Just after the turn of the century, the Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), accidentally made a discovery that would change the nature of all his future research. But more importantly, it would form the basis of a school of thought that has had a major impact on psychology and Porn Sex & Love Addiction.
Pavlov was studying the digestive system of dogs, specifically the salivary reflex. During his experiments, he would put food powder in the dog's mouth, and he would then measure the drops of saliva by way of a tube surgically inserted into the dog's mouth. But in the course of his work, Pavlov noticed that dogs began to salivate merely when he walked into the room. This salivation could not be a reflex since it did not occur the first few times Pavlov walked in; it only occurred once the dog had learned that Pavlov's appearance signaled food. That is, Pavlov's appearance became associated with a future event: food. He called this a psychic reflex, or a conditional reflex, since it was conditional upon past experience. It has come to be called, through mistranslation, a conditioned response, or CR.
A typical Pavlovian conditioning experiment goes as follows: we know that food (unconditioned stimulus, US) produces salivation (unconditioned response, UR). US (food)--UR (salivation) We present a tone just prior to presenting the food. Because the tone itself does not produce salivation, it is a neutral stimulus. But after pairing the tone with the food several times, we discover that salivation will occur upon presentation of the tone. The tone can now be called a conditioned stimulus (CS) because it produces salivation, the conditioned response (CR).
In short: CS (tone) --US (food)--UR (salivation) After several pairings of CS and US: CS (tone) --CR (salivation)
This kind of experiment has been carried out using many species (Siamese fighting fish, rats, dogs, and humans), conditioned stimuli (tones, lights, tastes), and unconditioned responses (salivation, fear, nausea). It can be used in therapeutic situations to eliminate unsatisfactory behaviors. For example, Pavlovian conditioning may be used to cure alcoholism (Baker and Cannon, 1979). The following case illustrates how the conditioning would proceed when curing alcoholism. Steven drinks a quart of vodka daily and has done so for several months. His drunkenness interferes greatly with his work, his marriage is falling apart, and he has been arrested twice for drunken driving. He has sought out a dramatic form of therapy:
Pavlovian Aversion Therapy In the therapist's office, Steven gulps down a shot ofhis favorite vodka. He then drinks ipecac, a drug that causes him to become nauseated within a few minutes. He vomits. A week later, the same procedure is repeated. The taste of vodka (CS) is paired with the ipecac (the US). The ipecac produces nausea and vomiting (the UR). After several such sessions, a major change in Steven's preferences has occurred. Vodka now tastes terrible to him (CR). Merely thinking about alcohol makes him nauseous. And, most importantly, he no longer drinks liquor.
THE BASIC PAVLOVIAN PHENOMENA There are two processes in Pavlovian conditioning that occur time and time again, regardless ofwhat species, which kind of CS or US, or what kind of a response is tested. Pavlov discovered both: acquisition and extinction. Acquisition is the learning ofa response based on the pairings ofa CS and US. Depending on the response to be learned, acquisition usually takes from three to fifteen pairings. Extinction is the loss of the CS's power to produce the formerly acquired response. This is brought about by presenting the CS, and no longer following it with the US. For example, it is possible to condition fear in humans. Fear can be measured by increased heart rate, perspiration, and muscle tension. When mild shocks (US) are given to humans, these measures become evident, that is, pain (UR) is produced. After several pairings of tone (CS) and shock (US), the tone (CS) alone begins to elicit fear (CR). That is what we call acquisition. But if we now repeatedly present the tone (CS) no longer followed with the shock (US), the individual no longer shows signs of fear. The tone (CS) no longer signals a shock (US). We call this process extinction.
PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING, EMOTIONS, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY There are situations in the world that arouse strong emotions in us. Some of these arouse the emotion unconditionally, or from our very first encounter with them: a loud clap of thunder startles us the very first time we hear it. Other objects acquire emotional significance: the face of a person we love produces a sense of well-being; seeing a stranger in a dark alleyway arouses dread. Pavlovian conditioning provides a powerful account of how objects take on emotional significance; it is this account that makes conditioning of great interest to the student of abnormality.
According to the behavioral account, the basic mechanism for all acquired emotional states is the pairing of a neutral object (CS) with an un conditioned emotional state (US). With enough pairings, the neutral object will lose its neutrality, become a CS, and all by itself produce the emotional state (CR). Consider the case of a child who is continually beaten with a tan hairbrush by his father. Before the beatings, the child had no feelings about the brush whatsoever. But, after several beatings (US), the brush becomes a CS and merely seeing the tan brush produces fear (CR).
If normal emotions are acquired in this way, the same should be true of acquired emotional disorders. Several of the psychopathological disorders explored in the following chapters involve the acquisition of an exaggerated or unusual emotional state in regard to inappropriate objects. For example, phobias are said to be a result of Pavlovian conditioning. A phobia is a fear greatly out of proportion to how dangerous the phobic object actually is. For example, a cat phobic had a history of cats (CS) paired with painful events such as being scratched (US). As a result, cats become terrifying to the phobic individual, despite the fact that cats generally are not dangerous.
Here we can contrast the behavioral view of what causes emotional disorders with the biomedical model and the psychodynamic model. According to the behavioral view, the symptom of the disorder is the disorder. In the case above, the phobic individual's fear of cats is the disorder. There is no underlying pathological state that produces the symptoms. For the biomedical model, an underlying pathology such as a "virus," a disordered biochemistry, or a dysfunctional organ causes the symptoms.
For the psychoanalytic view, an intrapsychic conflict, usually sexual or aggressive in nature and stemming from childhood fixations, causes the symptoms. The therapeutic optimism of the behavioral view follows directly from this view of the cause of the disorder. If the disorders are the symptoms and do not reflect an underlying pathology, eliminating the symptoms will cure the disorder. Since the symptoms of emotional disorders are emotional responses acquired by Pavlovian conditioning, it follows that those techniques which have been found experimentally to extinguish conditioned emotional responses will cure emotional disorders like Porn Sex & Love Addiction.
This contrasts with the biomedical and psychodynamic stance on therapy: for these models, getting rid of the symptoms is only cosmetic; cure consists of removing the underlying disorder.
For example, treating the symptoms of general paresis instead of attacking the syphilitic spirochete would not help much, for the underlying pathological process would remain intact. A strong test, then, of the behavioral view as opposed to the medical and psychoanalytic views of emotional disorders would be whether the symptoms can be removed by extinction procedures, and whether other emotional problems will then occur, reflecting an uncured underlying pathology, after behavior therapy has removed one set of symptoms.