"I am going to be sick!"

In Stanley Kubrick's 1971 psychological film, A Clockwork Orange, a teenager by the name of Alex DeLarge experiences classical conditioning after being in jail. Alex was originally sentenced to 40 years in prison for the murder of a woman. He admitted to not only this crime, but many others violent crimes that he had committed. Alex was given an incentive that if he were to try a new treatment that would "fix him forever" he would be released from jail once the treatment was completed. This treatment was an example of classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning was introduced to the world of psychology by Pavlov and his experiment with dogs and getting them to salivate by the sound of a bell. This method of behavior is a response to a unconditioned stimuli (something that enables a certain behavior) which results in a unconditioned response (a common, natural response to the stimuli). Then the subject is exposed to a neutral stimulus (a common "thing" that does not create any response, it is neutral). The conditioning part of the behavior then occurs. The subject exposed to the neutral and the unconditioned stimulus simultaneously which results in the same unconditioned response. After conditioning is completed, the subject will have the same response to the new conditioned stimulus as it had to the unconditioned stimulus. Therefore, it creates a conditioned response to a certain stimulus. Using this method, successfully Pavlov trained his dogs to salivate to the sound of a bell being rung.

In A Clockwork Orange, Alex experiences the same type of behavior change, except his stimuli and response are as follows:

Unconditioned Stimulus- vulnerable women, old men, unlocked homes

Unconditioned Response- violence, rape, stealing

Neutral Stimulus- feeling sick

Conditioned Stimulus- violence

Conditioned Response- feeling sick when he sees violence

The following is a video of Alex as he is experiencing the conditioning stage of classical conditioning. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMzepSePD4&feature=related

In the end of the classical conditioning process, Alex felt sick when he saw or experienced any sort of violence. Therefore, the classical conditioning performed on Alex DeLarge was a success!