Conditioning Theories of Neurosis

Abstract

If it is accepted that the modification of the central nervous system through experience is the basis of most, if not all, human and animal behaviour, it should be clear why modern learning theory plays an important role in psychology. Learning and conditioning are pervasive determinants of behaviour, and insofar as the neurotic reactions are also learned reactions, they too are dependent upon the laws of learning (Eysenck 1959). Eysenck places great stress on the importance of experimental studies of learning and conditioning, and of learning theory for an understanding of the neurotic disorders. Joseph Wolpe, another figure whose name is closely associated with the classical conditioning model, has made the same point (Wolpe 1970).