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Ghost Phobia

This document discusses ghost phobia (phasmophobia), an irrational fear of ghosts. It describes how phobias can be induced through conditioning, as shown in John B. Watson's experiments on toddler Albert which gave him a phobia of white rabbits. The media, like the movie The Amityville Horror, and telling ghost stories to children can contribute to inducing phasmophobia by fueling the imagination and creating unpleasant past experiences that increase fear responses. Research is proposed to understand how media, childhood stories, and actual past experiences each contribute to developing phasmophobias. The expected findings are that media is an important factor for teenagers, childhood stories shape imaginations, and any past bad experience, even

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Hamza yusuf
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474 views3 pages

Ghost Phobia

This document discusses ghost phobia (phasmophobia), an irrational fear of ghosts. It describes how phobias can be induced through conditioning, as shown in John B. Watson's experiments on toddler Albert which gave him a phobia of white rabbits. The media, like the movie The Amityville Horror, and telling ghost stories to children can contribute to inducing phasmophobia by fueling the imagination and creating unpleasant past experiences that increase fear responses. Research is proposed to understand how media, childhood stories, and actual past experiences each contribute to developing phasmophobias. The expected findings are that media is an important factor for teenagers, childhood stories shape imaginations, and any past bad experience, even

Uploaded by

Hamza yusuf
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GHOST PHOBIA

A phobia, the most common type of anxiety disorder, is a powerful, irrational fear.
There are many specific phobias. Phobic people try to avoid what they fear and, if
they cant, might experience panic, panic attacks, shortness of breath, trembling,
rapid heartbeat, lightheadedness, sweating and a strong need to escape.
Phobias can disrupt a persons life, damage self-esteem and strain relationships.
Although most people with phobias know their fear is irrational, merely thinking
about what is feared usually causes anxiety. Phobias can develop spontaneously
during any life stage or be induced. The intense fear of ghosts is called both
spectrophobia and phasmophobia.

Ghost Phobias
Many people feel an enjoyable thrill of anxiety when they read ghost stories, tell
tales about them and watch movies and shows featuring the entities. This fear can
become so intense for some that they develop a phobia.
There are people who fear the word ghost itself and its synonyms: phantoms,
specters, spirits, poltergeists, entities, apparitions, hauntings and phantasms. They
will go to any steps they think are required to avoid an encounter with a ghost, such
as sleeping with the lights on in the mistaken belief that ghosts only appear in the
dark.

Phasmophobias can be induced


Psychologist John B. Watson conducted experiments at Johns Hopkins University
that proved phobias can be induced. The subject of the experiment was toddler
Albert. They showed him a stuffed white rabbit or rat (accounts differ).
When Albert tried to touch the toy, Watson created a loud noise that scared the
child. Soon, the child reacted in fear when he saw the toy, evidencing that a phobia
was induced. Watson continued his experiments to prove that phobias can be
generalized. When the experiments ended, Albert exhibited phobic reactions to
similar white fluffy objects, including a cotton wad.

How the Media and People Can Induce Ghost Phobia


The Amityville Horror is a film thats considered one of the scariest movies about
ghosts. Its based on the book of the same name that was touted as nonfiction.

However, many psychotherapists consider it to be unreal, which was proved


afterwards.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

By how much past unpleasant experiences contribute towards


Phasmophobia?
By how much media (movies) and childhood ghost stories contribute towards
Phasmophobia?

METHODOLOGY

o
o

Primary research:
Questioners (from a sample of 30)
Interviews

Secondary research:
Scholarly articles

EXPECTED FINDINGS

Media acts as an important factor for phasmophobia in teenagers.


Childhood stories make an important contribution towards such imaginations.
Any past bad experience creates terror, the experience could be imaginary.

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