I never viewed vicarious as necessarily conceptually distinct from operant or classical. Thus, if the mom's facial expression functions as UCS then I called it classical vicarious conditioning. Of course, in a natural setting operant is also involved as the child's resulting expression of fear to same or similar stimuli in such contexts may be family-reinforced.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D." <jeff.ric...@scottsdalecc.edu> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> Sent: Saturday, February 8, 2014 1:34:49 PM Subject: [tips] Classical versus Vicarious Conditioning of Phobias Hi all, When I was a child, I remember my mother telling me about a friend of hers who developed a "shower phobia" after watching Hitchcock's Psycho. (By today's standards, the scene is quite tame, but it was terrifying to many people at the time the movie was released.) It seems obvious that the woman's shower phobia developed through vicarious conditioning. A "textbook example" of vicarious conditioning I have often seen is the development of an animal phobia (usually a snake or cockroach) in a child after seeing his/her mother express extreme fear upon coming into contact with that animal. I wonder, however, if classical conditioning is the better way of describing the situation. That is, the mother's expression of terror represents a UCS for the child because of the strong emotional bond between them. It is not simply the degree of "empathy" the child feels for another that leads to the conditioning of the fear response: the expression of fear in a parent might be seen as a more direct indication of danger because of the parent-child relationship. I hope I'm communicating this in a way that makes sense. If so, what are your thoughts on this: is it better conceptualized as vicarious or classical conditioning? Best, Jeff -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jeffry Ricker, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology http://sccpsy101.com/curriculum-vitae/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scottsdale Community College 9000 E. Chaparral Road Scottsdale, AZ 85256-2626 Office: SB-123 Phone: (480) 423-6213 Fax: (480) 423-6298 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: peter...@svsu.edu. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd94b&n=T&l=tips&o=34043 or send a blank email to leave-34043-13445.e3edca0f6e68bfb76eaf26a8eb6dd...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=34047 or send a blank email to leave-34047-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
