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Discuss classical conditioning
Classical conditioning applies mostly to
Classical conditioning applies mostly to
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In this case, Treena develops anxiety from an incident which normally would not elicit a fearful response. This process is called classical conditioning and occurs through paired association and the incident becomes a neutral stimulus. In this case, fear conditioning involves the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). The neutral stimulus initially causes no emotional reaction, but after repeated pairings with the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus triggering the onset of unconditioned stimulus and inducing anxiety and panic (Lissek, Powers, McClure, Phelps, Wolderhawariat, Grillon, Pine, 2015). When symptoms of anxiety is paired with this kinds of uncued panic attacks, …show more content…
the previously neutral stimulus becomes a cause to an anxious response. Due to this paired association between the neutral stimulus and the Treena’s anxiety attacks, she had “learned” to think that the situation of not being able to answer a question is threatening and therefore dangerous to her.
Kurayama, Matsuzawa, Komiya, Nakazawa, Yoshida, Shimizu, (2012) confirmed that these neutral stimuluses deed indeed has an effect and played a role in fear conditioning in people. The case showed that Treena had indeed learned to be scared of the incident and it proceeded to become a cue for to get anxious and get panic attacks. It has been claimed that patients with panic disorder exhibited fear potentiated startle responses to safety cues and therefore reduced discrimination between safety and danger signals during acquisition, indicating that the safety signal was processed as the aversive event in contrast to the danger signal (Nees, Heinrich, Flor, 2015). It also showed that the her failing to answer the question had affected her in other classes when she would not participate in other classes hence, this showed that the neutral stimulus has developed and grew into a conditioned stimulus which evoked feelings of fear and anxiety in her, in other words it had become a cue for her to be scared and
panic. Furthermore, Treena developed the anxiety naturally when she encountered high levels of discomfort and fear when she could not answer Mr. Jordan’s questions and her classmates began to snicker and make fun of her. This uncomfortable feeling had indeed caused much distress and made her uncomfortable, because it was sudden and not normal for her so she “learned” that it was uncomfortable and in the future when answering another question in Ms. Crauser’s class, she seems to freeze up and become blank. This is because she remembered the neutral stimulus and her distress plus anxiousness, which sudden and out of the blue thus making her uncomfortable and distressed again. This can be said that the symptoms itself has caused her to be anxious and get a panic attack. This situation becomes unfavourable and turns into a vicious cycle for her; the anxiety causes a panic attack, the symptoms triggers new more danger in the future, this creates more panic and anxiety and it goes on and on without seemingly a cure. When Mr. Jordan tries to speak to Treena, that unknowingly becomes a stimulus too as she realizes she had indeed made a mistake, and also when her friends laugh at her. This verbal gestures also cause her anxiety and is also been suggested that at selective fear learning effects can be obtained when conditioning is established on the basis of verbal instructions (Mertens, Raes, Houwer, 2015). Therefore, we can say that her anxiety stemmed from a few sources. However so, her panic attacks were mainly caused from the first incident in the class where she was made fun of and she felt discomfort and distress which became her stimulus to her fear conditioning.
In every society, throughout all of time fear is present. It is a an evolutionary instinct thought to have kept us alive, throughout the darkest moments in human history. However as time has progressed fear has had an unintended consequences on society, including the suffusion of incomprehension. During the Salem Witch Trials and Cold War a large sense of fear overcame these societies causing tragedy and misinformation to become commonplace. It is in these societies that it is clear that fear is needed to continue a trend of ignorance. Although bias is thought to be essential to injustice, fear is crucial to the perpetuation of ignorance because it blinds reason, suppresses the truth and creates injustice.
Psychologists both now and in years past have investigated the concept of fear and its different forms, as well as its reason for existence. Some discovered that experiences, nurture, and nature create the emotion within people. Each of the five divisions of fear includes loss. Every human experiences fear of extinction, mutilation, loss of autonomy, separation, and ego-death yet encounter these emotions at various rates to assorted extents.
