32.

A person has a phobia of cockroaches. Explain this phobia from social learning and psychoanalyst viewpoint giving examples.

Phobias are defined are the irrational fear relating to a specific object, people or situations. The phobia of cockroaches can be categorized into a specific phobia.

Phobia from a social learning perspective: This theory suggests that people learn phobias by watching others. We use observation to learn things. We copy and imitate people because we think that it would get us rewards. So in this instance, the person who is having fear of cockroaches might have observed someone who has displayed fear which has been learned by the individual. Considering the social learning perspective, the behavior which is imitated is usually of the role model which the person has, consequently the person might have seen his parent or any role model displaying similar behavior.

Phobia from the psychoanalyst viewpoint: The psychoanalytic theory of phobias is based largely on the theories of repression and displacement. It is believed that phobias are the product of unresolved conflicts between the id and the superego. Psychoanalysts generally believe that the conflict originated in childhood, and was either repressed or displaced onto the feared object. The object of the phobia is not the original source of the anxiety. The phobia according to this perspective has an unconcious deeper meaning. The phobia with cockroach may have been displayed as a consequence of other situation which the individual has faced, but this is unconscious as propagated by Freud