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Ichthyophobia Case Study

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Gareth suffers from Ichthyophobia which is a fear of fish. This phobia is diagnosed when a person is afraid of eating fish, smelling or seeing a dead one. ("Ichthyophobia – Symptoms and Causes of Ichthyophobia – Treatment", n.d.) A behavioral psychologist will be interesting in a classical conditioning.
Classical conditioning, or responsive conditioning, is a process describing the genesis and modification of some behaviors based on the effects of the stimulus-response on the central nervous system of living beings. The term classical conditioning is historically linked to the Psychology of learning or the Behaviourism of Pavlov (1902), Watson (1913) and Skinner (1948).
The Pavlov experience (Pavlov,1897/1902) elucidated the existence of classical …show more content…

Pavlov's experience consisted of associating an unconditional stimulus (food) with the presentation of a neutral stimulus (sound of a doorbell). After the repetition of this association of stimuli, he found that the dog learned to salivate at the stimulus that previously did not provoke any (neutral) response even in the absence of the unconditional stimulus (food). (McLeod,2013)

Strengths and weaknesses founded on this explanation:
The use of scientific methods of research is considered a strength because the trials acknowledge objectivity, measurability, and visibility. The classical and operant conditioning are also a strong point in this theory as it gives positives results in treating phobias.
Although there are also some weaknesses that it is important to outline such as the problems that the use of animals in trials could be raised. Ethical issues raised by using animals in experiments. This is because animals can not consent to take part and are unable to withdraw.

2. How would a psychodynamic psychologist explain this …show more content…

Between the 1890s and the 1930s, Freud (1915) developed a collection of theories and formed the basis of the psychodynamic approach to psychology. According to Freud, the unconscious mind is the primary source of human behavior. To explain his theory, he developed a topographical model of the mind. Freud used the analogy of an iceberg to describe the three levels of the mind. On the surface is consciousness which is those thoughts that are the focus of our attention now. The preconscious is all that can be retrieved from memory. The third is the unconscious and that is where lie’s the processes that are the real cause of the most behavior.

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John B. Watson and his assistant Rosalie Rayner conducted an experiment called the “Little Albert” experiment. It was a psychology experiment performed to demonstrate the effects of behavioral conditioning in humans. John was influence by the studies of Ivan Pavlov, where he used conditioning process in dogs. John want to prove that taking Pavlov’s research a step further could show how emotional reactions could be classically conditioned in humans. John used an 9 month old boy to be the subject of the little Albert experiment.

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Following the Yerkes and Margulis Psychological Bulletin article that introduced Pavlovian learning into the American psychological literature, Watson's 1915 presidential address to the American Psychological Association was influential in establishing the Pavlovian learning paradigm in American psychology. Watson devotes Chapter II, How to Study Human Behavior, almost entirely to the utility Vol. What is surprising in retrospect is that Watson often appeared to have based his central behavior...change engine upon such a limited learning model as Pavlov's, that is superimposed on a short litany of sometimes-atypical renexes. While Pavlov had credited Thorndike with being the first to show a bold accurate approach to the immense task of objective research on animal learning, Watson's emphasis nearly-always appeared to be on the Pavlovian learning paradigm that necessarily ignores the important and wide-ranging role of behavior change.

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Watson applied classical conditioning by demonstrating that he could create fear in an infant. He performed this conditioning on a nine-month-old infant known only as Little Albert. Like any other infant, Little Albert was frightened by loud noises. Watson had loud noises as an unconditioned stimulus and which would bring fear as an unconditioned response. When Little Albert was first shown a white rat, he was curious and unafraid.

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Psychology and its Implications Student’s Name Institution Affiliation Psychology and its Implications Introduction Psychology has been used for a long time to understand human behaviour. Basically, this is how human beings react to various stimuli. The reaction can originate from a past experience, for instance, death, sickness, and so forth. In the book The Perk of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (2012), Charlie can be seen to be faced by psychological problems. Charlie is the major character in the novel.

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Operate conditioning was founded by Skinner. Skinner’s main interest was observing behaviour and instrumental learning which was believed to portray stimulus. Skinner carried out an experiment named the Skinner box, which consisted of putting rats in a box, allowing them to explore the box freely and whilst pressing on a lever food would be given as a reinforcement, this encouraged the rats to progressively press the lever. Skinner’s main idea portrayed that maintaining positive reinforcement resulted in effective behaviour, the idea of punishment was not effective as it decreased the trial and error procedure (Holt et al, 2012, p. 281). Both these experiments and theories can be perceived as unethical as it impacts reactions from the animals and children which lead to negative emotions.

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Moreover, its systematic desensitization significantly depends on classical conditioning and therefore is effective in tackling different types of phobias. Behavioural approach features rationale efficacy because it is based on scientifically approved research methods and therefore implies objective, observable and measurable experimentations that in turn helps to decipher human behaviours precisely. Limitations Behavioural approach has several advantages yet there are a few limitations that impact its overall efficacy.

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Watson and Rayner paired the sound of a hammer with the presence of a white rat. Despite Little Albert showing no aversion to the rat initially, the repeated association between the rat and the sound of the hammer resulted in Albert becoming evidently distressed by the presence of the rat, later developing into him fearing anything resembling the rat. Watson and Rayners research indicated that classical conditioning, previously only demonstrated by dogs, could be applied to humans in the context of phobias. However, successive attempts to replicate the findings of Watson and Rayner proved largely unsuccessful, questioning the reliability of their findings. Furthermore, classical conditioning has been criticised for ignoring individuals free will and the ability for humans to resist conditioning, therefore although their experiment was successful on an infant, the results may not necessarily be applicable to

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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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According to the Pavlovian theory, Classical Conditioning is when a stimulus which brings about a response is paired with another stimuli which does not initially evoke a response on its own. After a period of time, the second stimuli will act similarly to the first stimuli because the second stimuli was paired with the first

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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 Positive and Negative of Operant Conditioning and The Most Effective Method There are many ways we can come about in behavior. An American psychologist, B.F. Skinner, introduced the theory of operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is known as associative learning and a learning process. The theory is made up of two factors in which behavior is modified through either reinforcement and or punishment.

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For this paper, I chose to write about the Little Albert experiment The overall importance of this study was to discover if a human could be conditioned to develop a bias, fear, or generalized fear of an animal, object, or person based the stimuli placed around the involved person, animal or object. Watson & Rayner (1920) suggested that “in infancy the original emotional reaction patterns are few, consisting so far as observed of fear, rage and love, then there must be some simple method by means of which the range of stimuli which can call out these emotions and their compounds is greatly increased.” This means that before any conditioning occurs, the subject should have a pure response, but after minor and simple experimentation and conditioning,

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This essay would attempt to explore the onset of phobias from the behavioural, biological and psychodynamic standpoints and show which one or combination

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Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shapes our behaviors. John Watson believed that if he were given infants, then he would be able to make one a thei,

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In 1913, the behaviorist movement began with the studies of John Broadus Watson (1878-1958), a pioneering figure in the development of the psychological school of behaviorism. He published an article entitled ' 'Psychology as the behaviorist views it ' ' in which he had the impression that psychology shouldn 't deal with what the people say that they think or feel, in other words, he reduced and dehumanized the human mind and its consciousness. To put it differently, he asserted a claim that the study of the human mind would be concerned only with people 's actions and behavior. Watson 's work relied upon the experiments of Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936), a Russian Nobel laureate psychologist who had worked on animals ' responses to conditioning. For instance, in his best-known experiment, Pavlov rang a bell and then gave a dog some food.

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