Question

Explain Pavlov's experiments with dogs and relate the findings of these experiments to stress management.

Answer 1

Ivan Pavlov conducted experiment of classical conditioning with dogs in 1901. He did a minor surgery to the dog so that whenever the dog salivates, he would know it. We know that animals salivate when they see food.

So when he showed food to the dog, the dog started salivating as we know. It is a natural response of dog. Later he rung the bell and dog didn't salivate as it wasn't it's natural response.

Now he started serving the food immediately after he rang the bell and he did it for several days. Then later one day, he rang the bell but he didn't ring any bell. But still the dog started salivating. Here the dog is conditioned to salivating via the sound of the bell. Now salivating to the sound of the bell became the conditional reaponreof the dog. This is Pavlov's experiment with dogs. It says that one stimulus can be made as a trigger for another stimulus.

Stress is the result of anxiety or fear that is caused by a actual situation. Suppose a person feels anxiety being in a dentist chair because he is going get his teeth drilled. Now we are linking the fear to the dentist chair and dentiad chair is becoming the trigger for anxiety and stress. Next time when you sit in the dentist chair just for fluoride treatment will cause the same anxiety and stress that caused while getting your teeth drilled. Because we have made dentist chair as a trigger to stress. So by linking or creating a stimulus as a trigger to another stimulus, we are undergoing through stress in unnecessary conditions.