What is obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD? OCD is a disorder of the brain and behavior that causes severe anxiety to those affected. These obsessions and compulsions, associated with this disease, can disrupt the days of the individual diagnosed with this disorder. OCD can get in the way with your day-to-day activities and it can make simple things much more difficult. In class a video was shown where a young women with OCD washes her hands so thoroughly that her skin has become discolored. She is so worried about germs that she uses her feet for most actions that require yours hands, like opening door handles and picking up items. These obsessions can be characterized by Thoughts, images, or impulses that occur over and over again and feel out of the person’s control. They can also They come with uncomfortable feelings, such as fear, disgust, doubt, or a feeling that things have to be done in a way that is “just right.” Some common obsessions are fear of germs, fear of stealing things, fear of being responsible for something terrible happening such as a fire or burglary. One OCD case that I have observed is inability to decide to whether to keep or discard something. A close family member of mine experiences this. When trying to help throw out items she has had for years it quickly escalates to screaming and yelling. She has had cloths in her closets from when she was in her twenties. She is now 52. The items are cloths that no longer fit and outdated, but yet she cannot come to terms with the thought of the item being thrown out, or even give away. While going through her items, you could see her body language and see how tense she was at the fact that other people where touching her stuff and she wasn’t in control of what was staying and what was going. My family member to my knowledge has not been diagnosed but I am aware that she sees a therapist. She could have been diagnosed and decided to share that with us. OCD disorder is generally treated with medication such as anti-anxiety medication, and anti-depressants. Some medications can take up to 10 weeks to take effect, and have some nasty side affects. Another form of treatment is psychotherapy, specifically cognitive behavior therapy. This type of therapy gives the client a different way of thinking, behaving, and reacting to situations that will help them when these compulsions take effect. For many individuals diagnosed with OCD has been traced back to their younger years. Most OCD starts during childhood and teen years. Symptoms can come and go and be better or worse. OCD currently affects 2.2 million American adults, and is a disorder that under the right care can be managed.

Imagine learning how to do everything that you know today by reading it from a book or listening to someone describe it. You would have to continuously reread passages and play back voices and ultimately take way too much time trying to do simple tasks like brush your teeth or play a sport. Luckily, we don’t have to go through difficult procedures to learn most common tasks because we use observational learning. Observational learning is learning how to do something by watching, remembering, and repeating a new action.

In class we learned about observational learning in the form of a bobo doll. Children would learn and copy what they had seen with the bobo doll, which was to hit, kick, and throw the doll all around. Even if they were not violent kids to begin with, they would copy the behavior of the people that they saw interact with it before them. This shows how powerful observational learning can be because it can influence people to act in certain ways based on only the knowledge of what they have seen previously.

When I was a child I had to use observational learning to figure out how to ride a bike, and it was the best way that I could’ve learned how to do it. Since I was little, there was no way I could have been able to learn the motion of how to move my legs and the pedals without watching someone else do it first. After seeing my siblings ride their bikes, I was able to mimic their motion and eventually learn how to ride a bike. The same idea goes for sports. When I was learning to play lacrosse as a kid, I started off not knowing how to even pass the ball. It is not something you can explain to someone because you have to be able to feel it and create the correct motion to complete a pass. I would play with my dad and just watch him and see how he moved to throw the ball and try to copy exactly what he did and eventually it worked out. If I was given the equipment and a wall without someone to copy I would never have learned how to make a pass.

Observational learning is the key to acquiring most of our basic skills and without it, every day tasks would be nearly impossible. Just try explaining something simple to a friend with only words and I can almost guarantee that they will mess up somewhere. It is an essential part to our learning capabilities.

Originally, the concept of disorders were not considered a sickness of the mind. It wasn’t until the 1800s where people began to think this resulting in the creation of  classifying psychological disorders by using classification systems to describe disorders. The real question was what was actually considered normal or more so what was even considered abnormal? A fine line lies between normal and abnormal. The distinction between normal and abnormal allowed disorders to  become distinctive and have highly specific definitions and symptoms. This allowed doctors diagnose someone if their behavior matched up with the definition and symptoms. The description of disorders allowed diagnosis and then treatment to occur.

Though the description of the disorder seems clear and it is easy for doctors to figure out how to treat a patient based on their symptoms, based on my personal experience I feel in some way diagnosis’ are capable of being inaccurate or not the best thing for the patient.

Specifically, the mood disorder depression contains many symptoms and specific guidelines for a person to be considered depressed. Signs of tiredness, feeling of worthlessness, loss of interest in family and friends, loss of interest in activities, gloomy/sad for more than two weeks is considered major depressive disorder. Depression is considered a worldwide disorder and is rather common. Many people seek professional help for depression. Depression usually occurs to a past or current loss in life for example the death of a loved one. Depression usually slows the person down and defuses aggression and restrains risk taking. There is no time boundary on depression on how long it can last or when it can occur.

