A Clock Work Orange

In the beginning of this movie we are introduced to Alex, a young boy with a quick wit and a flare for “Ultra Violence.” The evil we see him indulged in before his "conditioning", starts with him and his gang maliciously beating an old homeless veteran and ends with him brutally killing a middle age well-to-do women. This last act of deviance lands him in jail and on the path to respondent conditioning.

Respondent conditioning starts with

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In the movie the treatment ensured that he could not rape, murder, or harm any individuals but that didn’t stop his desire to do so. This is demonstrated in Alex when the conditioned stimulus of the movie clips is joined by Beethoven’s 9th. The boy has no choice has he? The fear of physical pain drove him to that grotesque act of self-abasement. This is when a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus a numerous amount of times, eventually evoking the same response.

Discrimination and generalization are two other parts of respondent behavior. This caused an unconditioned response of paralyzing nausea and dry heaving. For example when the government brought him up on stage to show the progress they made with him they had a naked women come out on stage with him. He said he wanted to do “the old in and out,” and even tried to make a grab for her chest but he was physically unable to do this although he would have liked to. One final misconception and one I believe is a major theme of the movie is the dehumanization factor. As the reverend said after he saw the show the government put on to demonstrate how they cured Alex, “Choice. This is referred to as the US and the UR. They paired the dry heaving and nausea with videos of explicit violent sex scenes. Instead of doing that why could they not of shown him scenes of loving and caring along with a shot that gave him a euphoric feeling? Another misconception is that ignores the real cause of the behavior.

Common topics in this essay:
UR CR, Behavior Modification, Ultra Violence, Alex Choice, Clock Orange, conditioned stimulus, dry heaving, respondent conditioning, behavior modification, conditioned response, CS CR, Stanley Kubrick, nausea dry heaving, nausea dry, neutral stimulus, unconditioned response, discrimination generalization, beethovens 9th, range conditioned stimulus,

Approximate Word count = 888
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

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