THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PHOBIA

 
 
a) Describe how a person might come to acquire a phobia of your choice. Be realistic and specific – clearly describe the US, UR, NS, CS, CR, and maintenance of the phobic response. b) Next, describe how a therapist might use a type of exposure therapy to treat the phobia. 
An individual can end up developing aquaphobia, which is the fear of bodies or sources of water. These include swimming pools, oceans, lakes, and even bathtubs. Such commonly happens after such people’s ears are clogged with water, making them experience and feel pain. In this scenario, the unconditioned stimulus will hence be the water that enters the ear of the person, making them clogged. On the other hand, the unconditioned response will be the pain that results from the water-logged ears. The water body is the neutral stimulus. After being in numerous bodies of water and their ears getting clogged every time, the conditioned stimulus will be the water body, and the conditioned response would be the pain in the ears without even entering the water body. Such conditioned response is triggered by just looking at the water body.
Failure to receive therapy for the phobia can cause pain to the individual after associating the pain to the water bodies, making them fear the bodies of water instead of the pain itself. Exposure therapy would be important in such cases because it would make the individual slowly exposed to various aspects of their fear, eventually getting over it. In so doing, the person can get over aquaphobia after being shown pictures of water bodies and going to bathtubs filled with water, a small water body where they can stay for a short time. Eventually, such people can go to large water bodies until they are comfortable. Moreover, such people can be taught various ways of avoiding getting their ears water-logged.

Describe how Pavlovian conditioning principles may contribute to racism. Provide an original example. 

Pavlovian principles of conditioning can play a significant role in racism. The reason is that social media echo chambers can evoke conditional emotional responses to certain events and actions. In such a case, therefore, it could be specific ethnicities. It is hence worth noting Pavlovian conditioning principles cause individuals to be conditioned to discriminate and hate without any explanation because of whatever they might have heard about certain races and ethnicities over time. A good example is a push back against members of the Islam religion, which resulted from the statement by the president after the 9/11 attacks, which made people have the believe that all Muslims are terrorists and violent. After hearing things repeatedly for a long time, one might not even realize the presence of an internal conditioned response to specific races and ethnicities.

Describe the role of Pavlovian conditioning in drug addiction. 

Pavlovian conditioning plays an important role in drug addiction through the use of aversion therapy. Aversion therapy can be said to be a form of therapy that makes an individual quit harmful habits by associating the habit with an undesirable effect. A good example would be a case in which an individual frequently uses cigarettes. Hence, the therapist is forced to provide cigarettes to the individual for them when they feel like smoking. However, the cigarettes would have a nasty taste in such a case. As a result, the individual would completely cease smoking because of the nasty taste they associate with the cigarettes, hence avoiding them.

The perfume/cologne industry spends millions each year on advertisements, even though we can’t smell through TV commercials, banner ads, or roadside billboards. Dissect the Pavlovian conditioning strategies of these marketing advertisements.

Despite people not being able to smell colognes and perfumes through the numerous advertisements done, they end up buying such goods due to these advertisements. The most common tactic employed by these advertisements is the use of celebrities for advocacy of these perfumes. As a result, people become conditioned to think and believe that whatever such celebrities do is good due to their success and power. People will thus buy these colognes and perfumes provided a celebrity advertises them. Another common tactic is to have many people positively review and comment on the product. After noticing many positive recommendations, they end up buying the perfume because of the conditioning to believe that whatever is used and supported by society is right. For such reason, many people conform to societal norms due to the conditioning to be like everyone else.

Describe aversion therapy and how it has been used in the past. What is your opinion on its use? How should society ethically monitor the use of this therapy?

Aversion therapy refers to psychotherapy designed for causing the patient to avoid or reduce their pattern of undesirable behaviors and tendencies after they are conditioned to associate such behaviors with an undesirable stimulus. In therapy, the chief stimuli used include chemical, electrical, or even imagined aversive situations. In the past, people have used aversive therapy to quit addiction from various substances such as cigarettes and alcohol, among many others. My opinion on the use of aversive therapy is that it is very effective because it ensures that the patient never reverts to such old habits. Such results from the people’s association of their undesirable habits with undesirable effects. Society needs to monitor the use of aversion therapy ethically. Such can be done by ensuring the methods are not controversial due to their use of unpleasant stimuli, which is a punishment in the form of a therapeutic tool. Therefore, society should ensure such punishment does not result in guilt and shame feelings, which can negatively impact the user’s mental health.