this was shown by an experiment conducted by Ivan Pavlov in 1888. The food extract used in the experiment was made from smelling salts, which consisted primarily salts and chemicals such as eucalyptol that are strong irritants to humans but have no effect on dogs (Adams, 2020).

Critique

The classical conditioning theory, in addition to serving as the foundation of what would become the behavioral psychology, is still relevant today for a variety of purposes. This would include studying the effects and causes of various diseases, being used as an animal-rights activist tool, or even to help workers and children adjust to harsh climates such as a desert. It was also used to describe the way that people learn to be aggressive or submissive in response to threats, which can apply similarly to individuals who were highly aggressive and were disabled as children but are now able to curb this behavior (Adams, 2020).

References

Adams, M. (2020). The kingdom of dogs: Understanding Pavlov’s experiments as human–animal relationships. Theory & Psychology, 30(1), 121-141.

Derouesné, C. (2021). Ivan Pavlov (1849-1935): His life and conditional reflexes story revisited. Gériatrie et Psychologie Neuropsychiatrie du Vieillissement, 19(1), 81-92.