Phobia, defined by the Oxford Dictionary as “an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something.” Each person can experience different types of phobia; some people suffer from Arachibutyrophobia, which – believe it or not – is fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, and others suffer from Phronemophobia, which is a fear of thinking, can you imagine that? Phobia immensely affects the lives of those who suffer from it, as it is something that they cannot control nor can they change without professional help. Many of those who suffer from specific types of phobia are held back in life due to it; it feels as though loose ropes are tying you down, therefore you can easily get out of them, however your brain is rejecting the ability to do so. I suffer from Arachnophobia, which is the fear of spiders, and I decided to base my paper on this subject, as it is something I experience very often. As I made my way down the stairs in order to go out and meet my friends, I switched on the lights and to my surprise, right across from me stands my worst nightmare and I stand paralyzed, not knowing what to do and too afraid to make the slightest move. Tears start rushing down my face, unintentionally, and I go blank. I try to call someone to help me, as they come down to see the look on my face they automatically know what has happened and start to laugh at how terrified I am, they reach for a tissue and walk right up to it and just like that, pick it up and throw it out. Something that is my worst nightmare, something that has the ability to paralyze me and make me feel as though my heart is going to beat out of my chest, is just a little bug to others. Psychoanalysis is a method of psychological therapy that was originate... ... middle of paper ... ...ce is a pure example of classical conditioning. As the shock from what I was not expecting – in my case, a spider crawling on my hand – is the unconditioned stimulus, the spider being the neutral response and my reaction being the unconditioned response. This would have helped me as I would have understood that my fear is not from spiders themselves, but that the spiders have become the conditioned stimulus, and that every time I see a spider it triggers the fear and shock I felt the first time I had an encounter with the Araneae. In conclusion, there are many explanations as to why people develop phobias from certain things. Sometimes it could be caused by a childhood experience that has stayed with you in your adult life, and sometimes it could be triggered by a neutral stimulus after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, making it the conditioned stimulus.
Conquering phobias is a specialty of hypnotherapists. A phobia is a compulsive fear of a specified situation or object (Knight 2). A few types of phobias are fear of open spaces, fear of snow, fear of the cold, fear of marriage, fear of insanity, fear of being alone, fear of darkness, fear of disease, fear of beards, fear of birds, fear of being stared at, fear of bein...
There’s a monster under your bed, and there are ghosts in the attic. The Bogey man is in your closet and ravens await your death so they can pick from your rotting flesh. Flowers are ready to strangle you, as pickles prepare to choke you in the night. It’s almost funny to hear of people who actually fear flowers and pickles. But these people have real legit fears of even the nicest of things. Although these fears are horrible, and should not be feared; I think the more we know about them, the more we can be prepared. There must be a deeper meaning of these weird phobias. Is it nature? Or inherited traits of the human body? Maybe they come from past experiences? Even as these fears are quite interesting, but unwanted, I want to know why people acquire these ridiculous fears and how we could stop them.
Almost everyone alive has a fear of something whether it be heights, spiders or even clowns. Some people however have more serious issues with their fears, fears that follow them almost everywhere they go, these fears are called phobias. It is estimated that 4 to 5 percent of Americans have some type of phobia, which is an irrational fear of situations and certain objects. There are over 500 known phobias; a very common phobia is social phobia.
Phobias have been in existence for many years. As humans we fear things that are life threatening and unnatural. Someone who has an irrational fear of something is considered a phobia, which is an extreme illogical fear or dislike of something. Fear is a very common emotion which distinguishes from phobia regarding the severe distress someone with a phobia goes through. Fear is a rationalized and instinctive emotion that comes in response to a threatening situation. The reaction caused by fear can be managed. Phobias can hinder someone’s life. People who struggle with phobias constantly avoid the object of fear, and will do anything required not to see it. It’s hard to directly to clearly figure out the cause regarding
Phobias are considered a part of anxiety disorders, a phobia is an intense and irrational fear of a certain thing or situation. Some examples of phobias include fear of heights, insects, and even talking in front of a large crowd. The intensity of phobias differ from patient to patient but the severity of phobia...
There are three kinds of phobias: simple phobia, social phobia, and panic attacks. Simple phobias, also called specific phobias, are fears of a specific thing, such as spiders or being in a closed place. Most simple phobias develop during childhood and eventually disappear. Specific phobia is a marked fear of a specific object or situation. It is a category for any phobias other than agoraphobia and social phobia. The categories of specific phobias are 1. situational phobias such as: fear of elevators, airplanes, enclosed places, public transportation, tunnels, or bridges; 2. fear of the natural environment such as: storms, water, or heights; 3. animal phobias such as: fear of dogs, snakes, insects, or mice; 4. blood-injection-injury phobia such as: fear of seeing blood or an injury, or of receiving an injection. (Wood 520).
