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Related Concept Videos

Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness01:14

Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness

Avoidance learning and learned helplessness are critical concepts in understanding behavioral responses to negative stimuli.
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
Frustration and Conflict: Avoidance-Avoidance, Double-Approach Avoidance01:14

Frustration and Conflict: Avoidance-Avoidance, Double-Approach Avoidance

Avoidance-avoidance conflict refers to a psychological situation where a person must choose between two or more unpleasant alternatives. These conflicts are particularly stressful because neither option is desirable. This dilemma is often expressed in sayings like "caught between a rock and a hard place" or "between the devil and the deep blue sea." For instance, individuals who fear dental procedures may find themselves torn between enduring a painful toothache or facing the anxiety of...
Frustration and Conflict: Approach-Approach, Approach-Avoidance01:20

Frustration and Conflict: Approach-Approach, Approach-Avoidance

Frustration occurs when people are obstructed or prevented from achieving a desired goal or fulfilling a perceived need. For example, when someone's input is ignored in a discussion, it can lead to feelings of frustration. Conflict, however, arises from opposing interests, goals, or actions. Conflicts can take various forms based on the nature of these opposing desires or goals.
One common type of conflict is the Approach–Approach Conflict. In this case, a person faces two desirable options,...
Confirmation Biases01:31

Confirmation Biases

The confirmation bias is the tendency to focus on information that confirms our existing beliefs and ignore information that is inconsistent with our expectations. For example, if you think that your professor is not very nice, you notice all of the instances of rude behavior exhibited by the professor while ignoring the countless pleasant interactions he is involved in on a daily basis. Have you ever fallen prey to the confirmation bias, either as the source or target of such bias?
The Scientific Method02:40

The Scientific Method

Research is what makes the difference between facts and opinions. Facts are observable realities, and opinions are personal judgments, conclusions, or attitudes that may or may not be accurate. In the scientific community, facts can be established only using evidence collected through empirical research.
The Scientific Method01:32

The Scientific Method

The scientific method is a detailed, empirical problem-solving process used by biologists and other scientists. This iterative approach involves formulating a question based on observation, developing a testable potential explanation for the observation (called a hypothesis), making and testing predictions based on the hypothesis, and using the findings to create new hypotheses and predictions.Generally, predictions are tested using carefully-designed experiments. Based on the outcome of these...

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Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
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The search for knowledge and the avoidance of knowledge.

Robert Waska1

  • 1Private Psychoanalytic Practice, PO Box 2769, San Anselmo, Ca 94979 USA. drwaska@aol.com

Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
|November 14, 2007
PubMed
Summary

Patients often resist therapeutic knowledge due to fears of dependence, loss, or threat. This avoidance, driven by defensive postures and paranoid fantasies, hinders psychic change and learning.

Area of Science:

  • Psychoanalytic Psychology
  • Psychodynamic Theory
  • Clinical Psychology

Background:

  • Psychoanalytic therapy offers patients opportunities for self-knowledge.
  • Patients may react defensively to gaining insight into themselves.
  • This resistance can manifest as avoidance, denial, or aggression towards knowledge.

Observation:

  • Avoidance of knowledge stems from various defensive states and phantasies.
  • Knowledge can be perceived as a persecutory threat, evoking fears of loss and separation.
  • Issues of dependence and autonomy are often intertwined with the acquisition of knowledge.

Findings:

  • The ego may initiate a moratorium on thinking, feeling, and learning to defend against perceived threats.
  • Projective identification can lead to knowledge being experienced as dangerous or undeserved.

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Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm
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Experimental Research Examining How People Can Cope with Uncertainty Through Soft Haptic Sensations

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  • Paranoid phantasies can equate knowledge with dangerous dependence, inhibiting learning and change.

    • Implications:

    • Psychic change requires ego openness to new self-object experiences and tolerance of conflicting feelings.
    • Interpretation of transference and phantasy is crucial for overcoming resistance to knowledge.
    • Addressing the fear of knowledge is central to facilitating therapeutic progress and working through defenses.