Facing Our Fears
The professor of my Monday-night abnormal psychology class has a sweet manner about her that is so undaunting that is a bit unnerving. She pleasant beyond reason. The topic of discussion last night was how to help people overcome their irrational fears. The professor, whose fear of spiders was so intense as a child that she would not go on family vacations for fear of the daddy longlegs at the campsite, had asked a class member to catch and bring in a spider so she could demonstrate the technique of modeling. This is when a phobic person watches a nonphobic interact with the object of fear without problems.
When the girl brought the spider in its jar to the front of the class, the professor took a quick step back and said, "That's quite far enough," in her usual agreeable tone.A volunteer from the class came up to handle the spider while the class squealed in semi-controlled horror and delight. The teacher just stood back and said, "See? I am already feeling more calm watching her handle it." Just then the spider scurried from the girl's hand and wound its way around the wrist and forearm at a very quick pace. "Oh, that's a bit faster than I had planned," said the teacher nervously. After calming herself, she reached out and put her hand next to the spider on the girl's arm. She retracted suddenly, her phobic reflexes kicking in. She gained composure and reached up again, supposedly hoping the spider would crawl onto her arm.
Just as she reached her hand out again, the spider bolted down towards the girl's elbow and dropped off the edge, falling to the floor. Girls screamed, guys gasped, and one especially jittery girl jumped up onto her chair. The professor screamed, "Too fast!" and slammed her foot down on the spider's little body. The class let out a wave of sound followed by a shocked silence. The silence was broken occasionally by stifled laughter.
"I apologize to those of you who like spiders. It was just too fast." Her voice had immediately returned to pleasant, though her face looked more stoicly happy than comfortably relaxed.
Amid the increasing laughter, a girl raised her hand and asked, "Doesn't killing the spider just reinforce your fear of spiders?"
"Yes, um hm," she answered.
I believe it also reinforced little Charlotte's fear of humans. So much for experiential learning.
posted by Limon @ 1:51 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I have a fear of spiders too, but if i were trying to make a point in class about irrational fears i would make someone else look like the fool.
Your experience almost makes me want to take psych classes--just for that professor.
And death to spiders.
Limon, I seriously clasped my hand over my mouth and started uncontrollably giggling while I read that. Wow. I wish I'd been there!
Wow. So I'm confused why your teacher thinks it's a good idea for anyone, phobic, non-, or undeclared, to "handle" a spider. I mean, unless it's like a tarantula. Because those are about fifty times uglier and scarier than normal spiders but apparently less likely to bite your wrist off and leave you with a pussy wound that they feed off of until you die, judging by the number of people that keep the beasts as pets.
Poor Charlotte. Let us all have a moment of silence for her. . . .
You should try that same experiment with Kelly.
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A fine spider story.
One time when I was in sixth grade there was a quarter sized spider crawling across the desktops, well my classmates dared me to eat. I was a pretty big idiot then and I was a sucker for a dare so I just opened my mouth and slurped it up. No one could believe it, the whole class started freaking out. I got many compliments over the next two periods so it was well worth it. Then I went into the bathroom to relieve myself and I started caughing and the next thing I know I am hacking up a whole spider. It was even cooler than eating it. I'll never do that again. And I ate 5 cockroaches last summer in las vegas.
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