As with all other phobias, agoraphobia is often acquired through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus (Weiten, 1998). Describing and explaining exactly how agoraphobia is acquired can be achieved by identifying the antecedents of the phobia. Antecedents are the events that precede a particular response. In the case of agoraphobia, this response is a panic attack. Agoraphobia is essentially anxiety of three kinds, phobic anxiety, panic anxiety (the panic attacks), and phobic a...
A simple definition of the human psyche is the embodiment of the human spirit. However, when one takes a more in-depth look, it becomes much more complex than the tidy little package that the definition would infer. The psyche has a direct link to thoughts, emotions, reactions and consequences. Of these components, emotions have the most significant impact on the human essence. The way in which humans view and react to the world around them is directly linked to the conscious and subconscious feelings associated with a particular activating event. The human psyche is driven by a wide variety of emotions ranging from love, hate, anger, happiness, fear, and courage to name but only a few. Of these, fear has the power to disrupt the body and spirit in profound ways as it encompasses all emotions. Therefore, it is the strongest emotion associated with the human condition.
Various clinical and psychological studies have shown that the hippocampus in the medial temporal lobe is responsible for important learning and memory. In the majority of studies, many researchers propose that the hippocampus is responsible for long-term memory (LTM). LTM impairments occur when damages to bilateral hippocampi are present and can result in anterograde amnesia (difficulty in forming recent memories), retrograde amnesia (difficulty in retrieving memories from the past), or both. However, in this paper, the relationship between the hippocampus and fear memory will be explored explicitly.
One of the most controversial topics of the century hinges on one simple question: What makes the world go round? Most will jump to say money. Some will argue in favor of their religion. Others will point out scientific facts. The truth is, none are correct. One emotion, one aspect of life shines above the others, extending its light on merely half of our beloved globe, leaving the other semi-circle to deal with pitch black: fear. To understand its impact, society’s definition of fear must be perceived. Fear is officially defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something dangerous will harm him/her. However, with his classic novel, Alan Paton shows that it extends far beyond that. An old man by the name of Stephen Kumalo leaves the comfort of his tribe in Ndotsheni, and embarks on a
In observational learning, a child takes note of what his or her mother or father considers to be threatening. On the other hand, children can also be conditioned by their own life experiences through a process called operant conditioning (SOURCE). In some instances, children tend to generalize their fears, subsequently forming a phobia. For example, a young girl who became increasingly cautious of flying insects after an unpleasant encounter with a nest of agitated yellow jackets. After being assaulted by these creatures, she associated all flying bugs with the painful sting of a yellow jacket. Of course, children can also be classically conditioned to display a fearful response; that is, they learn to associate an unconditioned fear-relevant stimulus with a conditioned stimulus, provoking a conditioned, fearful response. One of the most well-known examples of this is an experiment involving a young boy, famously dubbed Little Albert. Little Albert learned to fear small furry animals in a laboratory setting when the presence of these creatures was paired with loud banging noises (SOURCE). From the aforementioned experiments and studies, it is undeniable that external circumstances and experiences assist in the configuration of fear in
Aristotle once said, “Men are swayed more by fear than by reverence.” It’s generally known that fear is quite a motivator in any given situation. This is apparent in many real life situations such as the Red Scare or the Salem Witch Trials of 1962. Arthur Miller was a playwright victimized by McCarthyism in the Second Red Scare who related his experience to the Salem Witch trials. He was oppressed because he had Communist sympathies. In the midst of this oppression, he looked into the Salem Witch Trials and saw similarities to the Red Scare. In The Crucible, Arthur Miller shows his belief that humanity is driven by fear and self-preservation, often resulting in people abandoning their morals.
The Dangers of Fear Irish Playwright, George Bernard Shaw, once said, “The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them; that's the essence of inhumanity.” Inhumanity is mankind’s worst attribute. Every so often, ordinary humans are driven to the point where they have no choice but to think of themselves. One of the most famous examples used today is the Holocaust. Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night demonstrates how fear is a debilitating force that causes people to lose sight of who they once were.
