Question: How could classical conditioning be effective or detrimental in our lives?
Repsonse: Learning and discipline have been a huge part of my little brother's life since he was adopted. Classical Conditioning can be detrimental to a person's life because it can teach them the wrong things. No doubt his original parents used Classical Conditioning
but it effected him very negatively. They praised and punished him for
the wrong things completely. When he first came to us he would rather
eat a raw onion than an ice cream cone. This was due to the fear of
"unhealthy" foods ingrained in him. The first time he ate at McDonald's
with us he ate every last bite. The second time he must have overheard
some one talking about not having to eat everything in their meal. He
asked if he could take the pickles off his sandwich. He was amazed when
we said yes. The overly strict (borderline abusive) nature of his
parent's teaching had ingrained these expectations into his mind.
Classical Conditioning
is also our main approach to his learning. This can be beneficial to a
person's life because it can effectively teach them new information and
habits. Not only do we have to teach my little brother new things, but
we also have to teach him to stop doing the old things he was taught.
Now classical conditioning
has been beneficial to him. My mother actually said to me today, "We
have to praise him ten times for doing something good for every one time
we discipline him for doing something bad". I thought this was crazy
due to the fact that she does not even know what I have been reading the
past couple days! He has been doing much better since he first came to
us and much of that is due to the positive nature of my parent's
teaching.
How difficult is it to overcome past learning experiences made by classical conditioning?
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