Did I Form My Own Phobia? - Elisabeth Jacoby
I am sure that there has been a time when you came into contact with something that surprised you, like a spider. Did your heart rate spike at the expense of this experience? There is not a random reason for this. Phobias are learned, they are built, through something called classical conditioning. Someone who did not bother you then becomes terrifying because of its association with something else. The neutral stimulus is the spider, until you experience a moment that changes your view on it. A frightening moment came, along with your new phobia of spiders. Now The spider is a conditioned stimulus ticking off a conditioned response, fear response.
These responses happen automatically, they are elicited. You are already completing this action and feeling this way before you have time to think, fear is not a choice. Classical conditioning can be used to describe the forming of phobias or fears. An example is a child who is bullied at school may fear school through classical conditioning(Cherry 2022).
Being able to understand these patterns also allows us to realize that phobias are not an overreaction, they are an emotional response. These reactions are learned responses that can be unlearned. Everyone around us learns fear the same way, through a connection between fear and a stimulus. It is easy to say “get over it”, but whoever is saying that to you is not remembering, we all learn fear the same way.
Cherry, Kendra. “An Overview of Learning Theories in Psychology.” Verywell Mind,
Verywellmind, 12 Dec. 2022, www.verywellmind.com/learning-theories-in-psychology-an-overview-2795082.
It's easy for people to forget that our responses to stimuli are learned responses. The same amount of time it took to learn the response, it could take even longer to unlearn it. When our society becomes more aware of how psychological fear affects how we behave, there will be more compassion for mental hardships/trauma.
ReplyDeleteYour title immediately drew me in because it made me pause and consider whether I have “learned to fear” in my own life. I appreciated how your post connected classical conditioning to the development of phobias, using clear examples that made the theory feel personal and relevant.
ReplyDeleteReading your post made me reflect on my own fears and phobias (snakes, sharks, and needles). Some fears, like those of snakes, sharks, or standing near a high ledge, feel so universal that they almost seem instinctual, tied to the survival drive that keeps us compatible with life. It made me think about how some fears may have evolutionary advantages, helping us avoid dangerous situations, and how those reactions feel different from others that are more individualized.
Then there are fears like my fear of needles. I don’t have any memory of a bad encounter with a phlebotomist or a particular event that might have conditioned this fear, yet it is undeniably there. Your post made me wonder whether it could have developed through more subtle associations or vicarious learning, like observing others’ reactions, or from a general sense of anxiety tied to medical settings. It is interesting how classical conditioning can operate even when we cannot pinpoint a specific moment that triggered the conditioned response.
Thank you for prompting me to consider how learning psychology shows us that fear responses, whether obvious or subtle, are part of how we navigate and make sense of the world around us