Edpsy 399 OL - Spring 2000

Tom Anderson, Instructor

Leonard Fretzin

Forum 1 - Lesson 3

Date: Monday Jan 29 2001

Subject: Lesson 1 q3 - Fear or Phobia

I've had some difficulty in identifying a fear or phobia that I've experienced certain times during my life. I think that the word 'fear' is used more generally to include both rational fears, such as the fear of poisonous snakes, or unemployment, while the term 'phobia' is employed to describe irrational fears.

It is in the irrational category of fear that an otherwise 'neutral' stimulus may elicit anxiety, dread, and all the unpleasant physiological effects associated with the presence of extreme danger.

Looking up the world in my old standard college dictionary produced the following definition and list of phobias, and I imagine that a modern text on Clinical Psychology would probably produce even more.

-phobia combining form An exaggerated and persistent dread of or aversion to. [< Gk. phobos fear] In the following list each entry denotes a phobia for what is indicated:

acrophobia high places hypnophobia sleep agoraphobia open spaces kinesophobia movement alchinophobia sharp objects lalophobia speaking ailurophobia cats muaophobia mice androphobia men mysophobia contamination apeirophobia infinity necrophobia dead bodies astrapnobia thunderstorms neophobia new things astrophobia stars myctophobia night, darkness autophobia self, being alone ophidiophobia reptiles ballistophobia missiles pedophobia infants or children bathophobia depths phagophobia eating chionophobia snow phonophobia noise cynophobia dogs psychrophobia cold demophobia crowds pyrophobia fire erythrophobia red taphephobia being buried alive gamophobia marriage thalassophobia ocean or sea gynophobia women thanatophobia death haptephobia being touched toxicophobia poison hemophobia blood zoophobia animals

After looking over this list, some of which seem perfectly rational to me like toxicophobia (being a chemistry teacher), the one irrational fear that I have experienced is demophobia, or the fear of crowds.

Often when I am in a crowd of people, especially a large meeting or a party, whether the people are complete strangers or acquaintances, I begin to experience the symptoms of the phobia, namely, anxiety, discomfort, and sweating. It has never been so intense as to lead to a panic attack and I am always able to remove this CS by leaving the situation at least temporarily.

I have often thought about this problem, but find it difficult to relate it to a classical conditioning paradigm.

In the Pavlovian experiment, hungry dogs are presented with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which is food, which subsequently elicits an unconditioned response (UR), namely salivation.

To produce conditioning, a 'neutral' stimulus (CS), such as a light, sound or a specific touch, is presented prior to the UCS, and after numerous linked presentations, Pavlov and his colleagues found that eventually the neutral conditioning stimulus (CS) alone would elicit the same response as the UCS.

I have no memory of being exposed to crowds (the UCS) prior to some normally frightening stimulus (the CS); and certainly not in a repeated presentation.

It is interesting to note that Pavlov also discovered that a conditioned stimulus would eventually be extinguished if it was presented numerous times uncoupled with the original UCS.

If this phobia of mine were the result of classical conditioning, I should, during my life, have experienced a diminution of the UCR (anxiety, sweating, etc.) with each party or meeting that I attended.

It would be nice if life were simpler.

Bruning, R. H., Schraw, G. J. & Ronning, R. R. (1999). Cognitive Psychology and Instruction, 2nd Ed. Merrill, Englewood Clift, NJ

Funk & Wagnalls (1963). Standard College Dictionary, Text Edition, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., New York

Watson, J. B. (1924). Behaviorism, Nortron Library (1970 edition), W.W. Norton & Company, Toronto