Bill is a 28-year-old man who recalls that he disliked giving speeches in high s

Question

Bill is a 28-year-old man who recalls that he disliked giving speeches in high school and avoided speech class in college until his senior year. Everything was fine with his job until his latest promotion, because his new position requires public speaking on a weekly basis. He has tried to find a way to keep his job and avoid giving speeches, but he has not found a solution.

Analyze the two potential ways Bill could have developed this phobia:

Amogst these options:

operational (consequence)

classical (CS-UCS-UCR-CR)

Describe, in detail, how the phobia could be explained by the following:

Classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

And;

Discuss how the process of extinction could be used to help Bill overcome his phobia.

Cite at least two references in your paper to support your assessment and please list references on portions

*****(700 words Each person please on portions)*******

Explanation / Answer

Operant conditioning is based on the structure of feedback system (reward/punishment), wherein a positive reinforcement fro a certain behavior would increase that given behavior and a negative reinforcement for a given behavior would decrease that given behavior. This theory functions on the basis of the interaction that takes place between two factors: the given intentional action of the given subject and the effect it has on the surrounding environment.

Bill could have developed his phobia of public speaking with the mere intentional act of getting up on stage, in front of a respective audience, which would have elicited a negative response (punisher) from his respective crowd, inhibiting, thus, his self confidence with respect to public speaking. This must have created an unhealthy fear within Bill - decreasing his behavior (public speaking) henceforth. Hence by the consequence that public speaking has presented itself with, Bill refrains from engaging in a similar/same activity again.

Classical conditioning is based on that premise that if there is a unconditioned stimulus (UCS), it evokes an unconditioned response (UCR). Then there is the addition of the neutral stimulus, which in its own solitary existence doesn't elicit any response unless it is paired alongside an unconditioned stimulus. By doing this an association is formed between the neutral stimulus [which is then called the conditioned stimulus (CS)] and unconditional stimulus (UCS), and this would happen only after repeated instances to strengthen the association - this would as a result now elicit a conditioned response (CR). Each time the UCS and CS are paired alongside each other it would strengthen the link between the CS and CR.

If we were to take Bills given context, then we would see that he has has an association of an unconditioned (UCS) stimulus with a conditioned stimulus (CS) that has led to his conditioned response (CR) (learned behavior) for fear of public speaking. Now, bill has no fear harbored with respect to huge crowds (CS), which would be our conditioned stimulus, but he does harbor a fear of unwarranted snickering and jesting that he has encountered in his school time while being bullied by his social peer groups, which would be our Unconditioned stimulus (UCS). Bill has an opportunity to get up on stage and speak to a given audience and he happens to observe, during the brevity of his speech, that a group of his school mates begin to jeer and snicker (probably on matters unrelated to his speech), which elicits a response from Bill which is fear and the inability to speak due to the crippling effect of that fear afore an audience. If this situation has take place repeatedly over his school years, it has created a strong association for Bill in his mind with fear and Public. Bill refraining thus from indulging in public speaking again. In the future just being presented by an audience only - the same response would be elicited from Bill, as there has been an association formed.

Now if we were to take into consideration the process of extinction, wherein if we were to take away the constant jeering and snickering, which is the unconditioned stimulus (UCS), and present bill with an audience (CS) over a period of time in the absence of the UCS, then the association that has been formed between the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response (fear of public speaking) will weaken and eventually die. This process of extinction is with respect to Classical conditioning.

The process of extinction with respect to operant conditioning would be like this, the elimination of the stimulus (jeering and snickering) - which reinforced Bills behavior (fear) of not speaking in front of public - would gradually lead to the extinguishing of his response (fear) over a period of time. Hence the eliminations of the reinforcer would lead to an increase in his behavior which would be public speaking.

Note: references cannot be provided as it is against chegg policy. Thank You.  

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