Operant Conditioning in Relation to Addiction - Essay Example

? ical and Operant Conditioning in Relation to Addiction and Phobias Phobias can be described as an unnaturally high level of fear of something in particular. The fear can be of anything, from spiders to water bodies, from heights to fire, and varies from person to person. However, there are people with similar phobias and the more popular ones have been classified and given names by scientists, such as Agoraphobia, which is the fear of being in places where a person can get a panic attack, the variety of places is not limited. For instance, a place having spiders can easily scare a person with such a phobia. The phobia usually develops as a result of a distressing incident that happened to the individual involving the source of the fear. An addiction can be described as a high level of dependency on a particular substance by a person. This means that the individual is not able to function normally without the substance in their system and will suffer what is known as withdrawal symptoms if they go for a lengthy period of time without its use. This means that their body will react in a negative manner should it be deprived of that particular substance (Bouton, 2007). The most common addictions include addictions to drugs and alcohol and various treatments have been developed on how to cure these dependencies. Classical and Operant conditioning are two psychological effects that have been related to the development of phobias and addictions whereby by an individual put through these modes of conditioning may suffer the development of a phobia or addiction as a result. Classical conditioning can be described as a type of learning whereby the occurrence of one stimulus brings out the occurrence of another stimulus over time as the brain learns to form a relation between the two (Sara, 2010). The first stimulus is referred to as the conditioned stimulus while the second one is called the unconditioned stimulus. The unconditioned stimulus is usually a natural stimulus that brings out a particular response for example, food or pain and while the conditioned stimulus brings no response at first it does after conditioning. The response is similar to that brought on by the unconditioned stimulus. Operant conditioning refers to a type of learning whereby an individual’s behavior is influenced by the consequences of their actions. This means that they begin to act in a particular way after learning that they are particular rewards or punishments that are associated with those actions (Neil, 2010). An individual will tend to avoid the actions related to punishments while increasing those that are related to rewards. Operant conditioning can only be successful if the individual is fully aware of the consequences of the actions that they undertake, meaning that if for instance one is punished or rewarded at random they will not be able to associate their actions with the particular consequences. It must be made clear to the individual t hat if they do a particular thing they will be either punished or rewarded depending on the behavior that one hopes to bring out in them (Bouton, 2007). The study of classical conditioning has led to a number of discoveries such as the chance that some phobias can actually be developed from such conditioning. As mentioned earlier, Phobias are irregularly high levels of fear of something in particular that could have transpired as a result of a traumatic experience that the individual underwent in the past. With this in mind, classical conditioning can be related to the development of a phobia through the use of an unconditioned stimulus which can be pain or terror that was experienced during that traumatic event and that of a conditioned stimulus which may be the particular thing that was involved during that traumatic experience (Neil, 2010). The conditioned stimulus brings about the same response as that of the unconditioned stimulus resulting in the development of the phobia. The subject of the phobia (that is, what the person is afraid of) can be referred to as the conditioned stimulus in this case (Neil, 2010). For example, an individual who was accidentally locked in a small room say a closet or cupboard as a child for a lengthy period of time leading them to believe that they would never get out and they might even die there resulting in them being filled with terror at this prospect may have a phobia of closed spaces as a result. This would be because the closed space brings about the filling of terror that they experienced when they were a child trapped in that closet even though they may not be in a similar situation (Bouton, 2007). Just like the way classical conditioning can be related to the development of phobias, operant conditioning can also be related to the rise of particular psychological afflictions in an individual such as addictions (Sara, 2010). This can be attributed to the action and reward consequence that most addictions have on a person. An addiction is an over reliance on a particular substance by an individual meaning that one cannot function without it, but that over reliance develops as a result of repeated use ensuring that the body is acclimated to the substance’s presence in the body and notices when it is gone leading to the withdrawal symptoms. The repeated use is as a result of the reward/consequence that a person experiences after using the substance that makes them want to use it again and again (Neil, 2010). For example, a person addicted to drugs first began using it because of the reward they felt after its use, that is, the feeling of euphoria that they experienced. Once the drug exited the system, so did the feeling of euphoria and the only way for the individual to get it back was by using the drug again. This can be related to the influence of behavior through operant conditioning whereby certain actions bring about certain results/consequences (Sara, 2010). In this case, the consequence is a reward in the form of the euphoria that is experienced by the individual while the action that brings this reward is the use of the drug leading them to change their behavior and use the drug on a more regular basis. It is through such actions that it can be said addictions can be as a result of operant conditioning. Extinction in psychological conditioning terms refers to the act of returning one’s behavior to their prior mode before their conditioning. In classical conditioning, it involves presenting the conditioned stimulus to an individual without the unconditioned stimulus repeatedly causing the individual to stop associating the two stimuli (Neil, 2010). As a result, the conditioned stimulus will eventually stop bringing about the conditioned response that it was trained to do. In operant conditioning, extinction is achieved by removing the reward or punishment that was previously related to the certain action of an individual. This is because in such cases an individual has been trained to expect a certain consequence for that particular behavior through the repeated occurrence of the said consequence whenever one behaves that way and thus when that consequence no longer occurs, the individual over time is no longer motivated to behave in such a manner (Neil, 2010). A good example of extinction in practical use is the recovery of drug addicts whereby they are given certain medication that ensures they do not experience the euphoria that usually comes with the intake of drugs making the practice meaningless to them. If this continues happening over a period of time, the addicts no longer feel the urge to take the drug anymore as it does bring about the same consequences that it did before prior to the taking of the medication. However, it should be noted that extinction does not fully get rid of the effects that were brought about by the previous conditioning in an individual. References Bouton, M. E. (2007). Learning and Behavior: A Contemporary Synthesis, Sunderland, MA: Sinauer. Carlson, N. R. (2010). Psychology: The Science of Behaviour. New Jersey, United States: Pearson Education Inc. Shettleworth, S. J. (2010). Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior (2nd Ed) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More