Ellis's concept of “irrational belief” (<span>Maladaptive thinking)</span> suggests that people's generalized "shoulds" and "musts" create their emotional and behavioral dysfunctions.
A famous example is given of the scenario when someone sets a goal of his/her happiness that they are loved by each and everyone around them, this is irrational belief which is actually impossible and moreover this hands over the option of happiness to other people than the person himself. <span />
In this example, john's whistling is serving as a discriminative stimulus.
This procedure, studied by Ivan Pavlov, shows a stimulus ( in this case the action of John's whistling) and a response ( the cattle run to the food trough).
Pavlov studied it with dogs. He realised that when a trainer fed them, dogs salivated. So, he presented the dogs with a "stimulus" ( the sound of a metronome) and when he gave the dogs food. After a few repetitions, when the dog listened to the stimulus, it salivated.
