Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning entails two completely different stimuli eliciting unrelated behavioral change in an animal or person (McLeod). This school of thought is used in many realms of society, such as training dogs on obedience. In this paper, I will explore how classical conditioning can be used to explain my fear of drivers seeking my help when I was a child.
When I was young, I watched the film The Deliberate Stranger. The film was inspired by the story of renowned American serial killer Ted Bundy. In this film, Ted Bundy was getting his victims by pretending that he was injured and needed help to access his car. From this day, I could not get myself to come close to any parked cars whose driver was asking help, either locating a place or building or getting something into or out of his car.
Classical conditioning occurs in three phases. The first phase is before conditioning, and it involves a person or animal only eliciting natural behavior in response to specific stimuli (McLeod). For instance, before watching The Deliberate Stranger film encountering a driver seeking one form of help only aroused curiosity on my part. I would ask myself objective questions such as, why is he interested in me and not other passersby?
The other phase is known as during conditioning. In this stage, a previously neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditional stimulus. This phase occurred when I first watched the film The Deliberate Stranger that made me associate murder with a stranger seeking help. During the after conditioning phase, I made a deliberate effort to stay away from any driver seeking my help. Whenever a driver who I had not seen before came at me asking for my help, I would run in the opposite direction. I talked to my parents about my predicament. They made me learn that what I had watched in The Deliberate Stranger film rarely occurs in real life. After some time, my friend and I helped several drivers on different issues over several days. That is when I learned that not all drivers seeking for help mean harm to other persons.
In conclusion, classical conditioning is a crucial part of real life. My experience with classical conditioning occurred many years ago, and it was triggered by a terrifying film I had seen. From this film, I learned to associate unknown drivers seeking help with evil intent.