The Learning Machine: Applying Classical Conditioning to the Human Experience
Pavlov's work was important because it demonstrated that the processes of learning could be studied scientifically, and that the principles of conditioning were applicable to humans as well. One of the primary ways people learn fears is when somethi...
Stressed to the Limit: Cognitive Buffers Against Stress
Several cognitive factors appear to immunize people against the damaging effects of stressful events. If your environment is predictable, or you have some degree of control over it, fewer negative psychological responses tend to occur. Social suppor...
Out of Balance: Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive compulsive disorder is a condition in which people experience recurrent, unwanted thoughts they find disturbing. It is usually associated with compulsive rituals like hand washing to neutralize an obsession with cleanliness and a fear of d...
Out of Balance: Anxiety Disorders
Fear and anxiety are part of the normal human condition. It's when the alarm system that protects us from danger starts malfunctioning that we have anxiety disorders and the host of subcategories that fall within this category. Generalized anxiety d...
Out of Balance: Panic Attacks
A panic attack is the rapid mobilization of the fight or flight fear response that creates fear as a result of the body's response. People fear they are losing control, or dying from a stroke or heart attack. People with panic disorder become so fri...
Out of Balance: Phobias
Many people are afraid of public speaking and go to great lengths to avoid it. Others are frightened of most social situations and avoid as many public events as possible. The concept of social cost is often at work. Should I make a mistake when I'm...
Getting It Together: Behavior Therapy
Behavior therapists are interested in action-oriented techniques generally involving exposure, particularly in treating anxiety disorders. The treatment entails modeling, the assignment of tasks; joint performance with therapist if necessary; and gr...
The Learning Machine: Persistence of Snake Fear, The
Evolution appears to have equipped us to learn some lessons more quickly than others. Human subjects who weren't afraid of snakes or spiders or flowers were presented with slides of spiders and snakes accompanied by a mild electric shock. Humans sub...
Abnormal Psychology; Introduction to Psychology: Creating Treatments That Work
Clinicians assume that the treatment of personality disorders will take longer because it's an attempt to change the core person, a person who has been rehearsing these behaviors for a lifetime. To assist the development of treatments, researchers a...
Out of Balance: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
A person who suffers from posttraumatic stress disorder repeatedly re-experiences a disturbing event in their life. A scene of what happened pops into their mind or they alternately try to convince themselves that it could not have happened. Not eve...