Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Trauma as Classical Conditioning

At around five years old a family member of mine was cleaning the basement near the workout equipment and had just finishing dusting. They bumped into some equipment and the cord snapped releasing 150 pounds of metal and weights on to their hand.  They ended up breaking their hand in several places and getting surgery for a plate in their hand as well.  Their reaction was of course horrific and painful but at the same time it stuck with them afterwards.  To this day they still wont dust or clean near the equipment to prevent such an injury of ever occurring again.  This case was classical conditioning because bumping into the machine was the unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned reaction was the breaking of the hand.  The neutral stimulus was the cleaning/ dusting and the conditioned stimulus is the cleaning followed by the conditioned response to avoid the cleaning by the equipment to prevent further injury.

Now although this doesn't relate at all to the article besides both being classical conditioning, it still follows the grid of classical conditioning

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