Page 110 - Advanced Biblical Counseling Student Textbook

Of course, there are people whose fears seem to fall outside the average range. Some, with phobias,
have intense fears of specific objects (such as bugs) or situations (such as public speaking) that disrupt
their ability to cope. Others-courageous heroes and remorseless criminals – are less fearful than most of
us. Astronauts and adventurers who have “the right stuff” – who can keep their wits and function coolly
and effectively in times of severe stress – seem to thrive on risk. So, too, do con artists and killers who
calmly charm their intended victims. In laboratory tests, they exhibit little fear of a tone that predictably
precedes a painful electric shock. 172

Fear Conditioning
When bad events happen unpredictably and uncontrollably, anxiety often develops. Anxious people are
hyper-attentive to possible threats, and panic-prone people come to associate anxiety with certain cues.
Through conditioning, the short list of naturally painful and frightening events can multiply into a long
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. 173

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. 174

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

172 Ibid.
173 Ibid.
174 Ibid.

109