Final answer:
Classical conditioning alters expectancies by creating associations between a conditioned stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus, leading to a conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is presented. Through the acquisition process, an individual learns to expect the unconditioned response upon experiencing the conditioned stimulus.
Step-by-step explanation:
How Classical Conditioning Alters Expectancies:
Classical conditioning can significantly alter an individual's expectancies by creating associations between two stimuli that were previously unrelated. In a well-known example, Ivan Pavlov's experiment showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate upon hearing a bell if that bell had repeatedly been paired with food, thus altering the dogs' expectancy that food would follow the sound. These associations form through the process known as acquisition, where the pairing of a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus, or CS) with an unconditioned stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus, or UCS) eventually leads to a conditioned response (CR).
In real-world applications, someone like Moisha, who associated the sights of a doctor's office with chemotherapy treatments, may start to feel nauseous upon entering the office due to the expectation created by classical conditioning. This response demonstrates how the associative learning mechanism can lead to new behavioral and emotional responses based on the expectations formed through conditioning. Thus, classical conditioning alters expectancies by linking stimuli in such a way that expectation of the unconditioned response (like nausea) is triggered by the conditioned stimulus (like a doctor's office), not just the original unconditioned stimulus (like chemotherapy drugs).