Acrophobia Learning Theory Essay

Applying Learning Theories to the Experience of Acrophobia

Everyone in life has a fear, whether it is something very simple or something more extreme. When fears become more extreme, they are then classified as phobias in which become harder to deal with. In the case of acrophobia, it is described as the extreme or irrational fear of heights. The reason phobias might be considered irrational, are because of the fact that they aren’t always as much of a rational threat as people fear them to be. To add, many of these fears are developed through past experiences in which over time processed into these fears. The processes usually regard development of fear through learned processes or through certain types of conditioning from certain events

If we were applying this learning theory to an experience that could have triggered the fear of heights, it would go like this. First, the unconditioned stimulus, (a naturally occurring stimulus) would be the actual fear of falling, because we all naturally are born with a defensive mechanism that causes us to be more cautious around dangerous situations. This is a natural stimulus because we all have that fear factor instinct when we are exposed to that dangerous situation. Next, the unconditioned response is what comes as a result of the natural or unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned response is what comes as a result of the unconditioned stimulus. In this case, being afraid of being up too high, because of the fear of falling from that height, is the unconditioned response. This fear is natural and the response to the situation in not exactly the height itself, but the falling factor, is natural as well. Now, the conditioned stimulus is what becomes learned, it is not something one is born with knowing. This conditioned stimulus in the case of acrophobia is high places, like buildings, mountains, airplanes, rollercoasters, etc. We are not born with the fear of those places, but over time

Through the social cognitive theory, we don’t learn only through our own experiences, but by seeing other’s as well. This is why we may also describe cognitive theory with observational learning, because it deals with learning things based on the observations of others. This theory deals more with the mind and the way that one thinks and perceives life. If one is afraid of something it is because of the way they choose to view it or have learned to view it over time by something they might have seen or observed in the past. Usually this type of learning works well with manipulation and using the mind to make someone think or act a certain way. People do in fact use social cognitive learning to help people break loose of their phobias just as well as it was used to develop it. All you really need is a model to do something in which you want the person to observe. By observing the model, that person might learn to follow the behavior of the model and learn in their mind how to do it. The person has to be willing to learn and has to be open to the experience as well. Usually when these things are out of the way, it becomes easier to manipulate or shape the person’s mind and way of thinking so that they can overcome boundaries holding them back. Once they have overcome these boundaries, they are then able to use this cognitive learning as a process to learn more