From a perspective view someone with depression basically detaches his or her self from the world. They remain in a gloomy state of mind and don’t see any positive light in life. Three years ago my brother was diagnosed with depression. Though yes once they are diagnosed they can seek medical treatment, his diagnosis caused bigger problems for my family. Because my brother was past the age of 18 and the doctor diagnosed him with depression, my parents could not seek any other help or force my brother to do anything due to his age and diagnosis. If he wasn’t diagnosis then my parents could have gotten permission to have my brother under their healthcare. He felt he didn’t have a problem so this diagnosis caused problems with getting the help he needed. He did not have to go to doctor appointments or therapy sessions if he did not want too which caused his behavior to get worse. And when it came to medication he sometimes would refuse to take it. Though yes he may have had signs of some depression I think he also had signs of obsessive compulsive disorder. He would obsess over talking about his past mistakes and having to pace back and forth all day every single day. It was the same routine.  He became pessimistic and even when people reminded him about the good things in life he saw nothing of it. His behavior caused stress and even sometimes was harmful to my family and I because it affected all of us. At one point we were beginning to think pessimistically because we thought he could never get better. Luckily things turned around and he is in a stable and content place in his life.

Interestingly, it is hard to distinguish why people behave the way they do. Though disorders help acknowledge somewhat what is happening, but I feel the diagnosis of disorders is rather sensitive. There is a fine line between normal and abnormal and abnormal behaviors could be a combination of things and not even classify into a certain disorder. The real mystery lies on why these disorders form or what happens to the  mental thought of the person with the disorder.

“I’m so depressed.” So many people have uttered this statement countless times to describe their feelings after a breakup, bad test score, lack of excitement in their lives, etc. I know I’ve said these words more times than I care to count. People throw around this term so lightly without stopping to think about the real meaning, the actual problem, behind this term. So, what really is depression?

Depression is psychological disorder classified by the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Medical Disorders) as having 5 or more of the symptoms listed. Some examples of criteria used to diagnose a person are feeling lethargy and tiredness, feelings of worthlessness, loss of interest in family and friends, and loss of interest in activities persisting within the last 2 weeks. The biological explanation for depression lies in the reduction of neurotransmitters norepinephrine and serotonin. Sometimes individuals can be predisposed to depression due to their genetics. However, many people also develop depression from self defeating beliefs and a negative explanatory style for events that happen in their life. They tell themselves that it’s their fault something bad happened to them or that they’ll never overcome a negative thing that happened. This leads to a depression cycle that begins with a stressful experience that after being explained in  a negative style, results in a depressed mood. This ultimately results in cognitive and behavioral changes, and the cycle continues. Individuals with depression may feel like there is no way out of the cycle, and may begin to have suicidal thoughts. However, medications can be administered to these people that balance out their neurotransmitter levels and help them recover.

A few of my friends have been legitimately diagnosed with depression, and I have seen the effect it has had on their lives. They’ve struggled with thoughts of suicide and hopelessness. Many times they’ve talked about their lack of desire to go on, and they feel like nothing matters anymore. My one friend in particular had struggled with very severe depression and thoughts of suicide, turning to drugs and alcohol for relief. She finally went to get medical help, and, today, is leading a more stable and normal life with the help of medication. Even though people throw around the term lightly, there are many that actually suffer from depression. With such serious consequences like suicide, depression is no joke.

One very interesting psychology subject is classical conditioning. This is a type of learning in which an organism learns to associate  stimuli. There are many classical examples of this. Pavlov had a very interesting experiment in which he would make a dog salivate at the playing of a tone.

I also had a similar experience to classical conditioning with my own dog. Although this time, the conditioning was by accident. I have a yellow lab at home and to this day, she loves to bark at animals on the TV. She for some reason still has not figured out that they are not real. So when the K9 Advantix commercial came out with the cute puppies running around and a catchy jingle, my dog would love to bark at it. She began to see this commercial more and more and still would bark at it every time. It got to the point where she would hear the jingle, and just automatically start barking as soon as she heard this. She didn’t even need to see the actualy commercial she only needed to hear it. There were actually times when she would be in another room when the commercial would come on and she would come running out into the living room to bark at the TV because she knew their would be dogs on it. This is a great example of classical conditioning, even though it was not on purpose. The unconditioned stimulus was the commercial itself with the jingle. The Unconditioned response was her barking at the TV because of the dogs running around. The conditioned stimulus was the jingle itself on the commercial. And the Conditioned response was when she learned to associate the jingle with the commercial, she would then come barking out to the TV even though she had not seen any dog on the TV, she only needed to hear the sound of the jingle now.

Many people use the term OCD lightly. People don’t realize that OCD is a serious thing that can control people’s lives. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder. Some people may do things everyday such as check that they turned the stove off several times before leaving the house, but that is just out of habit. People with OCD must complete rituals even if it interferes with their life.

