Phobia
PhobiaPhobias: Irrational Fear
Fear of heights, fear of the number �13,� fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. All of these fears are considered phobias. While there are many causes of phobias, one theory uses the notion of preparedness in Pavlovian conditioning. This is a way in which people learn to react to certain stimuli.
Scientist and abehaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning while experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when food was placed in the mouth through a reflex called the �salivary reflex� in digestion. Yet he soon realized that, after time, the salivary reflex occurred even before the food was offered. What Pavlov discovered was first order conditioning. In this process, a neutral stimulus that causes no natural response in an organism is associated with an unconditioned stimulus, an event that automatically or naturally causes a response. This usual association causes the response to the unconditioned stimulus, the unconditioned response, to transfer to the neutral stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus no longer needs to be there for the response to occur in the presence of the formerly neutral stimulus. Given that his response is not natural and has to be learned, the response is now a conditioned response and the neutral stimulus is now a conditioned stimulus. Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn some things easier than others are. This ability is known as preparedness. In Pavlov�s experiment the tone was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to...
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