Phobias: Irrational Fear Fear of heights, fear of the number “13,” fear of spiders, fear of small spaces. All of these fears are considered phobias. While there are many causes of phobias, one theory uses the notion of preparedness in Pavlovian conditioning. This is a way in which people learn to react to certain stimuli. Scientist and behaviorist, Pavlov, first discovered this conditioning while experimenting with dogs. He could reliably predict that dogs would salivate when …showed first 75 words of 520 total…

…showed last 75 words of 520 total…reach for a rat, the researchers would make a loud noise and scare him. Through classical conditioning, Albert associated rats with the loud fearful noise and transferred his fear with the noise to fear of rats. He then went further and associated rats, which are furry, to all furry objects. This last instance exemplifies the theory of Pavlovian conditioning. Unfortunately, phobias do occur. However, at least research has been done to try to solve them.