...kids nowadays aren’t spending their childhood correctly; I view childhood as a time for fun and games. However, I had never considered the thought that childhood has become endangered. The idea that TV may really be making us into mindless blobs reminds me of all those times I asked students who I really looked up to, “how are you so smart?”, and they would annoyingly reply “I READ”. (As if I’ve never read a book in my life. Sheesh.) Postman proposes a practically perfect proposition that is backed by a number of legitimate points - ranging from clothes to food; many of which I can relate to; but there are a few assertions I find debatable and can’t identify with. For one, I wonder if Postman’s definition...
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...them later in life. Another interesting occurrence in humans is addictions. Addiction the state of being enslaved to a habit or practice or to something that is psychologically or physically habit-forming, as narcotics, to such an extent that its cessation causes severe trauma (Dictionary, 2014). When presenting the word addiction, a person might think of something that a person needs and stresses about. For example, a person who smokes may be addicted to cigarettes. Both phobia and addiction are very common in humans. This paper will discuss how phobias can be developed through classical conditioning, how addictions can be developed through operant conditioning, the difference between classical and operate conditioning, and finally what extinction means and how it is achieved in both classical and operant conditioning. First, we will discuss how phobias can be developed through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning was the first type of learning to be studied systematically (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Ivan Pavlov, who was a Russian phycologist, started studies of the so called classical conditioning from studies with dogs and the stimulations that caused dogs to salivate. Pavlov discovered that when food was present with...
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...developed through classical conditioning, explore how addictions can be developed through operant conditioning, to distinguish between classical and operant conditioning, and to explain what extinction means and how it is achieved in both classical and operant conditioning. * . Phobias and Addictions are two very emotional learning difficulties. Phobias are defined as being an enduring, abnormal, and unfounded fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, regardless of the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. Addictions are defined as conditions of being consistently or compulsively occupied with or involved in something. Classical Conditioning is defined as a process of behavior variation by which one comes to respond in a preferred manner to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repetitively presented along with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response. (Dictionary.com, 2010) Fear of heights, spiders, closed spaces (claustrophobia) and other specific or simple phobias are sometimes caused by a type of learning known as classical conditioning. (DeLuca, 2009) Precise phobias or simple phobias are thought to be caused or predisposed by genetics and/ or childhood disturbance. These phobias can be learned through the learning type of classical conditioning. Ivan Pavlov is quite known for his theory of classical conditioning. He is well known...
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...Developmental Psychology is the study and focus on how an individual will behave or grow up to be (develop). This can can help predict one's behavior by examining their age,the external influences around them, and their way of thinking. You then matching them to a psychologist assertions to predict how the earliness of their childhood will affect them in the future. It can also help understand an individual and their habits by again, applying their situation into past experiments and evaluations done by psychologist. With this you can infer that one's reason for acting the way they do can be traced, understood, and can predict their path by the examples given from developmental psychology, especially from using examples of Learning Concepts,...
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...there is food at the dinner table, someone will feed the pet. There is also another form of learning which is known as, Operant Conditioning. It is defined as, learning to operate on the environment to produce a consequence. Let’s suppose you have the same pet at the dinner table but instead of there being a conditioned stimulus in place, there is no one there. However, the pet over continuous attempts to reach the top of the dinner table, it notices that it can use the couch that is near the dinner table to jump off of and reach the top of the dinner table. The pet has now learned how to reach the food. Operants are behaviors that are emitted rather than elicited by the environment. As in all there may come a time where the term “extinction” is expressed in both classical and operant conditioning. It is common when the conditioned response or consequence is weakened or no longer present. For example, in relation to the pet at the dinner table, the experience may be weakened if the conditioned stimulus begins to trick the pet by not...
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...After doing this many times, the pet then knows that if it does this trick, it will get a treat. Now in the case of classical conditioned phobias in humans, perhaps one of the most common is the fear of spiders, also known as arachnophobia. This is more of a natural happening as one perhaps is bitten or is woken at night with a spider crawling on them. We are told that spiders bite and they are poisonous which creates a natural fear of them and the way they look does not help either. I think even more interesting than people fearing them are the people that do not fear spiders. Another phobia would be that of glossophobia, which is the fear of public speaking or speech anxiety is basically. This is a conditioned response to perhaps childhood memories of having to give an oral report in class and not doing so well. This affirms your fear of public speaking and makes the next time that much worse because you remember how bad it was the first time. The thing is, everyone gets nervous before speaking publically but some know how to harness that nervousness...
