Phobias and Addictions

Phobias and Addictions

Kamron Hymon

University of Phoenix

June 30, 2013

People may not know this, but each and every person is conditioned in one way or another, whether it be classically or operant without even being aware of it. These two conditioning's can affect us and also acquire an addiction or a phobia based on something we may have experienced. Addictions and phobias are known to be simple emotional matters of the mind. Phobias are most likely to be developed through classical conditioning: as for addictions are developed through the operant conditioning. These are bot types of behavioral modification, they are really different from each other.

Is it possible that you think of a certain special somebody such as a girlfriend, boyfriend, lost loved one, or even a child, when you smell a certain fragrance? Or maybe you think of a certain person when you hear a song that reminds you of them. There may even be a certain day of the year that you think of a certain somebody. These are all examples of classical conditioning. A Russian psychologist, Ian Pavlov, is a man that is mainly connected and associated with classical conditioning. The original experiment that he focused on included dogs, a bell, and a meal. When he would feed the dogs, he would then ring the bell. As the experiment continued he started to notice that every time it came around to feeding time the dog would start to salivate. As the experiment got further on the dog would begin to salivate once he heard the bell ringing. Classical conditioning showed that the dog would begin to salivate once they heard the ringing of the bell to make them believe that it was feeding time. He had associated the sound with food.

Most of our fears and anxieties may be classically conditioned, as in a fear of spiders. A person who has these fears and anxieties suffers from a condition known as a phobia. A phobia is known to be an irrational fear of an object, situation, or even an activity that may be thrown out of proportion to the actual danger it may pose. All because phobias do create so much anxiety this may cause an interference with normal functioning, which can be classified as an anxiety disorder.

When it comes to a specific phobia, a person would be presented with an object, let's say a snake in the middle of the woods. This snake would be compared to to the bell that Pavlov used with the dogs. This snake will not cause anxiety within the body, but just as the bells didn't cause the dogs to salivate. There may not be many people in the world that are afraid of snakes. Something that may cause anxiety would be a thought such as “What if this snake bites me, and I die?” which is similar to the food causing