ATP learned anxiety

The ATP distance learning project

Learned anxiety

Behaviour, or learning theory explains how anxiety can become associated with a particular object or situation through negative reinforcement or avoidance learning. It is a particularly strong kind of learning and very resistant to extinction.

Rats who learn to avoid an electric shock by jumping over the barrier in a shuttle box, will go on jumping the barrier whether or not the electric shock is administered. Children can learn to avoid punishment or hurt by the same process. If a child is smacked for a particular action it will avoid this type of action in the future - this is always supposing that the child is not normally smacked, which could lead to a repetition of the action, but that is another story. Once bitten twice shy is proverbial of the child who has been hurt in a particular situation and remains afraid of that kind of situation in the future, avoiding it where possible.

One well-known example of learned anxiety was demonstrated by J.B.Watson. Albert, a small boy, was conditioned to become afraid of his white rat. Every time he went to stroke the rat a loud noise was generated which frightened Albert. The anxiety became so strong that it generalised to all other furry objects even the fox fur worn by his mother.

Fig 3 Transactional model of stress (after Cox and Mackay).

Fig.4 is a flow diagram which shows some of the factors which affect the amount of stress we feel in any particular situation.

Fig.4. Factors determining the severity of stressful events.