Pavlovian Conditioning
The fear of dentists is common among people of all ages. Individuals with Dentophobia are afraid of meeting the dentists and end up avoiding scheduled or necessary visits to a dentist. Dentophobia may present severe consequences to individuals since individuals with the phobia cannot obtain dental services. A young girl has visited the therapist’s clinic claiming to have significant fear for dentists. The client does not know the specific cause of the anxiety, but several factors are possible. First, dentists tend to be cold and cruel, and individuals who have had negative experiences with dentists may have the phobia. Also, the little girl could be afraid of pain either due to the belief that dental procedures are painful or from experience. Additionally, the little girl could be fearful of the side effects that may come along dental procedures such as numbness and gaggling.
Pavlovian conditioning involves the learning from response created by a neutral stimulus on a potent stimulus to elicit a particular reaction. Responses differ between organisms, and phobia is one of the possible responses. For example, food may be paired with a bell to create salivation on a watching dog. The bell plays the role of accelerating the dog’s ability to notice the presence of food. In the case of the young girl’s phobia for dentists, Pavlovian conditioning can be used to account for the situation. The presence of a dentist causes the girl to become afraid. Also, the pain associated with dental processes may trigger the fear of the girl on dentists (Morgan & Porritt, 2017). Generally, the fear of dentists by the young girl is caused by the environment created by a dentist.
The case of the young girl may be based on different stimuli and responses. One possible conditioned stimulus is the presence of a dentist. For example, the girl could have had several experiences where any encounter with a dentist left her in pain. On the other hand, the girl could be having pain every time a dental procedure is done on her. Pain, in this case, becomes the possible unconditioned stimulus. However, pain qualifies as an unconditioned stimulus on the condition that the pain comes from a dental procedure. The conditioned response that the girl experiences is the fear of a dentist. The girl admits to being afraid of a dentist regardless of the procedure to be carried out on her. Generally, the girl’s fear could be affected by both conditioned and unconditioned stimuli.
Extinction happens where the conditioned response decreases with time or even disappears. For example, the extinction of the girls fear of dentists can be defined as where the girl no longer fears dentists. The treatment process may involve convincing the girl that dentists are positive and are only trying to help her. Also, the girl may be advised to choose painless dental procedures.
Spontaneous recovery happens when the conditioned response appears after some rest period (Powers, Mathys & Corlett, 2017). For example, the little girl could stop fearing dentists for a short period before the fear comes back. Renewal happens where extinction has occurred, but the conditioned response reappears after the previous environment is revisited. Moreover, reinstatement happens where the response is postponed but does not become extinct. For example, the reaction occurs when tested later. The recovery of the young girl is dependent on whether spontaneous recovery, renewal, or reinstatement will occur.
In sum, Dentophobia is common among all ages. The fear should be treated to avoid the severe consequences of not visiting the dentist. Pavlovian condition accurately accounts for the case of the young girl. The extinction of the conditioned response measures successful treatment.
References
Morgan, A. G., & Porritt, J. (2017). Background and prevalence of dental fear and anxiety. In Dental Fear and Anxiety in Pediatric Patients (pp. 3-19). Springer, Cham.
Powers, A. R., Mathys, C., & Corlett, P. R. (2017). Pavlovian conditioning–induced hallucinations result from overweighting of perceptual priors. Science, 357(6351), 596- 600.