A panic attack is an unexpected, strong experience of fear joined with an irresistible feeling of threat, escorted by physical symptoms of anxiety. A person with panic disorder may have frequent panic attacks and feel stern anxiety about having another attack (Rosemary Purcell, Paul Maruff, Michael Kyrios, and Christos Pantelis, Arch Gen Psychiatry 1998). The disorder characteristically begins in young adulthood, but older people and children can be involved. Characteristically, a first panic attack appears to come suddenly, occurring as a person is busy in some normal doings like driving a car or walking to work. Unexpectedly, the person is struck by a barrage of scary and painful symptoms. Initial panic attacks may occur when people are under considerable stress, from an excess of work, for instance, or from the loss of a family member or close friend. The attacks may also follow surgery, a severe accident, sickness, or childbirth. Extreme consumption of caffeine or use of cocaine or other refreshment drugs or medicines can also trigger panic attacks (Jeremy D. Coplan, Raymond Goetz, Donald F. Klein, Laszlo A. Papp, Abby J. Fyer, Michael R. Liebowitz, Sharon O. Davies, and Jack M. Gorman, Gen Psychiatry 1998). In panic disorder, panic attacks persist and the person fears having another attack. As noted earlier, this fear called anticipatory anxiety can be there most of the time and critically obstruct with the person's life even when a panic attack is not in development. People who develop these panic-induced phobias will be likely to keep away from situations that they fear will activate a panic attack, and their lives may be increasingly restricted thus. Many people with panic disorder stay powerfully worried about their...
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
‘An adequate hypothesis of fear must utilize physiological concepts of cerebral action in addition to psychological terminology. The hypothesis proposes that "fear originates in the disruption of temporally and spatially organized cerebral activities; that fear are distinct from other emotions by the nature of the processes tending to restore equilibrium." The sources of fear involve conflict, sensory deficit, or constitutional change. ‘
Learning is quite an influential aspect of every organism’s lifetime. We learn through experience, which over time allows for a certain amount of change in our behaviour. The process of learning influences and alters the way we act, interpret, and perceive, and may effectively adjust our views on numerous subjects. If we are trained or become accustomed into acting a certain way, our behaviour may alter to allow for this new change in perception. The field of psychology is full of previous and recent studies which revolve around conditioning a subject. This method of conditioning is a learning process through which an organism relates a stimulus to another simultaneously occurring event. This process has been used for a very large number of studies with different topics and objectives, one of these topics being alcohol and drinking behaviour. The two following studies incorporate and test different conditioning techniques related to altering attitudes toward drinking behaviour. The objective of both studies is to determine whether alcoholism and drinking behaviour can be influenced either positively or negatively through conditional learning.
When a friend of mine was young and in the fifth grade he was involved in a play. He was given the role of Abraham Lincoln. When it was his turn to speak his voice broke, he forgot parts of his lines and he felt ashamed and like a failure. Ever since then, he couldn’t bring himself to get on stage and speak to an audience. The neutral stimulus is the stage for the play. The unconditional stimulus was the shame and feelings of failure. The unconditioned response was fear and anxiety. After pairing the neutral stimulus with feelings of shame and failure, my friend generalized his conditioned response (fear and anxiety) to the stage for the play, now the conditioned stimulus.
A number of different theories have been proposed to explain how these factors contribute to the development of this disorder. The first theory is experiential: people can learn their fear after an initial unpleasant experience such as a humiliating situation, physical or sexual abuse, or just attending a violent act. Similar experiences that follow add to the anxiety. According to another theory, which refers to cognition or thinking, people believe or predict that the outcome of a particular situation will be degrading or harmful to them. This can happen, for example, if parents are overly protective and constantly alert to potential problems. The third theory focuses on biological basics. Research suggests that the amygdala, a structure deep inside the brain, serves as a communication center that signals the presence of threats, and triggers a response in the form of fear or