...Phobias and Addictions Paper Osvaldo L Mercado University of Phoenix Classical Conditioning refers to a procedure by which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after it is paired with a stimulus that automatically elicits that response.” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011) The unconditioned stimulus or ‘US”, is an occurrence which causes an innate, involuntary response or reaction. When someone smells a favorite food cooking they most oftentimes begin to feel hungry; in this scenario the unconditioned stimulus, is the aroma of the food. The feeling of hunger in relation to the aroma of the food is referred to as the unconditioned response or “UR”; once again, the term unconditioned means that this is a naturally occurring reaction which has not been learned by the individual who experiences the feelings of hunger. In regards to phobias, theories of classical conditioning can be applied due to the fact that most irrational fears are learned by association and with the introduction of a stimulus which would otherwise not cause a reaction i.e. a neutral stimulus. There are thousands of documented phobias from the world, most are believed to have developed due to a response from a negative environment that the individual encountered at one point in life. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2012). Symptoms of a phobia include the following: * Recognition that the fear goes beyond normal boundaries and the actual threat of danger * Reactions...
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...Trypanophobia (a.k.a.) Needle Phobia affects twenty to twenty-three percent of the adult population. Many of them even will avoid to seek medical care due to this fear. Nearly all cases of needle phobia go far beyond this. The fear of needles is not an uncommon thing Needle phobia is defined as a fear of medical needle procedures resulting from the sensation (or the memories of past sensations) of the needle entering the body. Other people will feel pain and some will feel physical sensations. Which oftens results in loss of consciousness and sometimes convulsions. Needle phobia in some case have been obtained hereditarily. A large amount of needle phobia cases are actually medical conditions that have genetic origins and are not traditional...
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...Phobias and Addictions PSY/300 July 29, 2013 Abstract Week Two of PSY/300, which is the General Psychology class, has an assignment of writing a paper regarding phobias and addictions. It includes the meanings and the differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. The paper explains what phobias are as compared to addictions and how each of them affects behavior in individuals. It also explains what classical conditioning means to phobias as well as what operant conditioning means to addictions. Phobias and Addictions Every person is in one way or another, conditioned by either operant or classical conditioning. Phobias develop through classical conditioning, whereas addictions develop through operant conditioning. The classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behavior via the process of association, (McLeod, 2012). Operant conditioning is the other type of conditioning whereas an individual learns through a reward system. It is more or less association made between behavior and consequence of that behavior. Phobias and addictions develop through these two types of conditioning. Phobias develop through classical conditioning and addictions through operant conditioning. Through the past decades, psychologists studied these two relationships to develop a more understanding of these emotional disorders. Phobias and addictions are negative behaviors and usually come from classical conditioning or operant conditioning. Phobias happen...
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...live their entire lives with the fear of spiders. This paper will discuss how these people can learn through exposure therapy to extinct their fear of spiders. Personally I am not afraid of spiders; however, my four-year-old daughter screams and runs out of the room at the sight of a crawling spider. Although the spider she is afraid of is not harmful, her mom, as a precaution has taught her that spiders are bad. Additionally, I believe that others like my daughter have been taught by someone close to them at a young age to be fearful of spiders because they are poisonous, and unattractive. There is evidence that offspring of a phobic individual are at greater risk for developing the same specific phobia subtype because children tend to mirror their parents’ tendencies and fears King, Muris (2004). According to the DSM-IV-TR American Psychiatric Association DBM-IV-TR, (2000), a specific phobia is characterized by clinically significant anxiety provoked by exposure to a specific feared object or situation. Exposure to the feared stimulus invariably provokes an immediate anxiety response that may take the form of a panic attack. Because of the fear of the specific object or situation, people with specific phobias tend to exhibit avoidance behavior or endure situations with relative distress. Unfortunately, based on my observations of my daughter’s reaction to spiders and reading the DSM –IV I believe that she has this phobia. It is well known that facing what we fear most is the...
