Freud and Skinner interpretation of anxiety
Conflict and anxiety are a fundamental part of every human beings life from, it could be argued, a prenatal stage to the inevitable death (Berk, 2004). Conflict can be defined as the emotional predicament people experience when they are placed in situations where difficult choices are to be made (Kosslyn & Rosenberg, 2004). This can be as simple as deciding if toast or cereal is going to be sufficient for breakfast, or as difficult as deciding when the right time to turn off a loved ones life support machine. Anxiety can be defined as a state of nervousness, fear, worry, unease or apprehension. The body's biological response to anxiety is a state of arousal, which may include symptoms similar to the fight or flight response (Kosslyn & Rosenberg, 2004). As with conflict, there are many daily situations in which one might experience anxiety, and the two emotions are far from exclusive of eachother. Theorists have long debated the cause and purpose for such emotions as conflict and anxiety. Namely, B. F. Skinner and Sigmund Freud who are perhaps the two greatest figures in psychology. Each proposed a grand theory that has had a tremendous impact on the field. With Freud, attempting to infer what goes on within the mind using hyp
Skinner provides an alternative 'utopia' in which he goes so far as to suggest that not only a more effective and satisfying society, but human emotion can be culturally constructed with careful and effective 'behavioural engineering' (Skinner, 1987). The Freudian psychodynamic theorists are somewhat different in their approach to and treatment of psychological phenomenon. He claims that people of the society are too individualistic and suffer unnecessary emotions, such as conflict or anxiety due to a poorly created society in which too many restrictions exist because of the nature of reinforcements and lack of opportunity available to most people. While Skinner's theories may appear to be complete opposite to a Freudian approach, he explained how his theory of behaviourism could be adapted to theories in different disciplines, including Freud's psychodynamic theory (Monte & Sollod, 2003). His initial proposition was that of 'seduction hypothesis', which entailed anxiety being a process that began in childhood due to a situation in which a sexually gratifying experience harboured emotions of guilt or unease because of its socially undesirable content. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. It could be argued that both Skinner and Freud did an excellent job in laying the ground work in which proceeding psychologists can build upon. Upon the use of these therapies Freud would analysis the information he omitted by his patients and attempt to attribute them to a cause. Freud, on the other hand, with his perhaps, in part, inconsistent psychodynamic approach attempts to explain behaviour and emotion through the long process of finding its origins and reasons. He places emphasis on operant conditioning, that being a repeat of a behaviour as a result of the particular behaviour being attached to a specific emotion and being reinforced. He then proposed that anxiety held its origins in the process of birth and was a consequence of the traumatic experience of being forcibly removed from the warmth and safety of the mothers womb into a cold and irritating environment (Wilson, 1997). He believed that all behaviour and emotion was determined as a result of ones genetics, environment and previous experiences or reinforcements (Monte & Sollod, 2003). The theory which Freud proposed held its foundations in the early years of childhood and sexual development. From a behaviourist perspective, Skinner's theory is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behaviour.
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