Fear could be a lot of things. It could be the fear of change. It could be the fear of the unknown. It could even be a phobia. Fear is something that keeps people from doing something. they were too afraid to take that writing class and therefore missed opportunities to be a better writer. Fear could be something that is taught, or something you develop on your own. In the experiment with "little Albert" he was taught to fear rats. Little Albert was an infant. John B Watson actually believed that phobias were conditionally controlled. He used little Albert as an experiment. He brought different animals to little Albert sitting on the floor. Things like rabbits and dogs and even rats were brought for him to touch and play with. Watson would then exchange it for another animal. This went on until he was comfortable with the animals. Next Watson brought out the white rat. When he brought the rat out this time he banged on a gong, making a loud noise that upset Albert. And every time Albert reached for the rat he would again bang the gone. now anytime Albert was around or tried to touch the rat or anything small and fuzzy like the bunny rabbit, Albert was terrified by it. They called this process Conditioning. Believing something can be taught and conditioned to be feared. If a fear can be conditioned, could you also be conditioned to not be afraid of something? The Little Albert project was cruel to me. But was a very informative experiment. It really makes you think about the way you fear.
I believe if someone can be taught to fear it can also be taught to not fear. It would be like trying to conquer your fear. You could conquer your fear of heights by climbing to the tallest building, or hiking the Grande Canyon. Being at peace with your fear. Knowing that you can handle it and everything will be just fine afterwards. Some people conquer their fears of flying by getting in a plane. Just doing what ever it is that you are afraid of helps reassure us that the fear is not as great as we make it out to be. Spiders are scary, but they are needed. Sharks are scary, But they are needed too.I think that we were trained to like something, it could also be conditioned. I used to be scared of heights. I went to the grande canyon and hiked down it. I sat on the edge and watched a chipmunk jump off. I am still uneasy about heights. But I wouldn't say I am scared anymore. I conquered my fear, and put myself out there. And best of all I didn't fall.
Spiders are actually very useful in the animal kingdom. First of all they keep the pest control down in the flying insect department. They catch annoying moths and flies in their webs. People are mostly afraid of them, but don't realize they are more afraid of us. A grand daddy long-leg is probably the most poisonous spider on earth, but he has such a small mouth he cant bite us. so therefore almost completely harmless. But people are extremely afraid of them! Will refuse to touch them, or will kill them on site! But I also think that a fear of spiders could be conditioned. My son wasn't afraid of spiders until he saw daddy freak out about one. Daddy being the alpha in the family, the son looks up to him. If he sees that daddy is afraid, he will think that he needs to be afraid too. Daddy was also conditioned to be afraid of spiders. So it starts a cycle. Every time Bahnam sees a spider, he now screams and wants to kill it. Because he was conditioned to do so. But we have to realize that the things that we are afraid of, can also be a necessity So now we nicely "put the spider outside" so it can still live and be apart of the circle of life.
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