Classical Conditioning Paper

Question 1

I have developed certain fears as a result of classical conditioning. One major fear I elicited was a fear of dogs. The phobia for dogs was gotten since as a child, I was always told never to leave the house alone. If I left the house alone, I would be attacked by the neighbors’ dogs as well as the strays that routinely roamed our street. Every time I would hear the barking from the house, my elder brother retorted that those barks related to how harsh they were and would bite anything that moved. Of course, he only wanted I stay at home so that he can easily watch over me as I played. However, at the time, the scare tactics elicited a lot of irrational fear that all the dogs in the world bite people if they are walking alone and

Internal conflict is a common characteristic among people. Internal conflict manifests itself as the situation in which there are two or more behavioral impulses or motivations that contradict each other all require an avenue for expression (Janis 15-16). According to studies by Sigmund Freud, internal conflict more often than not will lead to psychological distress which essentially accounts for a lot of stress one brings to him or herself. Another way I create stress for myself is through approaching various triggers that are known to cause frustrations. Frustrations usually are a consequence of the inability to achieve a particular goal. I create stress for myself by setting unrealistic goals and when eventually I do not achieve the previously set goal, the adverse effect is that I get stressed out. There are various methodologies that can be applied so as to ensure that I can deal with any form of self-imposed stress. One way is determining the personal triggers of stress and designing a way that I would avoid the triggers (Brougham). Another way is to meditate and increase tolerance for being patient. A lot of self-imposed stress is caused by filling gaps in life with worry. As a general principle, it is important to avoid worrying about anything that I personally have no control over so that to ensure that there is no self-imposed