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Classical Conditioning Narrative - Psychology 101 Course


brandymhunter 2 / 15 2  
May 15, 2014   #1
INSTRUCTIONS: 1.
Provide an original example from your own life history of Classical Conditioning. Your example should provide enough specific detail to illustrate the concept. Explain how each of the five key terms listed below may apply to your example.

ESSAY
Classical Conditioning is defined by Gerrig (2012) as "a type of learning in which a conditioned response comes to be elicited by a conditioned stimulus that has acquired its power through an association with an unconditioned stimulus". As early as infancy, humans have been proven to reflexively experience fear at the sounds of loud noises (Gerrig, 2012).

The loud noise that elicits the response would be the unconditioned stimulus and the fear response would be the unconditioned response. Now add a neutral stimulus (NS) that does not naturally elicit fear, and introduce it in the company of the UCS. At this point, the subject may subconsciously learn to associate the feelings of fear with the NS. Suddenly the subject forgets what was the original source of their fear and now has a confusing phobia towards the (previously known as) NS (Gerrig, 2012).

I am still experiencing some detrimental effects of the classical conditioning I experienced as a child. When I was very young, my parents would often fight loudly and violently after I had gone to bed. Sometimes the fighting would wake me and sometimes it would prevent me from falling asleep at all. The one thing that remained consistent was that it filled me with extreme fear and anxiety.

As young as 5, I would feel my levels of anxiety increasing as bedtime approached. By the time I lay in bed, my arousal would be so intense that it would be several hours (on a good night) before I would pass out from exhaustion. I credit the onset of my insomnia to me subconsciously learning to associate bedtime with feeling anxious/aroused (Gerrig, 2012). In the following text, I will exemplify how the following five elements of classical conditioning applied to my anxiety at bedtime: Unconditioned Stimulus (US), Unconditioned Response (UCR), Neutral Stimulus (NS), Conditioned Response (CR), and Conditioned Stimulus (CS).

The US was originally the loud fighting that took place between my parents.

The UCR was my fear/anxiety/arousal that would occur because of the loud fighting.

The NS was originally bedtime. When the fighting began to occur mostly during bedtime, I began to associate bedtime with negative emotions like anxiety and fear. Bedtime then began its transformation from NS to CS.

Once I had firmly associated the originally NS (bedtime) with the UCS (fear), without the presence of the original UCS (fighting) present, then bedtime became the CS. At this point, my insomnia became the CR and the conditioning was complete (Gerrig, 2012).

Psychologist Mary Cover Jones (1924) showed that it could be possible for me to unlearn this association through counterconditioning. The goal of counterconditioning would be to replace the maladaptive response with one that is desirable (Gerrig, 2012).

To apply counterconditioning in my situation I would seek to replace the CR of anxiety/arousal with a CR of relaxation/sleep (Gerrig, 2012). To do this I would try to introduce a UCS or UCS's that would be conducive to eliciting a relaxing response (e.g., warm bath, calm activities, and meditation). The final goal in this process of learning would be to eventually association bedtime with feelings of serenity and relaxation.

[NEED HELP WITH CONCLUSION
niesaysi 16 / 290 85  
May 17, 2014   #2
Classical Conditioning isas defined by Gerrig (2012) asis "a type of learning in which a conditioned response comes to be elicited by a conditioned stimulus that has acquired its power through an association with an unconditioned stimulus". I think you also have to acknowledge Ivan Pavlov since he is the proponent of this theory.

By the time I lay in bed, my arousal would be so intense that it would be fortook several hours (on a good night) before I would pass out from exhaustion.

The final goal in this process of learning would be to eventually associationassociate bedtime with feelings of serenity and relaxation.


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