Pavlov, Ivan Petrovich - Theories
Theories
Even though his specialty was physiology, most experts consider Pavlov's contributions to psychology, specifically those related to conditioned reflexes, to be his greatest legacy.
Reflexes themselves were not a new concept. In his "Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes," Pavlov notes that the idea of man as a machine governed by complex nervous reflexes originated with French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes three centuries earlier. Several of Pavlov's contemporaries also had explored the reflexive properties of the nervous system. Pavlov's work, however, is based on the physiology of the brain, and therefore it is, as he puts it, a "purely objective investigation into the highest nervous activities."
Pavlov was particularly influenced by the work of his eminent Russian colleague Ivan Sechenov. Sechenov wrote Reflexes of the Brain,and he was considered one of the...
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