Phobias In Psychology

A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of something. Many phobias are in relation to one another. As people, we must realize that phobias cannot be fixed by ourselves. In order to help individuals that we may encounter, we must completely understand phobias. We cannot judge them for something they cannot help. To help an individual feel more at ease it is our job to know the causes, effects, impacts, and treatments of their phobia. This would help to completely understand the phobia and in the end, help us all to support each

Known as a mental disorder a phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to compelling desire to avoid it. Phobias tend to affect the way people live their lives, for example, their working and social environments, considering that they last for a very long time and are capable to cause intense psychological physical stress. It is considered today the most common mental and anxiety disorder in the United States (Matig Mavissakalian & David H. Barlow 1981 pp 2). There are many phobias such as: the fear of aging, fear of changing, fear of clowns, fear of getting fat, fear of being in closed spaces, etc.

In the article, “It’s Not Just About Salivating Dogs!” the author, Roger R. Hock, talks about Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and his research and discoveries of classical conditioning. The article starts off by talking about how Pavlov technically wasn’t even a psychologist before his remarkable discoveries, he was actually a physiologist. Because Psychology was a new and untouched science, Pavlov made a huge risk in his career by switching to become a psychologist (Hock, 2009, p. 66).

2. Ivan Pavlov was a Russian scientist that studied animal digestion. He was studying what triggered dogs to salivate. He thought it would be a simple study because he believed that dogs drool when presented with food because the saliva helps break down the food. He then realized that dogs salivate more than what he thought. He realized that the individuals that fed the dogs wore labcoats and that the dog started drooling when they saw a lab coats even if there wasn't food. He then ran a study where he

The classical conditioning model was one of the first theories used to describe phobias. Many years ago, scientists observed that one could willingly elicit a fear response in an animal or human through systematic teaching. For example, if every time a rat is presented with a low buzzing noise, it is electrically shocked, eventually, when it hears the noise alone (with no shock), it will exhibit symptoms of fear. (3) Scientists

Another behavioural psychologist, Watson (1915) was influenced by Pavlov’s dogs’ (1902). Watson suggested that if reflexes can be conditioned in dogs, then they can be conditioned in human behaviour too (Gross 2010). Watson used Pavlov’s idea of classical conditioning to influence his experiment with Little Albert, where Watson successfully conditioned fear into an 8-month-old boy using a range of different stimuli.

Classical conditioning was discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov 1902. Classical conditioning suggests that all behaviour is learnt through association. Pavlov discovered this through his works with dogs. It was also believed that classical conditioning can lead to the development of phobias. This was demonstrated by Watson and Rayner 1920 with the case of little Albert (gross p162).

Phobia is an acquired fear whenever we sense danger or when we are confronted with something new or unknown that seems potentially dangerous. It can be social anxiety disorder which characterized by excessive fear or anxiety about one or more social situations or specific phobia that developed when a person has an encounter with an object or situation that involves or provokes fear. Phobias vary in severity among individuals. Although phobias are common, they do not necessarily cause significant disruption of everyday activities.

Classical conditioning is a form of basic learning the body automatically responds to a stimulus. One stimulus takes on the properties of another. The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) is credited for discovering the basic principles of classical conditioning whilst he was studying digestion in dogs. He developed a technique for collecting dog’s salivary secretions. Pavlov (cited in Eysneck M.W 2009) noticed that the dogs would often start salivating before they were given any food or saw the feeding bucket or even when they heard the footstep of the laboratory assistant coming to feed them. Quite by accident Pavlov had discovered that the environmental control of behaviour can be changed as a result

Pavlov was a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist who contributed a great deal to the field of psychology. His research into the process of the conditioned reflex is considered a milestone discovery in behavioral psychology as well as modern physiology. Pavlov focused on digestion studies which then would lead him to the act of learning and the discovery of conditioned reflexes.

Anxiety and phobias can be induced via mechanisms involving a variety of stimuli. Fear-inducing stimuli can trigger the formation of fear memories via classical conditioning that can be reconsolidated if the reminder of the stimuli or the specific fear-associated stimulus itself is present. Recently, as well as over years of research, efforts have been made to understand the manner in which the fear memory pathways are consolidated and paved with the goal of learning how to inhibit or undermine the reconsolidation of such pathways. Knowledge obtained through experimentation involving a noradrenergic beta-blocker, propranolol HCl, has demonstrated that this pharmacological antagonist acting against beta-adrenergic receptors present in the amygdala can disrupt the fear memory pathway. Although this information has been helpful in understanding the circuitry of fear memories and the role of inhibition in such pathways, it has also led to more questions pertaining to clinical applications of drugs such as propranolol HCl. In fact, Marieke Soeter and Merel Kindt sought to understand the role of propranolol HCl in impeding the reconsolidation of fear memories in a group of spider phobic women in a recent study. Throughout this analysis, the purpose, research methods, results, conclusions, potential problems, and future directions of this study will be considered.

Born in 1849, Ivan Pavlov’s name became known worldwide due to several reasons. First, Pavlov won the Nobel Peace Prize in his physiological work with collecting a dogs’ gastric juice. His original work then led to the psychological point of view of looking at a dog’s drool, which opened a strictly objective way to analyze how dogs learn, namely classical or Pavlovian conditioning. Pavlov’s work led to many contributions in the medical field and objective studies that are still used today, however, without the use of unethical experimentation on dogs. Pavlovian conditioning is well known, yet there are many misconceptions about the experiment and an individual’s view on Pavlov himself.

The introduction of classical conditioning occurred in the early twentieth century when Ivan Pavlov performed his famous dog-salivation experiment. Everyone at the time was aware that a dog would salivate at the sight or smell of a juicy treat and that it would shudder and recoil in disgust at a food it dislikes. Utilizing this known concept, Pavlov accompanied the delicious taste of meat powder with the ringing of the bell whenever the dog ate its treat. The trial was repeated numerous times until the dog would salivate to the ringing of the bell alone (Morgan). Pavlov’s discovery of conditioning has served as the basis for many debated and criticized physiological experiments that progressed the medical industry. Through the industry’s

The founder and main contributor in the development of classical conditioning is Russian psychologists Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov, is an acclaimed man of science, who is prominently known for his investigations and experimental findings known as Pavlov’s dogs. While further exploring the canine digestive system, he

Ivan Pavlov was born on September 14, 1849 in Ryazan Russia. He was a Russian physiologist, and his work lead to the development of the first experimental model of learning: classical conditioning. He began his studies as a theology major, and changed throughout the years to physiology at the University of St. Petersburg. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1904 (Psychology History). Ivan Pavlov was a very intelligent man. He was known for working on and experimenting with animals (dogs specifically). Pavlov 's theory of classical conditioning consisted of a dog, a bell, food, and salivation. He conducted his experiment in 1890 (Wikipedia).