10. Key Question Learning Theories Flashcards
What is the learning theories key question?
‘Should airline companies provide treatment programmes, free of charge, for their passengers who have a fear of flying?’
How many people have aviophobia?
30%
So the key question is relevant as it’s a common phobia that people often see stories of online and on the news for example the plane crashes of 9/11 and the recent Singapore Airlines turbulence.
What does the fear of flying stem from?
-Fear of crashing
-Fear of not being in control
-Having a panic attack
-Fear of heights
-Being trapped with no escape
How much does a fear of flying course cost?
£100-£300
How would airlines providing free courses to help people get over their fear of flying benefit the economy?
(Discuss)
-It would enable more people to go on holiday abroad, work overseas, and have a generally improved quality of life.
-Furthermore, if no one was afraid to fly, the airlines will make money money as more people will be buying tickets and this money could go towards improving the inflight experience, or decrease the costs of airplane tickets. So the overall economy will be boosted.
How can classical conditioning be applied to our key question?
-Airline companies should provide treatment programmes for their passengers because most phobias of flying are acquired in their care.
-Initially airplane itself is the neutral stimulus.
-If a passenger experiences bad turbulence (unconditioned stimulus), the unconditioned response to that is fear.
-Likewise, using the principles of CC, systematic desensitisation treatment can reduce this fear.
How can social learning theory be applied to our key question?
(Discuss)
-Airline companies should not provide treatment programmes for their passengers because most phobias of flying are maintained due to people learning from someone else with aviophobia therefore the airline is not responsible for their fear.
-SLT can explain that a person may have a parent with aviophobia, this parent is a role model (who may be the same gender as the individual and will be high status and very familiar, so their behaviour is more likely to be imitated).
-The parent demonstrates the fear of flying numerous times in front of the individual, who observes their fearful behaviour, pays attention to it and then reproduces it, and will continue to imitate it and maintain the fear for as long as the parent shows their fear.
-An individual may maintain a fear of flying through vicarious reinforcement, by watching disaster movies which may feature famous actors who experience near death drama on a plane, this vicariously reinforces avoidance of flying due to the negative consequence seen for the movie actor.
-Therefore airlines should not provide treatment programs free of charge for people with aviophobia because it is pointless as the individuals fear will continue to be maintained as long as they are in the presence of a role model.
How can operant conditioning be applied to our key question?
(Discuss)
-Airlines cannot be held responsible for causing and maintaining phobias in their passengers due to acquisition and maintenance of phobias by operant conditioning.
-OC theory explains that a behaviour is continuously reinforced when the consequence is pleasant and will be less likely to be repeated when the consequence of the behaviour is unpleasant.
-A phobia could be created by positive reinforcement if a passenger had a mild fear of flying and likes to drive or get a ferry and then they decided to take these two alternative methods of transport instead of flying, so they’re mild phobia has been reinforced and may develop into a full blown phobia.
-The phobia may be maintained through negative reinforcement, if a person has a fear of flying, they will choose to avoid flying, by doing this they will feel relaxed. Because feeling relaxed is a pleasant experience, they will continue to repeat the behaviour of not flying. This is negative reinforcement as an unpleasant stimulus of fear is avoided.
-Furthermore, the fear of flying learned by operant conditioning cannot be treated by systematic desensitisation, so the airline would be wasting their money that could be spent on other things such as improving safety of the plane to prevent others having a fear of flying.
What study can be used to support the classical conditioning application of our key question?
Watson and Rayner (1920)
They were able to condition a fear of white rat into Little Albert using classical conditioning through repeated pairings of a white rat which Albert initially liked to touch and a very loud noise which caused him to be afraid.
How can classical conditioning be used to treat a phobia of flying successfully?
-Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response, such as anxiety, to a stimulus.
-SD involves an individual with aviophobia creating an anxiety hierarchy (for example 1st level being in an airport, final level experiencing a plane crash simulation) and learning relaxation techniques (breathing exercises).
-In the end, the individual will be unafraid of flying.
-However, the treatment doesn’t have an 100% success rate.
-For example in Capafons et al (1998) study on SD to treat aviophobia, the results were 90% of participants were successful but 10% of participants were unsuccessful in removing their aviophobia.
-Therefore airlines shouldn’t offer free aviophobia treatment as it uses SD which can be unsuccessful so they shoudn’t waste money on a programme that doesn’t work 100% of the time.
What study can be used to support the social learning theory application of our key question?
Bandura
-He looked at the effect aggressive role models have on children’s behaviour.
-In his study he found that children who had observed an aggressive role model were more likely to completely or partially imitate the aggressive behaviour.
-Therefore supporting that an individual exposed to a role model (such as a parent) who has aviophobia will result in that individual reproducing and maintaining the phobia themselves.
-In support of vicarious reinforcement by watching movie actors, Bandura’s 1963 study showed that children who had observed a filmed person or a cartoon role model would imitate behaviour and also in their 1965 research that children imitate behaviour by vicarious reinforcement if the model was rewarded for their imitated behaviour more than punished.
What study can be used to refute the social learning theory application of our key question?
-Bandura’s method has some methodical errors.
-He only used 66 children from 3 to 6 years old and used children from the same areas.
-Due to the fact they’re children they have different cognitive and moral development to adults so are not representative.
What study can be used to support the operant conditioning application of our key question?
Skinner 1938
-Skinner designed a special box called the skinner box to investigate operant conditioning.
-He demonstrated that behaviour that had a pleasant consequence, such as being given a food pellet would be repeated.
-While behaviour that resulted in punishment. such as a mild electric shock, would not be repeated.
-This shows how learning takes place depending on the consequence of a behaviour that can increase or decrease the likelihood of that behaviour being repeated.
What study can be used to refute the operant conditioning application of our key question?
-However it is hard to generalise the results of Skinner’s study to humans as it was an animal study.
-Humans have structurally different brains to rats and pigeons which means that we will learn differently in response to certain consequences.
-This is a weakness of Skinner’s study as the result that we learn by the consequences of our actions are not representative of the target population.
