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Classical Conditioning Principles

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In this assignment classical conditioning principles will be used to explain the development of phobias and also how systematic desensitisation can be used to overcome fears and phobias. Classical conditioning in its basic terms is a type of learning in which an individual learns to link stimuli that predict that a significant event will occur. As individuals we gain much of our behaviour from classical conditioning. For example if we were to have an argument with an individual, we are likely to experience emotional reactions that were encountered at the time of the argument while meeting them again. (Martin, Carlson, Buskist, 2010). The principles of classical conditioning include acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, stimulus generalisation …show more content…

A phobia is a conditioned fear that is markedly inconsistent with the objective threat of the situation. It has been said that the phobia that an individual encounters is due to an exposure to the now feared object earlier in life which caused fear or pain in conjunction with another stimulus which caused the fear of the object to arise. Due to this both the object feared and the stimulus which caused pain or fear can both now cause the individual to become afraid as it has become a learned response. (Martin, Carlson, Buskist, 2010). Fears of certain things like spiders, needles or dogs can be triggered so simply. For example if an individual is afraid of needles the thought of the needle cutting through their skin and the thought of the pain triggers fear. The thought of the needle is the unconditioned stimulus and the fear being the unconditioned response. This fear and distress caused by the unconditioned stimulus occurs both before and during conditioning. However, after conditioning, fear and distress have now been learnt to be felt from both the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus which in the case would be the injection. This can similarly be seen through arachnophobia, a fear of spiders, which is a very common fear among a lot of people. The thought of the spider alone can send shivers down the individual’s spine. However it is not just the spider that …show more content…

A behaviour therapy for phobias is systematic desensitisation. This is where the individual is exposed to the feared stimulus gradually in a relaxing environment. For example if an individual had a phobia towards snakes, the way in which systematic desensitisation would take place is perhaps show the individual pictures of a snake in a safe environment and work the way up until the individual is exposed to a real snake. They individual may panic at first but this will wear away as the autonomic nervous system is not able to hold permanent panic. This will enable the individual to become calm in the presence of the feared stimulus. (Kalat,

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Chapter 6 Question E In classical conditioning, whether we are human beings or animals, our first learning is acquisition. Classical conditioning happens upon the appearance of 2 stimuli put together, this occurs effortlessly and unconsciously. Acquisition is the link of the unconditional stimulus and a conditioned stimulus. US, stimulus that produces a reply without previous knowledge.

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Behavior therapy was studied by Ivan Pavlov and his famous dog study in which dogs were conditioned to salivate upon hearing a bell. It was later continued to be studied by John Watson who has the famous “Little Albert” study in which an 11-month old infant was conditioned to be scared of fuzzy white things because a rat was paired with a loud noise. The conclusion of the two conditioning experiences was that, behaviors followed by satisfying experiences tend to increase in frequency and behaviors followed by aversive experiences tend to decrease in frequency” (Thoma, 2015). Watson’s assistant Mary Jones, used this principle to clinical applications reasoning that, “if conditioning could be used to induce a phobia, perhaps it could be used to undo a phobia as well” (Thoma, 2015). Thus, behavior therapy was developed and began being used for

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F451 Essay By: Max Nguyen Change in people's lives will always have a consequence. The novel, Fahrenheit 451 shows this by the growth and development of the characters' personalities and life. The contrast between people who live a static and unchanging life such as Mildred and someone who had their entire life flipped and changed, like Guy, show the ways that change affects the individual's character. Experiencing more and different things causes growth in character and allows people to understand more.

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Psycho, Dracula, The Birds, Jaws. The pulling back of a shower curtain, the glint of a knife, the unknown monster lurking in the dark. Since the first horror film, created in 1896, directors have been able to pinpoint exactly what it is that causes our hearts to race. Horror is one of the most popular movie genres because, somehow, directors have found a way to create content that induces an emotion as equally addictive as it is repelling: fear. However, fear is an emotion that goes far beyond the goosebumps and quickened heartbeat experienced briefly in a darkened movie theater.