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...believed that phobias can be learned through repeated introduction of different stimuli. He tested this theory on a little infant named Albert. Albert was not afraid of rats before the simulation was started, but after stimuli that scared him along with the association of the rat, he became fearful of the rat (Kowalski, 2011). Other phobias such as agoraphobia, which is the fear of having a panic attack in a public situation in which it would be difficult to escape, occur similarly for unknown reasons hence the reason why phobias are unrealistic fears (Gersley, 2001). There is a trigger that causes the person to fear a situation or object, even though the actual situation might not warrant the actual phobia. A phobia that occurs mostly during childhood is known as coulrophobia, which is the fear of clowns. As a child, I watched the Stephen King movie “IT”...
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...and Emma Applied Behavioral Analysis is a natural science that aims to systematically apply intervention processes using the behavior learning theory in order to remove or change undesirable socially significant behaviors (Cooper, Heron, Heward, 2007). Applied behavioral analysis can be applied in many setting and situations and the intervention process and techniques depend on those settings and individual situations. Applied behavioral analysis is used to modify target behaviors that can occur in the home, in the community, in an educational setting, and is even used to aid in treatment for rehabilitation programs. Through the use of different components of ABA such as operant conditioning, reinforcement, modification programs, and extinction to name a few, one will develop a behavioral modification plan to best suit each client’s specific needs. In the first case, Bobby is an 8-year-old boy who cannot keep his room cleaned or organized despite the fact that he is constantly reminded by his father to do so. Mr. Kelley would like to establish a modification process for Bobby to encourage him to keep his bedroom clean on a regular basis. First the target behavior and modification process must be identified in order to determine the appropriate reinforcement technique to achieve the desired goal. A target behavior is an accurate and concise description of the identified behavior that needs to be modified so in this case the target behavior is the behavior that is causing Mr...
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...Addictions and Phobias Phobias and addictions are difficult problems to deal with, and unfortunately many people are affected by them. While they are separate problems, many times you will find people who are suffering from both problems. This can happen because many times a person with an addiction issue may have a phobia that they are unaware of. In order to better understand why phobias and addictions develop, a better understanding of operant and classical conditioning is needed. When a person learns to react to the stimulus in their environment; that is classical conditioning. When a person has a reaction to either a reward or punishment; that is operant conditioning. The easiest way to distinguish the two types of conditioning is look at the nature of the response a person has towards a stimulus. This paper will examine how phobias develop as a result of classical conditioning, and how addictions develop as a result of operant conditioning. (Kowalski & Westen, 2009) An addiction is the repeated use of a substance or activity that becomes a compulsion and has a negative effect on a person’s ability to function normally. Many times a person knows that the behavior they are doing is very negative and is having an adverse effect on their life, but this will not stop them from engaging in the activity. Many addictions begin as a result of someone engaging in an activity like drinking, doing drugs or gambling. This activity may be enjoyable for the person and give them a...
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...Scientific Name: Alligator mississippiensis Introduction to the Species: Basically describe your species in several sentences. Write as if you only had one paragraph to describe your species. The American alligator has survived extinction for over one hundred fifty million years. It is a reptile that prefers to live in calm waters. It hatches eggs on land and protects its young for a few years after they hatch. They can eat a wide variety of animals as they are tertiary consumers of their habitats. They are aggressive and pack a mean punch, their jaw can kill a deer in one bite. They have been known to attack humans but only a few people die as a result of their attacks. Physical Description: The formation of skin on their body are called osteoderms or scutes, embedded bony plates. They are a dark green and grey color and the scutes resemble a soldier’s armor. Their snout have two nostrils on both sides that face upward, to allow them to breathe while their body is submerged underwater. The American alligator has four short and stout legs, the front two feet have five toes and four toes on each of the back feet. Alligators have anywhere from seventy to eighty teeth in their mouth at one time, as teeth get warm out, they are replaced....
