Avoidance

Avoidance

By: Ramanpreet Kaur

6-14-17

Discussing Avoidance and Escape

Avoidance was discussed in the book and the slides provided for the “Psychology of learning” class. Being a part of the class, I found it interesting to write about avoidance and the topics that go alongside it. Escape and avoidance are two synonymous and linked terms that are promptly shown in our powerpoints by Professor Berg, as well as our very own “Learning and Behavior” textbook, which so greatly illustrates these two phenomenons.

One slide in the powerpoint had “Escape” as the title. Escape was discussed by the following: “Escape from rain by running indoors when it starts” is a scenario where one would benefit from escaping the situation. It would come into play since we are prone to run away from anything that has the potential to cause us harm or illness. In this case, the probability of individuals falling ill would be high because our body temperature would decrease unnaturally due to heavy rainfall. The end result would be a flu or a cold.

Falling ill is something that no one likes. We invariably are led to avoid certain things that cause illness. The same can be said to avoid heavy rainfall and downpour since our bodies are not used to getting sticky from the water, and then being forced to go home and take a long shower as a result. Furthermore, the itchiness and the uncleanliness that comes with that kind of water is annoying in itself. Hence, our motivation to take a leave from such situations (like rain).

Continuing forward our discussion of avoidance, I would like to compare how the scenario of avoidance is contrasted with the discussion of “Escape.” In the very same powerpoint, it states that avoidance would be the following: “Avoid the rain completely by getting inside before the storm starts.” I thought this was a wonderful point to make as when we don’t want to deal with a certain stimuli, we would just completely rule it out, and do anything it takes to avoid it. This is the same case and the same scenario. I found the topic of avoidance and escape to be extremely significant so much that I decided to write a post about it. It definitely makes for an interesting discussion. Hope to see some comments on this so we can learn from one another.