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...Speech phobia goes far beyond the normal fear of public speaking that most people have. It is a crippling fear that is so severe that the phobic individual often goes to great lengths to avoid giving a speech. In schools that require a public speaking course for graduation, some phobics will take every other course they need and then drop out of school rather than take the dreaded class. Some will forego jobs or promotions if public speaking is a requirement—even though they know they are hurting themselves financially. When there is no escape, and phobics are forced to give a speech, they suffer tremendous agony. In addition to the symptoms displayed by the average speaker, phobics may experience dizziness, faintness, nausea, loss of memory, breathing problems (such as hyperventilation), and overwhelming feelings of terror and panic. It is estimated that one out of 100 Americans suffers from this kind of phobia. If you are among the unlucky one percent, there is hope for you. You don't have to go through life with this crippling disability. By using some or all of the methods outlined below, you can bring down your anxiety to manageable levels. Thousands of speech phobics, either working alone or with a therapist, have conquered their problem. The first step is not to run away: if you are in a speech class, don't drop out; if you are scheduled to give a talk to your fellow employees next month, don't quit your job. Get help. If the information below helps you, fine; if...
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...Aquaphobia Fear of Water | Isis N’tara Aidid Solomon | A paper looking into the causes, symptoms, and treatment for the fear of water. | | We’re all afraid of something in life whether that is a fear of spiders, fear of the ghosts, and even in some extreme instances a fear of pickles. One of the most common fears is Aquaphobia which is defined as a social phobia that is a persistent, unwarranted, and irrational fear of water. This fear is not to be confused with Hydrophobia which represents the fear of water developed in later stages of Rabies (Olesen, 2015). Nearly 19.2 million Americans suffer from specific phobias such as Aquaphobia. Those who suffer from this phobia see themselves dying in water, drowning, or believe that they will come face to face with something unforeseen in the water that could lead to their demise. The fear of drowning is a common sensible fear; however it becomes something more once the person feels an overwhelming sense of anxiety around all bodies of water like oceans and bathtubs. To better understand this phobia we must look at the causes, symptoms, and treatments. Aquaphobia like many other phobias can be caused by an initial traumatic incident that has happened to a person. This can include a time where someone almost drowned or fallen into a body of water. For example if one were pushed into a body of water when they were not expecting it this could be considered as a traumatic experience for them that could lead to an...
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...Phobias and Addictions Paper PSY/300 Conferring to Kowalski & Westen (2011) “The concept that learning is adaptive and shapes behavior, forms the fundamental concepts of the behaviorist perspective.” These conceptions may be acknowledged as operant, classical, and associative learning. These approaches are suggested to be similar, but they have contrasting steps towards how behavior can be educated. These approaches are frequently known as classical learning, operant learning, and associative learning. These approaches may sound similar, but they have slightly differentiated steps towards how behavior can be learned. Operant and classical learning styles can help a person stay positive within a society. Two concepts are known worldwide to also have negative impacts on a person’s emotional and physical state, phobias and addictions. Feeling uncomfortable, or feeling fear about something, may mean you may bear a phobia. Conferring to Merriam-Webster (2013) “Phobia is defined as an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.” During the beginning of a life phobias may not be present, but they may be learned throughout a period of time. A stimulus can be joined together with an opposing stimulus that can change the original response, this can happen when looking at phobias with classical conditioning. An example of this can be...
