Classical Conditioning Case Study

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My client, Catalina Sowrez struggles with procrastination in school. She is in her senior year at West High and her behavioral problem has gradually been getting better since she was a sophomore. She still struggles with procrastination daily. Catalina’s procrastination was at its worst point in her sophomore year. It started when her boyfriend’s mother, Haley, was cyber bullying her. Slowly, she let this situation consume her and her thoughts. She lacked motivation before, but always managed to finish her assignments. After Haley began mistreating her, she fell behind in school and did not have any desire to change. Catalina’s life at home has always been unstable. She is constantly moving due to her mother’s financial problems. Her parents …show more content…

Recall, classical conditioning is a type of learning that involves a certain behavior receiving the same response. Catalina could have obtained her routine through this way of learning. Let’s say the unconditioned stimulus was her situation she was in her sophomore year. Catalina was dealing with mistreatment by an adult while being bombarded with loads of school work. Her unconditioned response was to deal with the bullying and not worry about school because it was not a priority. After the circumstances were taken care of, she knew how to let certain situations come before academics. School no longer was important to her and she could create a conditioned stimulus, where her life was filled with friends, boys, and sports. She had learned how to respond, and that was to allow everything else to consume her time and energy, this was her conditioned response. Catalina sometimes finds herself falling back into that rhythm of letting academics fade into the background, but she has been attempting change. Classical conditioning can help her achieve this goal. My first plan is to create an unconditioned stimulus. This stimulus will be in the form of an essay assignment. Catalina’s class will be told that one page of the essay will be due each day to be certain it isn’t being avoided. The unconditioned response will be to finish the page of the essay. Catalina could procrastinate and wait to get it done in class, but the final paper wouldn’t be due till the end of the week. As the teacher continues this request, it becomes a conditional stimulus, which creates the conditioned response of completing one part of the assignment each day. This plan will teach Catalina how much easier an important task can be accomplished when the work is distributed throughout the days before homework is

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