Rituals are stressful to people with OCD. They are controlled by these rituals it is not a choice. I get really paranoid when I’ve used my hair straightener and have to check many times it is off and unplugged before leaving my room. It drives me absolutely nuts if someone’s tag is hanging out of the back of their shirt and I’ll tuck it in and say “Sorry, little OCD”, but now I know that I shouldn’t use this term lightly. People do truly suffer from this disorder and it is a troubling issue for them. I have a choice whether or not to check my things are unplugged before I leave or tuck someone’s tag in. These things are just habitual for me. They do not control my life, distress me, or interrupt my daily life.

The outcome of classical conditioning can be taught, and is most likely always used to teach animals and people to produce behaviours. Like discussed in class, the pigeon that turns in circle to get its food is an example of classical conditioning.

When my dog was just a puppy, she seemed to have learned to produce a certain behaviour without us meaning for it. This all started because of the presentation of the unconditioned stimulus, her dog treat. Now, either she was smart, or we just shouldn’t have followed this dog training book:

My puppy always got into the newspaper and would chew it all up aggressively. The book instructed us to award the puppy with a treat whenever the puppy gets out of mischief as a form  of reward. Her unconditioned stimulus was that she would never get anxious and salivate for a treat when she would chew up newspaper. She learned to just get into the newspaper for the sake of her expecting the outcome of receiving a treat literally whenever she felt like it. Her salivating and expecting a treat by getting newspaper was her perhaps accidental or just smart conditioned response because of the conditioned stimulus of the newspaper. When she did not get her treat she would make it known! Do not train your dogs this way!

Classical conditioning, a psychological model that states when a conditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, a desirable response can be achieved when the conditioned stimulus is presented after a period of learning. This theory has many real-world applications: from teaching dogs new tricks, to child rearing, to learning new skills; classical conditioning can be very useful.

When first learning about classical conditioning in lecture, a certain anecdote from my past immediately surfaced in my memory. During the summer leading up to my freshman year at Penn State, I worked as a camp counselor at an overnight summer camp, where I was in charge of about twenty middle-school aged kids at a time. One of the weeks I worked there, a foundation for Deaf and HOH children brought a group to the camp, and I was one of the counselors in charge of them. Communicating with them through words was very difficult, as none of them could hear well, and all were far too hyperactive to pay enough attention to read our lips or watch for our signing.  So, in order to get these kids’ attention, my co-worker and I came up with a series of obnoxious dances for activities such as mealtime, bedtime, or pool trips. Naturally, when the children experienced this for the first time, they were incredibly confused. However, by the second day, every one of them were conditioned to know that when I began to do cartwheels, it was time to calm down and head to the cafeteria to eat.

Classical conditioning is also responsible for my debilitating phobia of worms and dislike of apples. When I was a young boy, my parents grew apple trees in my front yard. Being hungry yet unable to reach any of the apples on a tree, I decided to select an innocent looking fruit from the ground. After taking a bite into the juicy apple, I looked inside to find half of a worm painfully wriggling around and proceeded to get violently sick. Because of conditioning, I get panic attacks at the sight of worms and still feel uncomfortable when apples are in the room almost sixteen years later.

It’s so impressive how our brain is able to associate otherwise unrelated objects or incidents and generate a response. Hopefully some day, I can undo the effects of classical conditioning on myself and be able to enjoy a refreshing apple or go for a run on a wet day without having to worry about seeing any worms.

In my daily life, I can see how Operant Conditioning works. One of my cats named Jefferson at home that we recently adopted learned to patiently sit on command for his food. My mom and I decided that since my sister taught her cat to do all sorts of things, why not try it on our cat? So, whenever it was feeding time, we gave Jefferson his favorite food either when he sat by mistake or because we forced him to sit. Then, we immediately gave him the food after he completed the action.  In this situation, the food is a positive reinforcement because Jefferson is receiving a desirable item that he particularly enjoys. He associates the command for ‘sit’ to receiving his reward, or reinforcement. Now, he responds to the word ‘sit’ immediately and sits for his food every time. He is so conditioned now that even before I say the word, he is already sitting for the food without any other instruction. In addition, Jefferson now sits for all sorts of other things such as treats and toys, even though he wasn’t conditioned to do this.  This is called generalization and is common with animals which are taught tricks. Based upon articles I have found, there are many tricks cats can learn just as well as dogs can. Cats are also demotivated, which means that the thing you want them to do must be highly probable for them to achieve or else they won’t engage in the activity. The key is to provide steps that gradually lead to the outcome you want. If you want to eventually make the cat do something without the reward, it’s important to gradually take the treat away. This prevents extinction, which is  when the response to the stimuli ceases. Some people have even taught their cats to use chopsticks attached to their paw and even “walking” on parallel bars. A common trick used today is to train their cat to use the toilet instead of a litter box. First, the litter box is set near the toilet. Then it is gradually raised until it’s actually positioned in the toilet. Then the litter box is removed and the cat continues to use the toilet. This can be reinforced with treats or food and can be accomplished eventually without the litter box. No matter the type of animal, there are all sorts of tricks pets can learn as long as the proper steps are used.

http://messybeast.com/intelligence2.htm#tricks