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Glite Dictionary
conditioned emotion

conditioned emotion

7.7
An emotional reaction people learn when a neutral thing like a sound becomes linked with fear or pleasure
  • noun
  • /kənˈdɪʃənd ɪˈmoʊʃən/
  • Specialized
translation icon : emoción condicionada
  • The sound of the bell caused a conditioned emotion of excitement in the dog, as it was associated with feeding time.

Examples

  • Her fear of dogs is a conditioned emotion from childhood.

  • Over time, a conditioned emotion like anxiety can be learned in response to certain sounds.

  • The sight of the laboratory rat triggered a conditioned emotion of fear in the child.

  • Therapists work to help patients unlearn harmful conditioned emotions through exposure therapy.

  • The therapist explained how a conditioned emotion can affect behavior.

  • His conditioned emotion of sadness was triggered every time he heard the song that played during his childhood farewell.

  • After many sessions, she learned to manage her conditioned emotions related to public speaking through various coping strategies.

Synonyms

conditioned emotional response
vsconditioned emotion
7.2

An emotional reaction you learn when something is often linked with a good or bad event

focuses on repeated association with a neutral stimulus rather than general learning
CER
vsconditioned emotion
  • Specialized
9.9

An emotional reaction learned when a neutral thing is linked to something scary

is broader stressing repeated pairing rather than only using a technical term

Surface Forms

conditioned emotion singular
conditioned emotions plural

Morphology

conditioned + emotion

The meaning 'an emotional reaction acquired through conditioning' is directly derivable from 'conditioned' (established by repeated association) modifying 'emotion' (a feeling); this adjective + noun composition is fully compositional. While somewhat technical, the logic is transparent and cross-linguistically accessible, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would understand the MWE.

Etymology

The term conditioned emotion comes from experiments where a neutral sound or sight was always followed by something that caused a strong feeling, and after many repeats the neutral thing alone produced the same feeling. So conditioned means 'learned' and emotion means 'feeling', and the phrase refers to a feeling that is 'learned by association'.