Chapter 2

After reading chapter two, I think that developmental psychology is really a mix of everything.  I think that a lot of things help change and shape us, such as experiences, as well as our base concept of things that we learned in our adolescent developmental years. The more I am learning about this, the more I think it is up to interpretation. That being stated, through the reading I found one thing really interesting that made me about Ivan Pavlov, on page 40. I just really can’t wrap my head around his experiment with the dogs and the salvation. His experiment has always intrigued me because it is so out of the box thinking and explains classical conditioning so well.  I think one reason why it interests me so much is because the whole experiment is so ingénues and I myself can’t imagine putting an experiment like that together.  I can also relate to this concept because I myself am a nanny. I have seen over the years how children react to certain thins due to the way their parents “condition” them along with reinforcement.  For example, I have nannyed a set of 2 year old triplets; they knew that if they cried long enough, they would get the attention or object that they wanted. They also realized that the more dramatic they were the faster they would receive it. I find this interesting because it is an experience that I have had and observed which would be the wrong type of reinforcement which actually counteracts the wanting of the behavior stopped.