Classical Conditioning, Stimulus Generalization and Systematic Desensitization - Assignment Example

B. Freud believes that there is a defense mechanism for every human being by which his or her ego is protected. Personality is made up of Id, Ego, and Super Ego. For some humans like Tom, the Id takes over the Ego and especially the Self Ego (the voice of consciousness that focuses on how we have to behave). It is the energy constantly striving to satisfy the basic driver i.e. the principle of pleasure. This Principle drives human beings to fulfill their desires, even if it is by selfish means. (Atkinson, 1987)

C. It is the interaction one has with his or her environment. Peeping Tom may have not received the right environment according to Carl Rogers and never realized his full potential. He was involved in wrongdoings from his childhood, and the reason for these wrongdoings can be associated with his friends and peers. He is just doing what he enjoys doing without considering the feelings of others. (Atkinson, 1987)

2.)
A. In experiments to test the effects of caffeine on a 20-word list, I would set up a control group and an experimental group. The control group will not be treated with caffeine and the experimental group will be given caffeine. A. Two things that could act as extraneous variables might be eating something else in between and the environmental conditions. A very cool or a very hot environment can also affect any person’s behavior.

B. This type of research will enable us to find out the effects caffeine consumption has on people.
C. The Placebo effect can be applied in this research by not telling either the control or experimental group what they are given. It will be a blind experiment in which none of the sides will know what they are given and so they both will think they are given caffeine and act likewise.
D. Experimental Bias could be operating in this instance if some people are given little amounts of caffeine as compared to other in the experimental group.
E. If results are statistically significant, it means caffeine has a good impact on the learning of people. It enhances their memory and learning power. (Plotnik, 2002)
3.)

A. Students’ sleepiness or dizziness rate- When they consume more caffeine they don’t sleep in class and stay awake throughout the lecture. They tend to be more vigilant in the classroom and hence productivity is enhanced.

Active- They tend to be more active during classroom and classroom participation is enhanced. Students participate more in class activities. (Hilgard, 1967)
B. Consuming caffeine makes them stay awake late at night completing assignments due to which they are sluggish during university hours. Even though they can consume more caffeine, their health is negatively affected. Headaches are common among university students. Also due to caffeine consumption, they do stay awake but addiction causes them to go to sleep whenever its effect perishes. (Hilgard, 1967)

4.)
There are processes involved in memory as levels of processing theory say. According to this theory, a person has to pass through a series of processes to actually recall memory and permanently recall it. It then becomes a well-recalled memory eventually. However, according to information processing theory, the mind of a human being is like a computer. It can recall any memory it wants to at any time and can permanently recall it, it then becomes a well-recalled memory that cannot be forgotten. (Hilgard, 1967)
5.)

A. Classical conditioning is the basic form of learning in which one stimulus, initially neutral, acquires the capacity to evoke reactions through repeated pairing with another stimulus. In a sense, one stimulus becomes a signal for the presentation or occurrence of others. Phobia of dogs could be explained, for instance, a child in his childhood saw a big black dog biting a man in the street. Now every time he sees a dog, the child comes to react negatively to these stimuli towards the dog; thus even when he grew older, he remains afraid of dogs. The UCS is the dog, and the UCR is getting frightened. The CS is biting the dog. The CR is getting frightened due to the biting of the dog. (Hilgard, 1967)

B. Stimulus generalization is a response to a stimulus that it is similar to but different from a conditioned stimulus. The more similar the two stimuli, the more likely generalization is to occur. For instance, the kid is afraid of dogs but whenever he sees animals like dogs, for example, wolves or even tigers or lions, he will get frightened of them as well. The black color will scare him up if he sees any animal similar to the dog of that color. (Hilgard, 1967)

C. Systematic desensitization works on the principle of discrimination in which an organism learns to differentiate among stimuli, restricting its response to one in particular. In stimulus discrimination, an organism learns to different stimuli and restricts the conditioned response to one stimulus rather than others. Subsequently, comes the phase of extinction in which the previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and eventually disappears. This happens when first the stimulus generalization is focused upon and eliminated and then the classical conditioning. (Hilgard, 1967) Read More