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...English 1101 I Search Paper December 5, 2011 You and a friend are walking in the woods. Your friend sees a trail that leads to a flowing river with cool, refreshing rapids. Your friend suggests that you jump in the river with him. You suddenly feel your heart pound a million beats per minute, sweat begins to run down your neck, you feel slightly faint than before, and then you instantly run away. You are running and find yourself lost in the woods with nowhere to go. You began to think, “if only I would have stayed by the river with my friend” but by that time you are too far away to even try to find your way back. As you stand in the middle of the forest watching the sun go down your mind wanders off into thoughts about last summer. You see the water cover your brother’s head as your mom pulls you away saying “baby he’s gone we have to save you!” You fight your mom trying to reach for your brother but you get pulled away instead. You begin to hear what seems like your alarm clock. You wake up and realize that you just had a terrible nightmare but what happened seemed so real. It scared you so much and you can’t even begin to think about going near water again. The story you just read is not true, but it does describe the experience of phobias. A phobia is the sensation of extreme fear when it’s not justified by the presence of any real danger or threat, or by any rational cause, and when it is accompanied by a systematic avoidance of the situations that leads to it."(White...
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...Phobias and Addictions Camille Sere' PSY/300 October 2, 2012 Shari Tumlin Phobias and Addictions In this paper I will be discussing phobias and addictions in relation to classical and operant conditioning. I will research and explore how phobias can be developed through classical conditioning, and how addictions can be developed through operant conditioning. I will also explain what extinction means in psychology and how it is achieved in both classical and operant conditioning. The first thing you need to know is what exactly a phobia is. A phobia is an uncontrollable fear of an object or situation that is unreasonable and can develop in many ways; one of these ways is through conditioning. People have fears all the time, but a phobia affects a person’s daily life. Phobias for some people make it to where they become reclusive, or they cannot leave the comfort of their own homes, or their safe place. There are two main types or categories of phobias; they are specific phobias and social phobias. A specific phobia is an uncontrollable fear of a specific thing or a specific stimulus. There are animal phobias where a person is afraid of a certain animal or insect, for example the fear of spiders is called arachnophobia. There are environmental phobias like a fear of storms or heights. There are phobias of medical procedures as well as situational phobias like small spaces or flying. A social phobia is an uncontrollable fear of a particular situation such as giving...
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...December 4, 2011 This paper will discuss the mental disorder of phobias, and the available treatment options. A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder. It is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger. There are many specific phobias. Acrophobia is a fear of heights. You may be able to ski the world's tallest mountains but be unable to go above the 5th floor of an office building. Agoraphobia is a fear of public places, and claustrophobia is a fear of closed-in places. If you become anxious and extremely self-conscious in everyday social situations, you could have a social phobia. Other common phobias involve tunnels, highway driving, water, flying, animals and blood. People with phobias try to avoid what they are afraid of. If they cannot, they may experience panic and fear, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, and a strong desire to get away. Treatment helps most people with phobias. Treatment options include medicines, therapy or both. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/phobias.html A phobia is defined as the unrelenting fear of a situation, activity, or thing that causes one to want to avoid it. The three types of phobias are social phobia (fear of public speaking, meeting new people, or other social situations), agoraphobia (fear of being outside), and specific phobias (fear of particular items or situations). Phobias are largely underreported, probably because many phobia sufferers find ways to avoid the...
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...INTRODUCTION Everyone experienced some sort of anxiety feeling before an important event, such as an important exam, going on the 1st date, going on the roller coaster for the 1st time, and etc. during their lifetime. When this anxiety start to be an overwhelming thought in a person’s mind and causes nightmares, fears, and panic attacks, it becomes an illness, called anxiety disorder. It is the fear, apprehension, and often the expectation of unspecified danger. It is considered a normal natural response used everyday to figure out whether a situation is dangerous or not. How to differentiate a normal anxiety form an abnormal disorder: The intensity of the anxiety; whether or not the anxiety matches the circumstance. The length of the anxiety is inappropriate to what is causing the anxiety. Adequately respond to make a decision in what to do in that our body has alarm us to some danger. Anxiety is a total normal thing and is experienced daily. But when you have consistent anxiety you should start to worry. Anxiety is a reaction to stressful situations that helps rather than hinders daily functions. If we didn’t have anxiety we wouldn’t be motivated to do certain things in life that could be a good accomplishment or help us out. Anxiety Disorder is defined as the occurrence of anxiety without obvious external cause, intruding on daily functioning. Now I will discuss Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is the experience of long-term anxiety with...
