PSY 2012 Introduction to Psychology

 

Discussion Question Describe a situation in which you were classically conditioned to fear something otherwise harmless. something similar to being scared of the water Requirements:

 

"While it took me some time to think about this question, I finally came up with an answer that I truly feel answers this question on a higher level. Something many people fear is being alone. Being alone can be scary to some but In my opinion, it is all about your perspective. Growing up, I was taught that I should never be alone as a young woman and that I need a spouse to take care of me.

 

I hope others can relate to this and feel that being alone is not scary but can even be great for your mental health. I have found that I am a huge people pleaser and when I am around others I cannot always be myself because I care about doing what makes others happy, when I am alone I get to take the time to do what makes me happy." " Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov, a good example of classical conditioning is John B. Watson's experiment that he did was called “Little Albert”. In this experiment he classically conditioned Albert to fear white rats by making a loud frightening noise everytime the child tried to hold the rat. In this experiment the Unconditioned stimulus is the rat, the unconditioned response is Alberts lack of fear for the white rat. After Watson made loud frightening noises to frighten Albert, he ended up being frightened by the rat. The conditioned stimulus in his experiment is the frightening noise, and the conditioned response is Albert’s new fear for white rats. A time in my life that I was classically conditioned to fear something harmless was as a child when I was adventurous with insects, in this example spiders are the unconditioned stimulus.

 

The unconditioned response was lack of fear towards spiders, and the conditioned stimulus my mother used to deter me, which led to my fear of spiders was her explaining the spider would bite me, or harm me in some way. The conditioned response in this situation is me fearing spiders."