Download Writing Example:

Writing Example:
Question:
Do you have any fears, phobias, or anxieties that might be explained by classical
conditioning?
Response:
Let’s see, do I have any fears or phobias? Maybe I should start out by just trying to see
what fears and phobias I have. I am afraid of moths. I am a male and to be afraid of
moths is to be laughed at. My girlfriend once laughed at me for about an hour it seems
because a moth got into our car and I had to stop and get out because it flapped around in
front of my face. I get kind of creepy right now just thinking about the flapping wings. It
is the sound the moth makes that scares me.
I wonder why I am afraid of moths. I haven’t really thought about that before. Is that the
result of classical conditioning? I can’t remember a time when I first became afraid of
moths. Let’s see, right now I just thought of how I am not really afraid of snakes, but I
used to be. I can relate that to classical conditioning, but I want I still want to think about
moths. Let’s see, if this were caused by classical conditioning I would have to have had
at one time a natural fear that wasn’t a phobia---maybe like being afraid of being crushed
by some giant flapping thing. Then I would have had to have had that natural fear be
associated with something else (the moth).
In Pavlov’s dog, the natural response was salivating and the natural stimulus was seeing
food---these were unconditioned responses and stimuli. Then the dog began associating
the food with hearing the bell (conditioned response). I don’t think that applies to my
fear of moths. At least I can’t think of anytime I learned to associate moths with
something that should have naturally aroused my fear. Maybe my fear of moths can be
better explained by some other theory of neurosis like Freud’s psychoanalytic theory.
Maybe a moth stands for something deep in my dream life.