Prepare and submit a term paper on Classical Conditioning: Phobia

You will prepare and submit a term paper on Classical Conditioning: Phobia. Your paper should be a minimum of 1250 words in length. Fear for animals is dominant in many countries around the world. In the United States, studies have indicated that about 50% of the entire population suffers from a fear of animals such as snakes and spiders, while in Europe, 30% of adults report fear of snakes, and 20% report fear of dogs (Hensman et al, 1991). Bennett-Levy and Marteau’s aim of their study was to determine whether human beings are born with preparedness to be afraid of animals and avoid them, animals that seem different from human beings, and move suddenly and quickly. A great deal of research was done before Bennett-Levy and Marteau’s did their study. Seligman thought that human fear and phobia were due to evolution. This depicts that our great parents were scared of specific threatening animals in order to survive and this perception has been replicated to us. He termed this as preparedness to fear certain animals. We are ready to be scared of other animals even without thinking sometimes. Many types of research have also depicted that fear of animals is not related to the animal, but to the characteristics that the animal shows. In addition, if animals seem different from human beings, for example, if it scares, we will instinctively be frightened and will not like to approach it.

Phobia has two types of origin. the first is from a traumatic experience with animals. For example, being bitten by a dog. The second is from vicarious conditioning. this phobia from observation of other people reactions.

The current study tested several hypotheses, 1: it was predicted that each of the variables (fear, strangeness, harmfulness) would be correlated with skewed of a number of animals. 2: it was proposed that the perception of fear, strangeness, harmfulness across a number of animals would show a significant positive correlation with fear of the animals. An SPSS analysis was conducted to test for the significance of correlation.