Yifeng Wei

O6030930
D120 TMA03
Part A
Role of Learning in the Expression of Fears and Phobias
Fear serves as a natural component in human development as well as a product of
evolution. Fear can be a psychological restraint that prevents us from doing what is
necessary, but it can also help us respond better to threats. Phobias are overwhelming
and debilitating fears that have persistent negative influences on people’s lives.
Learning by association plays an important role in the development of fears.
In 1927, Pavlov conducted an experiment where he used classical conditioning
technique to induce specific responses in dogs. He paired the sound of a bell with the
presence of food. The dogs eventually began to salivate at only the sound of the bell
without any food present. This is an example of learning by association. A specific
behaviour occurs as a response to an unrelated stimulus through repeated pairing with
an unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov recognised that results from animal experiments
may not be directly applicable to human beings. “In applying to man… great reserve
must be exercised and the validity of comparisons must be verified” due to “the
incomparably greater development of the cerebral cortex in man” (Pavlov, 1927).
A more relevant study was conducted in 1920 by Watson and Rayner using a
human baby called Little Albert. The infant was selected because he was reared
almost from birth in a hospital environment and “on the whole solid and unemotional”
(Watson and Rayner, 1920). At about nine months of age, routine emotional tests
showed that Albert demonstrated no fear response to stimuli such as “a white rat, a
dog, a monkey” and extra. According to his mother and the hospital attendants, “at no
time did this infant ever show fear in any situation” (Watson and Rayner, 1920). The
only stimulation that caused Little Albert to cry was the sound of striking a steel bar,
hence this sound marked the first observed emotional situation in which Albert
exhibited fear response. This stimulus enabled the researchers to create a conditioned
fear towards animals.
Watson and Rayner recorded the procedures both in written journal and film

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footage. A white rat was suddenly presented to Albert, and he began to reach out to
the rat. Just as he was about to touch the rat, the bar was struck immediately behind
his head. In the following week, when the infant was 11 months and 10 days of age,
joint stimulation of both the sound and the rat was presented to Albert six times before
the rat was presented to him alone. According to the experiment journal, Albert
demonstrated violent reactions to the rat alone as “… the baby began to cry… he
turned sharply to the left… and began to crawl away so rapidly” (Watson and Rayner,
1920). This could be categorised as a case of completely conditioned fear response. In
other words, Albert learned the fear of rat through association and conditioning.
Furthermore, Little Albert seemed to generalise this conditioned fear of rat to other
similar things since he elicited fear responses to a white rabbit, a fur coat and cotton
wool (Watson and Rayner, 1920). This is evidence suggesting that conditioned fear
can be transferred to other similar objects or organisms. It is worth noting that the
effect of conditioning began to decay in later tests and completely disappeared after
approximately one week.
Watson and Rayner’s study had a profound influence on our understanding of the
role of learning in the development of phobias. However, it had some limitations that
raised questions towards the results and execution of the study. Doubtlessly, it was
unethical to induce a phobia in an infant. Researchers should take more moral
considerations when conducting experiments with human beings. Other researchers,
like Powell and Schmaltz, criticised the experiment in many ways. The study failed to
control for pseudoconditioning, which refers to situation where the unconditioned
response may be elicited by stimuli other than the unconditioned stimulus. Instead of
the rat and the sound, there were other sources of stimuli that could lead to Albert’s
reactions. For example, his response could have been induced by other factors, such
as the sudden action of putting a rat in his hand. The presence of the rat did not evoke
fear itself until the rat was put in Albert’s hand without warning (Powell and
Schmaltz, 2021). It has also been pointed out that Albert’s fear of rat might be a result
of natural development processes. Fears emerge naturally over time in infants during

