Personality Blog

Researchers enthusiastically debate the etiology of phobias. Behaviorists point fervently to a pairing of a neutral stimulus and a frightening stimulus as the raison d’être of a phobic reaction. For example, an experiment performed in the experimental dark ages of the 1920’s paired a little fuzzy rabbit with a frightening noise. The subject was a young child, little Albert. He exhibited no fear of the rabbit until the loud noise was repeatedly paired with the animal. He learned to fear the rabbit, even when it was no longer paired with the noise. Please be assured, ethical researchers who wish to keep their pensions and avoid annoying litigation no longer purposely create phobias. They especially do not create them in young children. Unfortunately, for this theory a pairing of fearful and neutral stimuli cannot be found in every phobic person’s history. In fact, some phobias appear to respond to chemical treatment, which may indicate a chemical maladjustment. There have been cases in which identical twins, separated at birth, developed the same phobia. This research suggests a genetic component. Do you feel thoroughly confused now? So are we.

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