Page 104 - Biblical Counseling II-Textbook

list of human fears. For example, if my car was struck by another, whose driver missed a stop sign, for
months afterward I would feel a twinge of unease when any car approached from a side street.
Two specific learning processes can contribute to such anxiety. The first, stimulus generalization,
occurs, for example, when a person attacked by a fierce dog later develops a fear of all dogs. The
second learning process, reinforcement, helps maintain our phobias and compulsions after they arise.
Avoiding or escaping the feared situation reduces anxiety, thus reinforcing the phobic behavior. Feeling
anxious or fearing a panic attack, a person may go inside and be reinforced by feeling calmer.
Compulsive behaviors operate similarly. If washing your hands relieves your feelings of anxiety, you may
wash your hands again when those feelings return (Myers, 2009).
Observational Learning
We may also learn fear through observational learning – by observing others’ fears. As Susan Mineka
demonstrated, wild monkeys transmit their fear of snakes to their watchful offspring. Human parents
similarly transmit fears to their children (Myers, 2009).

Example: When my daughter, Cailey, was four years old she was interested in bugs. She liked spiders
and beetles and ants. She often would pick bugs up and put them in a container. (Remember, we have
no poisonous bugs where we live!). One day a neighbor friend was over and they were playing by a
tree. There was a spider on the tree. Normally, Cailey would have happily watched the spider. Her friend
screamed, “AHHHH! A spider!” and ran away from the tree. Cailey paused for a few seconds as she
watched her friend, and then she did the same thing. She screamed and ran away. From that time on,
she was afraid of spiders. If we go back to nature/nurture, Cailey’s nature was to be curious and
interested in the world around her. She learned to be afraid of a spider because of nurture. When she
observed her friend act afraid of a spider, she learned to be afraid too.

Another example comes from my friend Betsy. When she was five years old, a neighbor’s pet dog
knocked her over and licked her face. The dog was not trying to hurt her, but she was terrified. Several
months later a friend’s dog took a toy out of her hand and bit her finger. Stimulus generation occurred
and she was afraid of all dogs after this second incident. When I met her as an adult, she was would start
shaking and feel very nervous if she saw a dog, even one from a distance. She would immediately move
to a place where she no longer could see the dog. This is an example of stimulus generation as well as
reinforcement.

Reflection: Can you recall a fear that you have learned? What role, if any, was played by fear
conditioning? What was influenced by observational learning?

Experience helps shape such fearfulness or fearlessness, but so do our genes. Genes influence our
temperament – our emotional reactivity. Scientists have isolated a gene that influences the amygdala’s
response to frightening situations. People with a short version of this gene have less of a protein that
speeds the reuptake of the neurotransmitter serotonin. With more serotonin available to activate their
amygdala neurons, people with this short gene exhibit a revved-up amygdala response to frightening
pictures (Myers, 2009).

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