PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISMS OF PLACEBO ACTION: CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND EXPECTANCY

• Authors: Babel P.
• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The aim of the paper is an attempt to show the relationships between two main contemporary theories of psychological mechanisms of placebo action: classical conditioning and expectancy.Two main contemporary theories of psychological mechanisms of placebo action are presented: classical conditioning and expectancy. The relationships between them are discussed. Arguments are presented for the thesis that the theories does not exclude each other but the range of phenomena they explain is not completely the same. Conditioning involves either conscious learning (acquiring and changing expectancies) or unconscious learning (conditioning not mediated via expectancies). Expectancies are always potentially consciously accessible. They can be acquired and changed by both conditioning and other procedures, for example verbal information. Summing up, either conscious learning (expectancy and conditioning) or unconscious learning (conditioning) can be the mechanism of placebo action.

Keywords

EN

CONDITIONING; EXPECTANCY; PLACEBO EFFECT

Discipline

• PSYCHOLOGY: PSYCHOLOGY

• Publisher: Committee on Psychological Sciences PAS, Warsaw School of Social Psychology
• Journal: Psychological Studies
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 3
• Pages: 3-15
• Document type: ARTICLE

Contributors

author

Babel P.

• P. Babel, Uniwersytet Jagiellonski, Instytut Psychologii, al. Mickiewicza 3, 31-120 Kraków, Poland

Identifiers

CEJSH db identifier

07PLAAAA02364940