4.1.10 Acquisition & maintenance of phobias

Question 1

Define ‘phobia’.

Answer 1

An anxiety disorder which involves an extreme and irrational fear towards something that may cause panic attacks and avoidance

Question 2

What are the 5 different categories for phobias, give an example for each?

Answer 2

1) Animal
- Fear of spiders
2) Natural environment
- Fear of water
3) Blood/infection/injury
- Fear of blood
4) Situational
- Fear of public speaking
5) Other
- Fear of vomiting

Question 3

Briefly summarise the diagnostic criteria for having a phobia.

Answer 3

• A persistent fear that is triggered by the presence of anticipation
• Exposure to fear provokes an anxiety response, e.g. panic attack

-The person recognises the fear is unreasonable

-The situation is avoided

-Affects the persons daily routine

-Individuals are under 18, fear lasting 6 months

Question 4

In order, what are the 3 most common phobias?

Answer 4

1)Agoraphobia- open spaces
2) Social phobias
3) Animal phobias

Question 5

When are phobias likely to develop?

Answer 5

Childhood

Question 6

How would classical conditioning explain the acquisition of a phobia?

Answer 6

• associating a negative experience with previously neutral stimulus
• That is then conditioned to become the phobia

-It is most likely to happen through one trial learning

Question 7

Describe the scientific formula with the example of a dog attack for the acquisition of a phobia using 3 stages: before conditioning, during conditioning, and after conditioning.

Answer 7

1) Before
Dog (NS) –> No response
Attack/pain (UCS) –> Fear (UCR)
2) During
Dog (NS) + Attack (UCS) –> Fear (UCR)
3) After
Dog (CS) –> Fear (CR)

Question 8

How would operant conditioning explain the maintenance of a phobia, give 2 examples?

Answer 8

1) Avoiding the phobia through negative reinforcement
- Avoiding a situation that would involve public speaking
2) Avoiding the phobia through positive reinforcement
- Avoiding a spider by running away and feeling better after being further away

Question 9

What is the problem with operant conditioning and explaining phobias?

Answer 9

It offers no solution of how to extinguish the phobias.

Question 10

How would social learning explain the acquisition of a phobia, give an example?

Answer 10

Through observing and imitating our role model as many phobias are acquired in childhood
Through vicarious learning when watching a parent run away from a spider and feel better afterwards

Question 11

EACH-Evidence

Answer 11

P - Little Albert’s study supports
E - Little Albert was scared when shown a rat after associating the rat with a loud noise
E - Demonstrating that phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning, phobia of white,fluffy stimuli following pairing of presentation w rat and loud noise
P - Cook and Mineka’s (1989) research supports
E - Found monkeys developed a snake phobia by observing another monkey’s fearful reaction to a video
E - Showing that phobias can be acquired through social learning

Question 12

EACH-Evidence (W)

Answer 12

P - Dinardo’s (1988) research rejects
E - Found that 50% of dog phobics had unpleasant encounter whereas the other 50% who experienced unpleasant encounter didn’t develop phobia
E - Ignoring the cognitive factors showing that behaviourism as an explanation for phobias is not holistic enough
P - Freud’s research rejects
E - He suggested that phobias are repressed conflicts displaced onto socially acceptable objects
E - Which can explain having phobias of things that you’ve never encountered, which learning theories can’t

Question 13

EACH-Application

Answer 13

P - Yes
E - Due to knowledge of how phobias are acquired, methods such as systematic desensitisation and flooding have been developed to help treat them
E - Using classical conditioning to remove them

Question 14

EACH-Credibility

Answer 14

P - Reductionist
E - Only looks at situational factors when acquiring phobias
E - A bigger explanation is needed as it ignores dispositional factors
P - Deterministic
E - Theories say that a bad experience will give someone a phobia, meaning they have no control
E - Doesn’t account for individual differences and cognition of processing the bad experiences

Question 15

EACH-How?

Answer 15

P - Watson and Rayner have high validity
E - They tested Albert’s response to the stimuli of a rabbit and rat before conditioning began and selected him due to being considered as unemotional
E - Therefore cause and effect of a fear of the rat can be established as he wasn’t previously scared of it
E - Therefore
P - Cook and Mineka lack generalisability
E - Uses monkeys as ppt
E - There are qualitative differences between the brains of animals and humans