Ivan Pavlov A research paper presented to In Partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course AP Psychology May 24, 2011 Abstract Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a Russian Physiologist that was born in Ryazan. He was born into a Russian Orthodox family and was originally planning to follow in his father’s footsteps as a priest. His high-school training was received in an ecclesiastical seminary in Ryazan. He graduated afterwards from the Natural Sciihck Faculity of the University of St. Petersburg, and in 1879 obtained his M. D. degree from the Medico-Chirurgical Academy in that city.

He became a professor of physiology in 1895 at the Imperial Military–Medical Academy in St. Petersburg, where he did research on the digestive process for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1904. Starting in 1901 and for the next 35 years, Pavlov studied dogs and their salivary reflexes. With experimentation, he discovered a higher order of learning. This was the beginning to his understanding the brain’s way of adapting to changing external environments. As a famous man in psychological history, Ivan Pavlov passed away in Leningrad on February 27, 1936.

According to the Nobel Foundation (1967), Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 in Ryazan, where his father, Peter Dmitrievich Pavlov was a village priest. He was born into a very religious family in which his father was a priest and his mother was the daughter of a priest (Saunders 2006). He was the oldest of eleven children, six of which died during childhood. With help from his father, Ivan had acquired a lifelong love for physical labor and for learning. He loved to work with his father in gardens and orchards; this early interest in plants lasted his entire life.

At the age of ten, Pavlov had a very serious fall that put him in the care of his grandfather before he began his schooling at the age of eleven at Ryazan Ecclesiastical High School. His grandfather encouraged him to read and write down any comments or remarks he made on his readings. This technique led him to a lifelong dedication to the technique of systematic observation. His very own grandfather had influenced him to become interested in learning. When Pavlov was eleven, he entered the second grade of the church school at Ryazan.

In 1864, when he was 15, he went to the Theological Seminary of Ryazan, a school for training priests. There he studied religion, classical languages, and philosophy, and he developed an interest in science. In 1870 Pavlov was admitted to the University of St. Petersburg (Leningrad) in Russia. He studied animal physiology as his major and chemistry as his minor. At the university he studied organic chemistry (the science that studies how living things are made) and inorganic chemistry (the science that studies how nonliving things are made). After graduating from the University of St.

Petersburg, Pavlov entered the Military Medical Academy in 1881. He worked there as a laboratory assistant for two years. In 1877, while still at the academy, he published his first work. It was about the regulation of the circulation of blood by reflexes. Two years later he completed his course at the academy. He successfully competed in an examination that was given to the entire school. By winning this competition, Pavlov was given a scholarship to continue postgraduate study at the academy. In 1881, Pavlov married Seraphima Vasilievna Karchevskaya who was a teacher and the daughter of a doctor in the Black Sea fleet.

She first had a miscarriage supposedly caused by having to run after her very fast-walking husband. Later they had a son, Wirchik, who died very suddenly as a child. Following Wirchik, they had three sons, Vladimir, Victor and Vsevolod. Vsevolod became a very well known physicist and professor of physics at Leningrad in 1925 (Babkin, 1949). They also had a daughter named Vera. It is not well known, but Pavlov loved a woman named Adria Karle throughout his life. In 1890, Pavlov was invited to organize and help direct the Department of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine.

Under his 45 year direction, this Institute became one of the most important centers of physiological research (Babkin, 1949). In 1890, Pavlov was selected as Professor of Pharmacology at the Military Medical Academy. Five years later, he was chosen to the then vacant Chair of Physiology, a position he held until 1925. Ivan Pavlov was known for many things. From studying digestion to studying the circulatory system to studying nerves directing the digestive glands, he had an abundance of skill and knowledge. In 1889, he discovered the nerves controlling the gastric glands in which he received the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

After setting aside his initial plan to follow his father into priesthood, Pavlov received a medical degree at age 33 and spent the next two decades studying the digestive system; but it wasn’t until the last three decades of his life when he performed the experiments that earned him his fame and significant place in history. Classical conditioning is defined as “a type of learning in which one learns to link two or more stimuli and anticipate events” (Myers 2011). At first, it was his creative mind that set off on an incidental observation. He noticed by putting food in a dogs mouth causes the animal to salivate.

Not only did that cause salivation, but the sight of food, smell of food, the food dish, and even the person bringing the food did as well. This sparked his thoughts into trying to imagine what dogs think and feel as the anticipated the food. Because the imagination was no help, Pavlov and his assistants began to experiment. To eliminate any other possible influences, they immured the dog in small room, strapped it in a harness, and attached a measuring device to measure the saliva. Pavlov sounded a tone just before he placed the food in the dogs’ mouth.

Eventually, after several times of repeating this, the dog began to salivate to the tone due to its anticipation of the meat. This has been done with other signals such as bells, lights, a touch on the leg, and even the sight of a circle (Myers 2011). Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist (someone who studies the physical and chemical workings of living things) and a leader in the study of blood circulation, digestion, and conditioned reflexes (unconscious physical reactions to outside forces that are the result of repetition of those forces and reactions).

He believed that he established the physiological nature of psychological activity (Schultz & Schultz, 2004). The final phase of Pavlov’s scientific career (1902–1936) focused on determining how conditioned reflexes affect the brain. Pavlov had observed that his laboratory dogs would secrete saliva and gastric juices before meat was actually given to them. The sight, odor, or even the footsteps of the attendant bringing the meat were enough to trigger the flow of saliva (Gray 1980). This practice, known as classical conditioning, is still used in today’s society.

Pets as well as humans are trained in this way as proved with his dogs. The tone sounded for food is like the bell ringing at the end of class to dismiss us; both are incentives that signal something pleasant will happen. In the dogs’ case, it was food, and in the students’ case, it was the end of class. Living a life of almost 87 years, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov died in Leningrad on February 27, 1936. He will remain a significant person that has made important discoveries in psychology for eternity. Works Cited Babkin, Boris P. 1949). Pavlov: A Biography. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Gray, Jeffrey A. (1980). Ivan Pavlov. New York: Viking Press. Myers, David G. (2011). Myers’ Psychology for AP*. New York: Worth Publishers. Saunders, Barbra R. (2006). Ivan Pavlov: Exploring the Mysteries of Behavior. Berkeley Heights: Enslow Publishers. Saunders, Barbra R. (2006). Ivan Pavlov: exploring the mysteries of behavior. Berkeley heights: enslow publishers Inc. Saunders, Barbra R. (2006). Ivan Pavlov: exploring the mysteries of behavior.

Berkeley heights: enslow publishers Inc. Saunders, Barbra R. (2006). Ivan Pavlov: exploring the mysteries of behavior. Berkeley heights: enslow publishers Inc. Schultz, D. P. , ; Schultz, S. E. (2004). A History of Modern Psychology. California:           Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. pp. 273-282. The Nobel Foundation. (1967) Ivan Pavlov-Biography. Retrieved fromhttp://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov-bio. html Todes, Daniel Philip. (2000). Ivan Pavlov: Exploring the Animal Machine. New York: Oxford University Press.