Taste aversion is something that almost every person goes though in their lives. For some it lasts for years or their whole lives, while others only experience it for short periods of time. Taste aversion is what happens when humans have aversion to tastes (foods) they have become sick from.  Sometime this correlation can be used for good while commonly taste aversion happens on its own.

An example in my life when taste aversion used to get a positive outcome was when I was younger (7 years old) and still sucking my thumb. My mother noticed this and to help me stop put nail polish and other bad tasting items onto my thumb at night in order for me to make the association of the bad taste every time I went to suck my thumb. This eventually was successful in getting me to stop sucking my thumb.  After a few days of going to suck my thumb and tasting the awful things on my thumb I developed a taste aversion towards doing it.  This overall process of classical conditioning with taste aversion is what led me to the end of my thumb sucking.

A classic example of taste aversion is when a person eats a bad tasting food and then decides not to eat the food again. This is a situation that I believe happens to all people more often than they realize. For example:  when I went out to eat at a Chinese buffet. When people go to a buffet for the first time they commonly try everything that looks appealing or without knowing the taste. In multiple occasions I would get something that looked interesting but turned out to be extremely bad. I automatically developed a taste aversion towards that particular food and never attempted to try it again, even every other time I would return to the restaurant I would not try it. Taste aversion is real and occurs more often they we notice.

As soon as I get home I throw my keys on the couch, place my cell phone on the counter and put my jacket in some corner. While I continue my evening I go through a series of tasks that eventually lead me to need either my cell phone, keys or jacket. Before I go to retrieve my items I try to envision where I put them but many of the times I can see the counter I placed my phone, but not remember which counter; I see my jacket in the corner, but can’t tell what corner; I can see my keys on the couch, but can’t tell which cushion. Those situations are cases of what is called “tip of the tongue phenomenon”, its where you have problems with retrieval, you can remember some details but can’t remember everything as a whole.

Another common time when “tip of the tongue phenomenon” occurs for people is when their taking an exam. Many times individuals will come to a question asking for a term or definition and they can picture where the term or definition is in their notes (ex. In the bottom left hand corner), but can’t actually remember the term/definition. Its a very interesting phenomenon that happens more often than most realize.

The theory of behaviorism a theory I have seen take place a lot in my life and has more power then I realized. The idea behind the theory is that behaviors can be triggered by a stimulus and that the behavior that takes place can be controlled based on receiving a reward or a punishment, in other words a stimulus-response relationship.

In the course textbook they talk about how John B Waston  , the psychologist who came up with the theory of behaviorism , proved his theory by taking a baby and teaching him to be afraid of  rats. To do this Waston took a baby who wasn’t originally scared of the rats and made loud scary noises every time the baby saw a rat. The noises would cause the baby to cry and be scared and because the noises only came when the baby saw the rat, the baby eventually developed a fear of rats.  The baby’s behavior was controlled though a stimulus-response experiment and worked.

In my life I experienced the theory of behaviorism as a child with my mother trying to get me to make my bed. As a child and still to this day I don’t like making my bed in the morning, for me it always seemed pointless because no one other than me would have to see it.  Unfortunately for me, my mother didn’t agree with that making the bed in the morning was pointless and one day decided that that if I didn’t start making my bed in the morning that I wouldn’t be allowed to what my favorite television show , Gilmore Girls, after school.  Over time I learned that she was serious and because I loved that show my behavior began to change and I started making my bed every morning. To this day I still make my bed every morning, not because I have to, but because my behavior has been conditioned into doing so.

From my experience Waston was right, behavior can and is taught many of the time. After learning about it I see it everywhere, from parents teaching their children they have to eat dinner before dessert, to teachers teaching their students to raise their hands before they speak.  Not only is it taught but the behaviors seem to carry on later throughout people’s lives (like with me still making my bed in the morning). Behaviorism is probably the source behind many people’s everyday habits.