Ivan Pavlov is one of the most famous figures in psychology Along with John B. Watson, he is the greatest exponent of what is known as classical conditioning, an introductory topic in the career of psychology and one of the bases of human learning and behavior.
1. Never think you know everything. No matter how high you value yourself, always have the courage to say to yourself: I am ignorant.
You have to be humble in this life and think that there is still a lot to learn. It is the best way not to relax and continue acquiring knowledge.
2. I am convinced that an important stage of human thought will have been reached when the physiological and the psychological, the objective and the subjective, are truly united
Pavlov was a great character who contributed a lot to psychology and understanding how we learn. Although, in reality, he was a Russian physiologist.
3. Science demands great tension and great passion from man. Be passionate in your work and in your research
Research must be rigorous and objective, and researchers are the first to ensure that this is the case.
4. Perfect as a bird’s wing can be, it will never allow the bird to fly if it is not admitted by the air. The facts are that air is like science. Without them, a man of science cannot rise.
Pavlov, as a good behaviorist, placed a lot of emphasis on observation and the scientific method. His contributions were key to the development of psychology as a science.
5. Learn the ABCs of science before trying to reach its peak
Before carrying out research, you need to master the scientific method. No mistakes should be made in investigations.
6. I always stay on the ground of facts: I verify all my conjectures experimentally and, in this way, I always rely on the solution provided by the facts.
Rigorous observation of the facts is one of the characteristics of this famous person’s experiments. Along with Watson, he is one of the great exponents of Classical Conditioning.
7. It is clear to everyone that the animal organism is a very complex system consisting of an almost infinite series of parts connected both with each other and, as a whole, with the surrounding world, with which it is in a state of equilibrium.
Pavlov was always a passionate researcher, a lover of searching for the causes of nature.
8. Be disciplined and go to the depths of the cause
In reference to how a good researcher should be when carrying out experiments.
9. Studying, experimenting, observing, try not to stay on the surface of the facts. Do not become archivists of the facts. Try to penetrate the secret of its origin. Search tenaciously for the laws that regulate them.
To investigate, you have to get to the bottom of the issue, it is necessary to investigate and control the intervening variables well.
10. For the naturalist everything is in the method
A quote from this behaviorist character that invites deep reflection.
eleven. . When I dissect and destroy a living animal, I hear within myself the bitter reproach that with a brutal and clumsy hand I am ruining an incomparable artistic mechanism.
Pavlov was a researcher who conducted his experiments on animals. One of his best known is his dogs. Thus he discovered classical conditioning.
12. Learn, compare, collect the facts!
Another allusion to how it is necessary to carry out experiments to obtain reliable conclusions.
13. It is frequently said, and not without reason, that science advances in leaps, which depend on the successes obtained with the research method. With each step forward in the methods, it seems as if we ascend a new step, from which a broader horizon opens up to us that discovers previously invisible objects. Therefore, our first task has been the development of the method
Pavlov’s research was pioneering in its time, especially due to the rigor of his research and his passion for learning knowledge.
14. Condition people not to expect anything and you will have everyone excited with the smallest thing you offer them
Classical Conditioning consists of presenting an originally neutral stimulus together with a conditioned stimulus repeatedly. This will make it possible to provoke a conditioned response.
15. Authentic scientific theory must not only encompass all existing material, but must open wide possibilities for further study and – let us put it this way – for unlimited experimentation.
There should be no restrictions on research if we wish to find true knowledge.
16. Thanks to our current surgical methods of physiology we can demonstrate at any time almost all the phenomena of digestion without losing a single drop of blood, without a single cry from the animals subjected to the experiment.
Initially, Pavlov’s people’s experiment aimed to understand the digestion mechanisms of animals and humans.
17. Man has yet another powerful resource: natural science, with its strictly objective methods
Another mention of the scientific method. Pavlov was a defender of observing behavior to understand the mind.
18. Do not forget that science requires the individual’s entire life. If we had two lives, they wouldn’t be enough either.
A quote that goes to say that a good researcher must put everything he can at the service of science.
