1. What is Collier’s thesis? Based on your own experiences, do you think collier’s thesis is valid? Explain
Collier’s thesis is “the new, the different is almost by definition scary. But each time you try something. You learn, and as the learning piles up, the world opens to you.” I agree with Collier’s thesis based on my own experiences I think if you don’t try something you will never know if you like it or not. When I first try snowboarding I was nervous to fall and hurt myself but after confronting it I learned how to stop and balance so I was not nervous anymore and now I really enjoy it.
2. What is the process known to psychologists as “extinction”?
If you put an individual in an anxiety-provoking situation often enough, he will eventually learn that there isn’t anything to be worried about. According to the example that Collier’s gives us in paragraph 15 his son overcome to his anxiety to learn how to swim by urging him to confront this new experience.
3. What causes Collier to come up with his basic rule for himself: “Do what makes you anxious; don’t what makes you depressed” how does he develop the two corollaries to his basic rule? How do the basic rule and the two corollaries prepare you for his thesis?
Collier came with his first rule because he regrets when he turned down a trip to Argentina because he was scared of the being homesick or having troubles to communicate because of the language.
The second and third rules give us a different Collier. Now applying his first rule in his life. When he started writing magazines articles and he had to interview famous people he would always get the butterflies in his stomach and his hands will start to shake. But by the time he had done it several times he felt more comfortable. He would still feel the anxiety but less than the first time. “You’ll never eliminate anxiety by avoiding the things that caused it.”
The third rule he develop was “you can’t