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the age when Albert was tested. For instance, infants develop a natural fear of
strangers between the age of 6 to 12 months (Powell and Schmaltz, 2021). Another
limitation of the experiment was the effect of conditioning. After watching the film
footage, I noticed that Albert’s reactions were inconsistent. Watson had to repeat
sessions where joint stimulation was presented to reinforce strength of conditioning,
and this was not written into their experiment journal. Moreover, according to the
footage, Albert showed no fear response to the stimulus at all when he was allowed to
suck his thumb. In general, Albert showed diminishing distress to the rat in later tests,
which indicates that the conditioning was not durable. Finally, results obtained from
running tests on Albert may not represent general patterns. The experiment only
examined one infant. As mentioned earlier, Albert was reared in a hospital and was
unemotional. Hence, Albert may have responded differently compared to other young
children.
Other than the role of learning, there are many other ways we can approach the
subject of fear. Biologically speaking, there is abundant evidence suggesting that fears
are innate. For example, human infants may possess a mental template for animals
that posed a consistent threat during evolutionary history (Rakison and Derringer,
2008, p. 391). This kind of fear helps humans prepare for dangers and serves an
adaptive function.
Cognitive approach takes a closer look at attentional and interpretation bias.
Some people pay excessive attention to certain things and experience heightened
stress (MacLeod, Mathews and Tata, 1986). For example, it is normal for people to
feel nervous when speaking in public. When someone takes the stage, he or she pays
too much attention to the internal state of stress and feels more panic as a result. It is
also normal for the person to mispronounce a word, but he or she may interpret this as
a catastrophe because of the belief that the audience would judge negatively.
Psychodynamic approach offers insight into childhood experiences and the
unconscious mind. Sigmund Freud argued that phobias are a result of previous
traumas relating to the feared item buried in the unconscious mind. Based on Freud’s

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research, Bowlby (1973) classified childhood attachments into two categories based
on the amount of care provided by parents: secure and anxious attachment. Different
parenting styles could lead to various phobias such as social phobias (Parker, 1979).
In summary, there are various approaches to explain different aspects of fears and
phobias, and they work together to form a comprehensive view on the subject. It is
evident that learning plays a role in expression of fear although further investigation
involving more test subjects and control measures is necessary to draw a generalised
conclusion.

Word count: 1196

References
1. Clayton, A., McFaul, C. and Strathie, A. (2023) ‘Fears and phobias’, in L. Lazard and

A. Strathie (eds) Encountering psychology in context 1. Milton Keynes: The Open

University, pp. 273–314.

2. McFaul, C., Lazard, L. and Laurence, S. (2023) ‘Week 10: Fears and Phobias. 1.1

How do we learn fear?’, D120: Encountering psychology in context. Available at:

https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2192660&section=2.1.

3. Pavlov, I. (1927) ‘Conditioned reflexes: An investigation of the psychological

activity of the cerebral cortex’, Annals of Neurosciences, 17(3). Available at:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4116985.
4. Watson, JB., Rayner, R. (1920) ‘Conditioned Emotional Reactions’, Journal of
Experimental Psychology, 3(1). Available at:
https://www.appstate.edu/~steelekm/classes/psy3214/Documents/Watson&Rayner
1920.pdf.

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Part B
The scatterplot shows the relationship between amount of time spent gaming and
the level of stress based on Holmes and Rahe scale for 100 participants aged between
18 to 24 years old. On the y-axis, range for gaming time is from 0 to 40 hours per
week; on the x-axis, range for stress level is from 0 to 300. Each dot illustrates data
from one single participant.
There is a positive correlation in the data points since both variables increase in
the same direction. The straight red line in the scatterplot is the line of best fit, which
shows an upward slope. Most data points lie close to the line and to each other with
only five apparent outliers. This represents a relatively strong and positive correlation
between the two variables.
The scatterplot indicates that people who spend more time playing video games
experience more stress. However, there is not enough information to say that the two
variables have a definitive causal relationship. For example, people who are socially
anxious spend more time gaming, and the lack of social contact leads to higher stress
levels. Furthermore, inferential statistics should be applied to generalise the pattern.

Word count: 195

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