Advertisers have been using the principles of classical conditioning for years in attempt to associate pleasant feelings with their products. Beer ads are particularly famous for doing so by placing scantily clothed women holding beer bottles on large billboards. What are the unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response in this example? What are the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response?
Unconditioned stimulus = scantily clothed women.
Unconditioned response = ?
Conditioned stimulus = the beer bottles
Conditioned response?
I do not know what the unconditioned and conditioned responses would be and I am not sure if the conditioned stimulus is correct. Please help!!
I think you are on the right track, with your thinking, the undonditioned response is to gawk and lust, the conditioned response it to buy beer.
However, think of young girls who view the ads:
Unconditioned Stimulus: happy, good looking babe
Unconditioned response: envy
Conditioned stimulus: Popularity and happiness go with beer and lots of skin.
Conditioned response: to gain popularity and happiness, take off your clothes and serve beer to men.
Unconditioned response? desire?
Conditioned response? desire for beer?
Both of the previous answers are right. These ads are aimed at men, probably younger men with strong libidos, so visons of scantily clad women (UCS) lead to desire (UCR). The hope is that this desire will become attached to the beer (CS) leading to buying the beer (CR).
Although some young women might view the ads as bobpursley indicated, others (like those involved in seeking equal rights for women or women's liberation) might be very disgusted by such ads.
I hope this helps a little more. Thanks for asking.
No problem! Let's break it down step by step.
In classical conditioning, an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that naturally elicits a specific response without prior learning. In this example, the unconditioned stimulus is the scantily clothed women.
The unconditioned response (UCR) is the automatic and unlearned response that occurs in response to the unconditioned stimulus. In this case, the unconditioned response could be arousal, desire, or positive feelings that are naturally associated with seeing scantily clothed women.
Now, let's move on to the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the conditioned response (CR). In classical conditioning, a conditioned stimulus is a neutral stimulus that is paired with the unconditioned stimulus to ultimately elicit a learned response.
The conditioned stimulus in this example would be the beer bottles. While beer bottles are typically neutral stimuli, in this case, they are being repeatedly paired with the accompanying unconditioned stimulus (scantily clothed women) in the advertisements.
The conditioned response is the learned response that occurs as a result of the conditioned stimulus. In this case, the conditioned response could be the association of positive feelings, desire, or even thoughts of attractiveness towards the beer bottles themselves.
It's important to note that conditioned responses are not as strong or innate as unconditioned responses and require repeated pairings of the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus to establish the association.