Dispositional Optimism Essay -- Psychology, Behaviorism

Behaviorism is an essential part of our daily lives since it reflects how we learn and deal with varying circumstances. Schacter, Gilbert and Wegner (2011) states that behaviorism restricts psychologists to focus purely on observable behavior; it rejects the emphasis of the conscious and unconscious mind (p. 16). Ivan Pavlov, who was a Russian physiologist, discovered this concept when he researched the role that saliva played on digestion. In his experiment, he gave the dogs’ meat powder to see how they would salivate to it. After a while, he noticed that the dogs’ salivated even before he gave them food; if the dogs’ saw the white lab coat, put in the harness, hear the sound of a buzzer, or the ringing of a bell. He then concluded that these dogs’ were learning from the environment, which at first, they thought was an annoyance, leading Pavlov to the classical conditioning process - which says that we learn through pairings and association ( Ryan, G. (2013) Lectures on Learning. Personal Collection of G. Ryan, Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood NY). Another advocate of behaviorism was John B. Watson, who wanted to demonstrate that even sophisticated behaviors such as emotion are subject to classical conditioning. Watson conducted a study known as â€Å"Little Albert,† where he taught the infant to fear the white rat, which was originally a neutral stimulus. Every time the rat appeared, he would bang two metal pipes together to scare the infant. Consequently, it resulted to â€Å"Little Albert† to fear similar objects to the rat- known as stimulus generalization, and in this case, it was a broad selection of animals. However, according to the authors Schacter, Gilbert, and Wegner (2011) classical conditioning stu... ...the end, you are the only one who can truly put you in the dark. Moreover, you, yourself, are the one who can take you out of your darkness. References Brodhagen, A., Wise, D. (2008). Optimism as a Mediator Between the Experience of Child Abuse, Other Traumatic Events, and Distress. Journal Of Family Violence, 23(6), 403-411 Brunk, L., Hirsch, J. K., LaLonde, S. M., Morris, A. P., and Wolford, K., 2007 (2007). Dispositional Optimism as a Moderator of the Relationship Between Negative Life Events and Suicide Ideation and Attempts. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 31(4), 533- 546. Ryan, G. (2013) Lectures on Learning. Personal Collection of G. Ryan, Suffolk County Community College, Brentwood NY Schacter, D. L., Gilbert, D.T., and Wegner, D.M., (2011). Learning (p. 16 and 177). Psychology (Second Edition). New York, N.Y: Worth Publishers.