Phobias and Addiction Paper

Phobias and Addiction PSY 300 October 22, 2012 Phobias and Addiction Learning a behavior is gaining knowledge or skills through experience, practice, or conditioning. For example, most people learn to wake up at the sound of an alarm clock. Through the process of conditioning, he or she awakens at the sound of the alarm. The alarm becomes the signal to start the day. Often what happens is that some people condition themselves to awaken at the same time every day without even hearing the alarm.

In the late nineteenth century Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, was the first to systematically study classical conditioning (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Classical conditioning is a process when a neutral stimulus brings forth a reaction corresponding with a stimulus that automatically brings forth that reaction (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Pavlov effectively produced a conditioned reaction in dogs to a specific stimulus in systematically planned procedure (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Produced in a similar process are phobias, addictions, and the process of extinction.

The following considers how phobias develop through classical conditioning, how addictions develop through operant conditioning, how these two types of conditioning differ, and finally covering the process of extinction and how it is achieved in both types of conditioning. Classical and Operant Conditioning Classical and Operant conditioning are processes in which the brain connects and understands different things. Both depend on the modifications that arise in behaviors when derived from the setting or the behavior itself and necessitate a systematic process.

Classical and operant conditioning, otherwise known as associative learning, developed from the behaviorist perspective (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Both procedures share “common features such as extinction, prepared learning, discrimination, generalization, and the possibility of maladaptive associations” (Kowalski & Westen, 2011, p. 193). In classical conditioning the stimulus that gives off a reflexive response is substituted with a different stimulus (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

In operant conditioning the preferred behavior results according to consequences whether positively or negatively reinforced making that behavior occur more or less frequently (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). It is through these processes that some humans develop phobias and addictions. Phobias through Classical Conditioning According to “Kowalski & Westen”, (2011), “a phobia is an irrational fear of a specific object or situation (p. 167). When someone reacts to this irrational fear, his or her response is extreme anxiety such as hyperventilating, increased heart rate, extreme emotions, and sometimes fainting (Kowalski & Westen, 2011).

A famous example of the creation of phobias in classical conditioning occurred during the Little Albert experiment conducted by John Watson and Rosalie Rayners (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). For example, though Albert did not initially fear white rats, when a loud noise occered with the white rat the conditioned response became fear (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). This created a phobia of white rats and other objects used during the experiment (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). For Albert, classical conditioning created these behaviors.

Addictions through operant Conditioning Another difficult and often destructive behavior is addiction. The results of addictions can often be poor health, disease, crime, mental illness, and even death. According to the “American Psychological Association” (APA), (2012), addiction is defined as “is a condition in which the body must have a drug to avoid physical and psychological withdrawal symptoms” (Addictions). The “drug” to an addict is not always a substance; it is sometimes an activity such as gambling, sex, or eating.

Addiction is often associated with operant conditioning (Antczak, 2011). A person has natural survival methods, the pleasure or pain response, which either causes the feeling of pleasure when the action is to survive or pain in the actions that decrease to chance of survival (Antczak, 2011). These responses occur as a result of the release of neurotransmitters in the brain (Antczak, 2011). Pathways form in the brain and neurotransmitters reinforce them with the experience of pleasure or pain (Antczak, 2011).

Using drugs for example often result in both pleasure and pain responses. Initially the drug creates the feeling of pleasure. This “high” can cause the person to seek out this altered state therefore creating an addiction. After the high an addict often experiences ill feelings or pain. Often, the addict will seek out those feelings of pleasure to avoid the pain and distress when they are not using the addictive substance. This pattern of a connection between behavior and consequence is operant conditioning (Antczak, 2011).

Extinction In classical conditioning learned responses can be extinguished, which is the process of extinction (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). After extinction, recovery is often short term. Extinction initially weakens the remaining association to the learned response, but extinction does not occur unless the reactions of consistent. For example, a parent seeks to have his or her child fall asleep on their own at night and eventually succeeds after having the child cry to sleep on his or her own for a period of time.

If this process is consistently repeated, the child eventually will fall asleep on his or her own. After some time, if one parent rushes to the child when he or she cries, the parent will once again struggle to get the child to fall asleep in his or her own and fail to extinguish the behavior. According to Kowalski & Westen, (2011) extinction in operant conditioning occurs if enough trials pass in which the operant is not followed by the consequence previously associated with it (p. 78). If the behavior does not emit either a positive or negative consequence, eventually the behavior will not occur (Kowalski & Westen, 2011). Conclusion Associative learning covers both classical and operant conditioning and both succeed in a number of settings. To maintain positive behaviors sustain and reinforce connections or extinction ultimately will occur. People learn from experience, and associations made and the resulting behaviors have a powerful influence in the brain.

Some associations result in phobias or addictions and although extinction can occur, the process of changing a response is difficult. Classical and operant conditioning allow people to survive, thrive, and adjust to a continually changing situation.

References American Psychological Association. (2012). Retrieved from http://www. apa. org/topics/addiction/index. aspx Antczak, A. (2011). Yahoo! voices. Retrieved from http://voices. yahoo. com/classical-operant-conditioning-phobias-addictions-10159457. html Kowalski, R. , & Westen, D. (2011). Psychology (6th ed. ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.