During this stage a stimulus which produces no response (i.e. neutral) is associated with the unconditioned stimulus at which point it now becomes known as the conditioned stimulus (CS). Often during this stage the US must be associated with the CS on a number of occasions, or trials, for learning to take place.
When Antonio was seven years old, he had a very bad flu and was hospitalized. He was able to recover without complications, but he noticed that whenever he drove by the hospital he was treated at that he would start to feel sick to his stomach.Unconditioned stimulus in Antonio's case was initially the hospital. The unconditioned response to being at the hospital was he didn't feel well. Then the Hospital became the conditioned response by making Antonio feel sick when he had to visit or drive by the hospital. It is because he associated the hospital (CS) with feeling ill. The hospital where he was treated for the sickness is the conditioned stimulus (CS), causing him to remember what occurred and inducing his stomach to hurt (CR) which is an conditioned response. This is an example of classical
Classical conditioning refers to a type of learning in which a previously neutral stimuli took on the ability to stimulate a conditioned response in an individual (Gormezano & Moore, 1966). To prove that environment was more impactful than genetics, Watson conducted an experiment on an infant, little Albert. Initially, Albert showed little fear towards rats. When Watson repeatedly exposed Albert to the rat accompanied by a loud noise, the latter began to develop fear towards not just the rat but also other furry animals. Watson successfully showed that the acquisition of a phobia can be explained by classical conditioning (Watson & Watson, 1921). Regardless of their genes, the associations of the right stimuli can result in the development of a new behaviour in any individual.
Classical Conditioning was a phenomenon that a man named Ivan Pavlov explored in the twentieth-century. His work laid the foundation for many other psychologists such as John Watson. Pavlov’s idea came when he seized on an incidental observation. He noticed putting food in a dogs mouth caused salvation. However, the dog not only salivated to the food it began to also salivate to mere sight of the food, or the food dish. He began experimenting; first he slid the food presented the food by sliding the food bowl and blowing meat powder into the dogs mouth at the same exact moment. They paired it with a neutral stimuli event the dog could see but did not associate it with food (Myers, 2014, p.256). Food in the mouth automatically, unconditionally triggers the salivary reflex. Pavlov called drooling the unconditioned response and the food the unconditioned stimulus. Salvation in response to a tone is learned, it is conditioned upon the dogs associating the tone with the food it is called conditioned response (Myers, 2014, p.256). The stimulus that used to be neutral is the conditioned stimulus. I found it interesting and relating to everyday life because my dog often does the same. We keep his food in the garage so opening the garage door would be the conditioned stimulus. As soon as the garage door opens my dog begins to salivate which is the conditioned response. Whereas,
One of the characteristics of a phobia is a feeling that is greater than the fear of a situation or object with an exaggeration of the danger associated with the said situation or even object. This persistent fear often leads to an anxiety disorder that leads an individual to develop mechanisms that ensure one avoids the object or situation that triggers the occurrence of the phobia. Phobias can have highly debilitating effects on an individual including the development of depression, isolation, substance abuse, and even suicide. Many people take phobia for granted however, it is clear that it has the potential to impair the quality of life for both the affected and the people around them. The fact that many of the phobias are manageable using
What causes dental phobia? About 75% of such patients have had a bad childhood experience in a dentist's office. Another 25% suffer from other issues like post traumatic stress disorders e.g., war veterans, domestic violence and childhood sexual abuse, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, for whom dental phobia becomes an unpleasant side effect. Also a lot of these patients didn't have a good access to dental care. Indirect experiences such as hearing about traumatic experiences/views of a friend or family member about dentistry may also contribute towards development of phobias.
Introduce Topic: A phobia as defined by medicalnewstoday.com, “is an irrational fear, a kind of anxiety disorder in which the sufferer has a relentless dread of a situation, living creature, place or thing.”
Classical conditioning is a technique of learning that occurs when an unconditional stimulus is paired with a conditional stimulus. The unconditional stimulus is biologically potent, the conditional stimulus is neutral (Kalat, 2011). Example of each is taste of food and sound of tuning fork respectively. After repeated pairing, the organism exhibits a conditional response to the conditional stimulus. The conditional response is similar to the unconditioned response though it is relatively impermanent and is acquired through experience (Kalat, 2011).
Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous or is a threat and is likely to cause pain. It is believed that everyone has fears in life or at least things or places that make us uncomfortable. There are hundreds of different types of fears and phobias. Common fears include the fear of death, the rear of the unknown, the fear of survival or unpredictability. Other fears could be the fear of ghosts, cockroaches, spiders, snakes and public speaking.