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Marcovitz includes an abundance of information on the lives of phobics though concise summarizations of studies, statistics, and quotes from people who are suffering or have suffered from phobias. Combined, this allows the chapter to impart a profound understanding of what it is like to possess a social or specific phobia onto the reader. The apprehension the reader is given then allows the reader to empathize with phobics.

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Discussion
The objective of this experiment was to view if an animal is conditioned in one context and extinguished in another, will result in the conditioned behavior when placed back into its original context (or renewal). Operant conditioning also known as instrumental conditioning is a type of learning where behavior is controlled by consequences (shown in our experiment when the subject pressed the lever, it is reinforced with a food; positive reinforcement). Extinction occurs when operant conditioning did not result in their expected outcome (subject pressed the lever and no food was rewarded) this will result in subject reducing or eliminating the conditioned behavior. Sometimes an occurrence called spontaneous recovery can occur, when after some time the subject may begin rapidly responding to its initial conditioned behavior. The results showed that the hypothesis was correct.

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According to Rathus (2015) classical conditioning is basically learning to identify occurrences or events with other events (p. 125). My aversion with seafood and classical conditioning is associated with the smell of seafood. When the aroma of seafood is around, I will immediately breathe out of my mouth, or flee to another space. Chapter Six

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Caused by food stimuli at a distance from the dog. Conditioned Stimulus: Something normally would not cause a reaction, but is associated with something else that causes one. Unconditioned Stimulus: Something that normally causes a reaction.

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Nevertheless, Skinner points out that children learn nothing from the punishment. Instead, they may start to work out how to avoid it (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Another concept is classical conditioning (classical behaviorism) that emphasizes on the relation between stimuli and response. This concept embodies in a famous experiment, in which the food is presented to the dog when the bell rings, and the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus for the dog (Nolan & Raban, 2015). Likewise, if children receive toys in the condition that they behave well, then they will probably repeat this behavior to get the toys.

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Introduction Learning enables you as an individual, to gain more knowledge about something which you have never learned about. Learning also has to do with past experiences which are influenced by behavioural changes (Weiten, 2016). There are different types of ways to learn; through, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and observational learning which will be discussed and analysed in the essay.   Behaviourism Behaviourism is considered one of the main subjects in psychology and the two main people who founded behaviourism were, Burrhus Frederic Skinner, also known as B.F Skinner and Ivan Pavlov who were famous for the work they did on classical and operant conditioning (Moderato & Presti, 2006). According to Moderato and Presti

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The major key findings that were discovered in this study include the idea that it is possible that after being conditioned to react to a certain stimulus, the subject could possibly begin to generalize different objects that may cause the subject to react the same way towards the generalized stimuli as the subject did to the original stimulus. Another finding is that classical conditioning is something that could potentially have a long lasting effect on someone, especially if the subject formed a generalization to the original stimulus. The researchers felt that because of the lack of experimental evidence provided about the subject before this experiment prompted them to research it

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Watson proposed that the process of classical conditioning (based on Pavlov’s observations) was able to explain all aspects of human psychology. The theory of classical conditioning involves learning a new behavior through a process of association. Meaning that two stimuli are linked together to create a newly learned response. There are three stages of classical conditioning, before conditioning, during conditioning and after conditioning (Mc Leod, 2014). Watson’s theory also involved the conditioning of emotions.

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This school of thought suggests that only observable behaviors should be studied, since internal states such as cognitions, emotions and moods are too subjective. There are two major types of conditioning: 1. Classical conditioning is a technique used in behavioral training in which a naturally occurring stimulus is paired with a response. Next, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with the naturally occurring stimulus.

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INTRODUCTION Have you ever thought on how people explain about behaviour? How do we know when learning process has occurred? Learning is permanent change that happened in the way of your behaviour acts, arises from experience one’s had gone through. This kind of learning and experience are beneficial for us to adapt with new environment or surrounding (Surbhi, 2018). The most simple form of learning is conditioning which is divided into two categories which are operant conditioning and classical conditioning.

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