Essay 1
Temperament refers to the innate traits or characteristics of an individual. It is an individual’s nature and specific aspects of their personality that they are born with. This is what determines how different people react emotionally. As such, it plays a significant role in influencing a person's behavior. For instance, temperament is clearly illustrated in children's traits and emotional reactions. Some children react negatively in new situations, while others tend to be more flexible and relaxed when interacting with their external environment.
On the other hand, preparedness refers to the tendency of people to establish some form of association between particular stimuli and responses. Behavioral psychologists consider this concept as the primary doctrine in the study of classical conditioning. For instance, developing taste aversions towards specific foods is a typical example. If someone consumes a particular food and ends up getting sick afterward, they will tend to avoid eating that food again in the foreseeable future. This is, regardless of whether that food was the cause of the illness.
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Phobia exists when we perceive things as potential threats to our safety and general well-being. Things like deep seas, dangerous heights, spiders, and snakes could prove to be potentially deadly to us. Biological preparedness tends to compel us to associate fear with these things. We develop fear so that we reduce the probability of coming in contact with these possible dangers. This increases our chances of survival. Temperament may also lead to phobia towards an object or situation. In most cases, these specific phobias are triggered when children encounter things that they fear. Due to their temperament, this fear is usually excess and uncontrollable. As a result, they tend to avoid situations or objects that will trigger their fear.
Essay 2
According to Richard Solomon, emotions occur in pairs, and we can trigger one by suppressing the other. These emotions do occur in opposing pairs like pain and pleasure, depression and contentment, fear and relief. If a primary reaction (state A) occurs, it will inevitably be followed by a secondary opposing reaction (state B). For instance, an emotional event that inspires fear will most likely be accompanied by an after-feeling of relief and vice versa. The theory further suggests that a prolonged and repeated exposure to a particularly emotional event will lead to the weakening of state a reaction and strengthening of state B in relation to intensity and duration. Thus, in the long run, the after-feeling of relief will become the predominant emotional experience associated with that given stimulus event.
This theory shows that a primary a-process is activated directly by an emotion-eliciting event, which is, in turn, followed by a secondary b-process. This opponent opposing process tends to restore the organism's emotional homeostasis state. However, with time, after repeated exposures, this state changes- state a response generally weakens while b strengthens. A good illustration of this is how people’s reactions shift after several roller coaster rides. Initially, they have an unpleasant fear, which is, over time, replaced by feelings of joy and exciting experience. Another example of Solomon’s opponent-process theory is in drug use. The first use of drugs results in intense euphoria and heightened feelings. Over time the drug wears off, leaving an individual with an existing adverse withdrawal reaction. This makes it hard for the user to return to their original heightened state.