19. Needless to say, the desire to accomplish the task with more confidence, to avoid loss of time and manpower, and to spare our experimental animals as much as possible, made us strictly observe all the precautions taken by the surgeons in respect for their patients.
As a good physiologist, Ivan Pavlov compares medicine with research, in this case, psychological.
20. Learn to do labor work in science. Study, confront, accumulate facts. No matter how perfect the bird’s wings had been, they could never have allowed it to rise if they were not supported by the air. Facts are the air of the man of science. Without them, you will never be able to take flight. Without them your theories will be vain efforts.
Although research is a job that requires a lot of intelligence and leadership, you have to be a laborer to do the most basic things, including being disciplined.
21. I have obtained the most that can be expected from life: the full justification of the principles with which I began. I dreamed of finding the joy of life in intellectual work: I got it and continue to enjoy it. I wanted to have a person full of goodness as my life partner and I found her in my wife Serafima Vasilievna.
An excerpt from Ivan Pavlov’s autobiographical book: “Physiology and Psychology.”
22. The irresistible advance of natural science since the time of Galileo has made its first stop at the study of the higher parts of the brain, the organ of the most complicated relations of the animal with the outside world… now is the time really critical for the natural sciences, for the brain, in its highest complexity – the human brain – which created and creates natural science, becomes the object of this science.
Pavlov makes it clear that the study of psychological phenomena is really complex.
23. Men tend to be more easily influenced by words than by the actual facts of the surrounding reality.
A statement by Pavlov that makes a lot of sense.
24. It is still open to question whether psychology is a natural science, or whether it can be considered a science at all.
Psychology is a complex science, which is why it is often questioned as such.
26. From the experiment described it is clear that the mere act of eating, the food even without reaching the stomach, determines the stimulation of the gastric glands
Pavlov, in this phrase, makes his roots as a physiologist clear.
27. Gradualism, gradualism and gradualism. From the beginning of your work, instruct yourself in severe gradualness and the accumulation of knowledge
The acquisition of knowledge must be gradual. You have to put effort and work. You should go slowly.
28. It is no accident that all phenomena of human life are dominated by the search for daily bread – the most ancient link connecting all living things, including man, with the surrounding nature
Human beings have always been interested in knowledge and finding out the causes of things.
29. Don’t become a classifier of facts. Try to penetrate to the bottom of the cause, pursue the search for the laws that govern them
To investigate and draw conclusions, it is not enough to scratch the surface. You have to get to the heart of the matter.
30. Appetite is a force that stimulates the gastric glands
A phrase about Pavlov’s work in physiology
31. Science can be a way to get to know even what seemed private
Through scientific research it is possible to answer questions that seemed to be completely veiled.
32. The limitations of psychology are not only methodological, but also conceptual
This Russian physiologist He was very critical of psychology
33. You have to know when to leave questions for when there are instruments to answer them
A phrase from Pavlov about technological limitations in science.
34. Technology is progress only if our ideas evolve with it
Technological advance does not generate progress of ideas.
35. It is necessary to discard all ideas based on mentalism
A criticism of this philosophical current.
36. In psychology it is possible to locate beginner problems
Pavlov speaks critically about the psychological science of his time, which was very backward in many aspects.
37. Science is opposed to theological dogmas because it is based on facts
A reflection on scientific procedure and its way of adapting to reality.
38. The race to dominate human behavior cannot have an end in the near future.
For Pavlov, total control over actions is practically unrealizable.
39. Researching the body’s nerves gives certain power over the most basic processes
The nerve is one of the basic extensions of the nervous system, and therefore gives rise to simple reactions.
40. A stimulus can be much more than it appears on a first try
In a form of stimulation there is potential for future learning.
41. There is a lot of potential in the experimental method
Great discoveries can be made in a laboratory environment.
42. Segmenting complex phenomena into simpler ones is necessary
A reflection on reductionism.
43. Taking a step back to examine the ideas that support a line of research never hurts
There is a philosophical work that supports all science.
44. Data must be interpreted, and that is extra work
The information revealed by the studies is not interpreted alone.
45. Arriving at ideas that best describe reality is the task of the scientist
