Classical conditioning  is a theory of pairing one stimulus with another neutral stimulus that causes changes in the response to the neutral stimulus (Goldstein). This type of theory was first developed around John Watson and his outlook on behaviorism where he argued that a person’s behavior can be studied without any reference to the mind. With saying this, Watson conducted an experiment with a little boy, Albert, and a rat. Every time the rat would go near Albert, someone made a loud noise which later on, made Albert crawl away from the rat every time it came near him. This reaction became a learned behavior for Albert and in turn, also made him scared of rats.

I was subjected to witnessing a horrific movie as a child, which now results in why I am deathly afraid of clowns. When I was four, my father made me sit down and watch the movie based off the book by Stephen King called “IT” which was about a clown that took the lives of children. Now being four years old, that isn’t something you expect out of a clown. Ever since then, I have been traumatized by anything related to clowns whether it be a picture, the big shoes, the make up, everything. I am 22 years old and still run and hide when I see one.

With saying this I feel like I can relate to the “Little Albert” experiment. When subjected to the movie, I now suffer from a phobia. When the rat used to crawl toward Albert after a couple trials of loud noises, Albert learned to crawl away because he knew that the noise was coming. To me it seems like in a way phobias can be learned through classical conditioning.

In conclusion, classical condition seems to be a good theory to use when to test for learning behavior, like Watson did. It also has its downfalls for example with the little Albert experiment I remember reading what happened to him later on in life and this experiment actually made him not only scared of little white rats, but other soft, cuddly animals that were also white. Classical conditioning is a very interesting theory used in the world of Psychology and I would love to focus more on this particular subject as the class goes.

Works Cited

Goldstein, Bruce. “Introduction to Cognitive Psychology.” Connecting Mind, Research and Everyday Experience. Third Edition. Belmont, CA 94002-3098: Woodsworth, Cengage Learning, 2011. Page 10. Print.