<p>I'm using C# &amp; .NEt 3.5.  What is the difference between the OptionA and OptionB ?</p>

<pre><code>class MyClass
{
    private object m_Locker = new object();
    private Dicionary&lt;string, object&gt; m_Hash = new Dictionary&lt;string, object&gt;();

    public void OptionA()
    {
        lock(m_Locker){ 
          // Do something with the dictionary
        }
    }

    public void OptionB()
    {
        lock(m_Hash){ 
          // Do something with the dictionary
        }
    }       
}
</code></pre>

<p>I'm starting to dabble in threading (primarly for creating a cache for a multi-threaded app, NOT using the HttpCache class, since it's not attached to a web site), and I see the OptionA syntax in a lot of the examples I see online, but I don't understand what, if any, reason that is done over OptionB.</p>

It's not what you're "Locking", its the code that's contained between the lock { ... } thats important and that you're preventing from being executed.
If one thread takes out a lock() on any object, it prevents other threads from obtaining a lock on the same object, and hence prevents the second thread from executing the code between the braces.
So that's why most people just create a junk object to lock on, it prevents other threads from obtaining a lock on that same junk object.