Operant Conditioning Phobias

Individual Assignment: Phobias and Addiction Paper

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning both involve the learning process. Through classical conditioning a subject will learn to respond to a stimulus such as a light or bell before food is given. In operant conditioning a subject will learn by a response given off from its environment such as hitting a button or lever accidentally resulting in a positive reinforcement, food given, and a higher chance that the action will happen again. Classical conditioning is a learned form of a condition. As in Pavlov’s study of the dog, salivation is a natural response or an unconditioned reflex. It occurs automatically. Pavlov introduced food as an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) to cause
For example a dog will salivate when conditioned to hear the bell for food. The same dog will salivate for just the food, and probably salivate more. In paradoxical conditioning, the body tries to counteract the stimulus, which is attempting to happen. If a drug user sees the paraphernalia he or she uses to inject drugs, a psychological reaction will reduce the effect of the drug he or she is about to use. This is a conditioned tolerance to the drug is weakening the effect by continued use causing the person to use
In positive reinforcement, there will be some kind of reward offered that makes the behavior more appealing and repeatable. Skinner used a pigeon in a box with a button on the wall. As the pigeon pecked around it hit the button releasing a food pellet. This was a positive reinforcer for the pigeon, a stimulus that strengthened its behavior to try again. Negative reinforcement works by taking a negative or unpleasant reaction away. A certain teen nagged by his or her mother every week to take out the garbage, always complains to his or her friends about it. One-week he or she does it before his or her mother nags, and nothing is said. He or she has taken away the negative