Operant Conditioning Addictions

Phobias and Addictions 2 Phobias and Addictions as related to Classical and Operant Conditioning Distinguish between classical and operant conditioning Classical conditioning is one of the major theories of human behavior. It involves a natural stimulus in relation to the response; thus a previously neutral response creates the response even without the presence of the natural stimulus. On the other hand operant conditioning involves a relationship between a behavior and its consequence. In classical conditioning a neutral
``Higher-order conditioning allows our learning to be remarkably flexible. We can develop fears of many stimuli, although certain phobias, such as those of snakes,spiders,heights,water and blood are considerably more widespread than others(American Psychological Association,2000)All types of phobias may interfere with normal daily functioning, and overwhelming anxiety may develop thus they can develop through classical conditioning as underlined in the following; ``phobias develop through classical conditioning when one stimulus is paired with another resulting in a different response`` Dingfelder(2005),therefore when one has irrational fear of cancer,carcinophobia,this can lead one to associate cancer with fear and anxiety; the news of someone suffering from cancer or even reading articles about cancers sends chills down the spine of the person which can lead to fear and anxiety. Thus to sum it up all phobias and fetishes are products of classical conditioning.

Phobias and Addictions 3 Explain how addictions can be developed through operant
Kowalski and Westen (2011) outlines that in classical conditioning, extinction refers to the process by which a conditioned response is weakened by the presentation of the conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus. Like in the case of a dog and a bell, if a dog hears a bell every time it is presented food it will start to salivate just at the sound of the bell, however if food is not presented with the bell for several incidences, the dog`s salivation will decrease and eventually stop when the bell rings; thus the ceasing of the dog to salivate because the food is no longer presented with the bell is extinction. Addictions developed through operant conditioning can also be eliminated by extinction(Kowalski&Westen,2011).Therefore extinction occurs when the earlier pleasure is no longer satisfying like in the case of using the hard drugs like cocaine when it no longer provides the previous ecstasy desired, the person will no longer use the drug and the behavior will be