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...Phobias and Addictions Victor Soto PSY/300 February 22, 2012 Dr. Amy Loder Psy.D Phobias and Addictions A textbook definition of phobia is an irrational fear of a specific object or situation. How does such an irrational fear begin can probably be explained through classical conditioning. In other words fears are learned. Learning is any relatively permanent change in the way an organism responds based on its experience. The famous experiment of Watson and Rayner with “Little Albert” shows clearly how classical conditioning can account for irrational fears, or phobias. This example of classical conditioning as well as Aristotle’s laws of association which account for learning and memory that describe the conditions under which one thought becomes connected or associated with another can perhaps help shed light on the genesis of phobias. Another term for classical conditioning is respondent conditioning; it is a procedure by which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after it is paired with a stimulus that automatically elicits a response. In the Little Albert experiment, Watson and Rayner used an unconditional reflex, through an unconditional stimulus to produce and unconditioned response one that occurs naturally without any prior learning. Albert was presented with a variety of objects, including a dog, a rabbit, a white rat, a Santa Claus mask, and a fur coat. Albert...
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...Phobias and Addictions PSY300 Phobias and Addictions In today’s society, many individuals suffer from phobias and addictions. Phobias and addictions are typically paired because those with an addiction began with a phobia they were unaware of. Phobias and addictions should be fragmented into two groups of conditioning with the effects each partakes on an individual: classical and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning occurs when an individual discovers how to respond to a stimulus in their atmosphere. Operant conditioning is when one responds to a reward or penalty. The foremost difference between classical and operant conditioning is the response and a stimulus, which can lead to addictions and phobias. Addictions An addiction is a determined behavior in wanting and needing something. Most know it can have unsympathetic consequences, but the individual will continue this behavior because of the addictions. Furthermore, the majority of addictions start with a satisfying involvement with something and desires to prolong or recreate the act. The addictive individual will endure the behavior with very little, if any self-discipline, even when it can become damaging or has already taken over their body. A person who is addicted will familiarize with desires and cravings to connect with the behavior and this need will build up, until the behavior kicks in again, typically feeling relief, and ecstasy (Grant, Potenza, Weinstein, & Gorelick, 2010). Additionally...
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...In the not too distant future, Earth has been ravaged by years of pollution and abuse. Famine and starvation have run rampant, threatening life on across the planet. With humanity facing extinction, scientists turn to the stars for an answer. Upon their examination, a mysterious wormhole is discovered near saturn, seemingly placed by some sympathetic 5th dimensional beings seeking to save humanity. Cooper, an ex pilot turned astronaut, is recruited by Professor Brand, a physicist in charge of a covert government space exploration project, to find a new home for humanity. With...
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...Protecting the Scenic Beauty of Wildlife By Jeramy Buckman CM220 Unit 9 Final Project 7/17/12 I want everyone to close your eyes and picture yourself in the Rocky Mountains with your children hiking up a trail to your favorite camping site next to a hidden lake. While walking down the trail you are looking around looking for animals prints to show your children. You are excited to show your children some of the beautiful wildlife that you got to see when you where their age when your parents did this for you. As you and your children are walking you start to realize that you are not really seeing any wildlife that should be very abundant in this area. You also are noticing that there are not as many wild flowers and plants that were also here. You finally realize that you will not be able to give your children the wonderful memories that you received as a child. As you may have realized that this is a problem that we are starting to see and face today. Many times animals become extinct causing changes to the scientific life cycle, environment, scenic sights, food sources and many others. This has a drastic affect not only one our habitat and environment but can and will also affect us as humans. We as people can prevent and preserve this beauty for future generations all we have to do is understand the problem and take action. We need to educate ourselves and our children of the importance of animals and how to protect them. We need to understand what happens when we introduce...
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...Psychotherapy Matrix Directions: Review Module 36 of Psychology and Your Life. Select three approaches to summarize. Include examples of the types of psychological disorders appropriate for each therapy. {Psychodynamic Approaches} {Behavioral Approaches} {Cognitive Approaches} Summary of Approach Psychodynamic approaches involve seeking out unresolved past conflicts and unacceptable impulses from the unconscious into the conscious, where people deal with problems more effectively. This technique also tries to figure out why individuals employ defense mechanisms that are associated with coping when Confronted with conflicts. Childhood or past memories that are buried deep or ones that you want to forget are brought to attention to be discussed. Behavioral treatments build on the basic processes of learning, such as reinforcement and extinction, and assume that normal and abnormal behaviors are both learned. This means that abnormal behaviors learned from the past are addressed so the person can modify their behavior through some type of conditioning to reduce the frequency of the undesired behavior. A cognitive approach teaches people to think more adaptively by changing their dysfunctional cognitions about the world and themselves. This helps people understand the thought and feelings that influence behavior, which then addresses how to change their thinking and behavior. This often uses the basic principles of learning which challenges their assumptions on how to act and...
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