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...Brilliant Public Speaking Paper University of Phoenix BCOM275 Brilliant Speaking The video really addresses many of the facets that have been highlighted in our readings. It addresses that the qualities of a successful speaker of a small group are also the same qualities that are found in a speaker of large crowds. These qualities are needed in the workplace, and can help establish positive communication in the work team. Speaking is our primary method of communication when in person. So the most important part of communication is getting the message across. The video addresses how many people have a terrible fear of public speaking. The video claims that many people fear public speaking over death itself. I have a very hard time believing that, since a person could easily exaggerate their phobia. One of the practices that would be most relevant to my experience and fears would be to remember to make eye contact with the audience, and smile more. I have a terrible time doing this and I know it. Another great point that was given was to check out your surroundings before you give our speech. This will help you feel more comfortable. If I was to give advice to someone speaking, I would tell them that the crowd is only human, and that the people came there to listen. So basically be themselves and relax. The video also makes a point that it helps to turn the nervousness into excitement. While I have not done that personally I would be very interested to find...
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...LIST OF PHOBIAS Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing. Acarophobia- Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching. Acerophobia- Fear of sourness. Achluophobia- Fear of darkness. Acousticophobia- Fear of noise. Acrophobia- Fear of heights. Aerophobia- Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances. Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places. Aeronausiphobia- Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness. Agateophobia- Fear of insanity. Agliophobia- Fear of pain. Agoraphobia- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place. Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse. Agrizoophobia- Fear of wild animals. Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street. Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects. Ailurophobia- Fear of cats. Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease. Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens. Algophobia- Fear of pain. Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic. Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions. Altophobia- Fear of heights. Amathophobia- Fear of dust. Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car. Ambulophobia- Fear of walking. Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia. Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched. Anablephobia- Fear of looking up. Ancraophobia- Fear of wind. (Anemophobia) Androphobia- Fear of men. Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind.(Ancraophobia) Anginophobia- Fear of angina, choking or narrowness. Anglophobia- Fear of England or English culture, etc. Angrophobia - Fear of...
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...Xonepro Xonepro PSY/300 PSY/300 Phobias & Addictions Week 2 Individual Assignment Phobias & Addictions Week 2 Individual Assignment Explore how phobias can be developed through classical conditioning. In doing some research on the topic of classical conditioning, I have come to learn that it is a way of training so to speak, where a conditioned response is learned through conditioning the individual, be it animal or human. Basically, one learns that if you do this one action, another will follow in response; a reaction to one’s action. This reaction can be either a reward or a punishment. For instance, you train a dog to do a trick such as, shake hands or roll over. You do this while holding a treat to entice the animal to do said trick. Once the trick is done, the pet then reaps the reward. 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...
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...A- Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing. Acarophobia- Fear of itching or of the insects that cause itching. Acerophobia- Fear of sourness. Achluophobia- Fear of darkness. Acousticophobia- Fear of noise. Acrophobia- Fear of heights. Aerophobia- Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances. Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places. Aeronausiphobia- Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness. Agateophobia- Fear of insanity. Agliophobia- Fear of pain. Agoraphobia- Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded, public places like markets. Fear of leaving a safe place. Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse. Agrizoophobia- Fear of wild animals. Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street. Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects. Ailurophobia- Fear of cats. Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease. Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens. Algophobia- Fear of pain. Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic. Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions. Altophobia- Fear of heights. Amathophobia- Fear of dust. Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car. Ambulophobia- Fear of walking. Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia. Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched. Anablephobia- Fear of looking up. Ancraophobia or Anemophobia- Fear of wind. Androphobia- Fear of men. Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind. Anginophobia- Fear of angina, choking or narrowness. Anglophobia- Fear of England, English culture, etc. Angrophobia - Fear of anger or of becoming angry...
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