Emotional Conditioning

Emotional Conditioning Emotional conditioning can be seen as the gateway to understanding a multitude of characteristics of human psychology (McLeod). The variation of emotional responses among people can be accounted for by life experiences and mental associations. Knowledge on conditioned emotional responses can be seen as limited, along much of the other knowledge associated with the brain’s workings. The many factors that contribute to the wide array of emotional responses can be more thoroughly analyzed, providing a justification as to why people respond in a specific manner. A conditioned emotional response is the result once a reaction has been established from repetitive scenarios, playing off of individuals’ emotions, contributing …show more content…
As of today, scientists’ knowledge on the human psyche, specifically emotional responses, is both astonishing and restricted. On a broad spectrum, very little is known about the brain. By scaling into perspective the advancements made on the study of the mind, much has been discovered, specifically bringing emotional conditioning into focus. Emotional conditioning is said to be the response of two stimuli, which create a reaction within an individual or animal that has been learned, usually over time (McLeod). A stimuli is an event or object that creates a reaction or a response. When the response initially caused by a stimuli is transferred into a learned habit, typically by repetition, a conditioned response has been created in the individual. Conditioned individuals may not even realize that this has occurred. In fact, for a response to be “conditioned,” the …show more content…
These three steps describe the progression of learning an emotional response. The creation of a conditioned response occurs within the “before conditioning” phase. A stimulus is provided and a response is produced (McLeod). The response that the individual gives towards the stimulus is unlearned at this point. There is no difference between a conditioned response and a regular response at this point. After an initial reaction has been produced, the creation of the response moves into the “during conditioning” phase. The “during conditioning” phase marks the connection between the stimuli and unconditioned response. The two begin to form an association. Multiple trials reestablish the expected reaction to the given stimuli, making the mental association between the stimuli and the response even stronger (McLeod). This point in the process of establishing a conditioned response does not mark the completion of the conditioning, only the growth. The mind is in the process of developing a very defined reaction to the stimuli, although hasn’t reached the point of creating a definite association. The final stage of the conditioning process is referred to as the “after conditioning” phase. This stage in the process marks the union of a response and stimuli. The combination of both the stimuli and given reaction create what is known as the