AO3: BEHAVIOUR APPROACH TO PHOBIAS

Question 1

Weakness
environmental reductionism

Answer 1

reduces complex human behaviour of phobias down to simple basic units.
(stimulus,response and association between neutral stimulus and uncondition stimulus and maintaining through reinforcement)
Neglects holistic approach as doesn’t take into account people’s culture and social context which may influence phobias.
Lack external validity as it does not allow us to understand the behaviour in context.

Question 2

Discussion

Answer 2

Reducing complex human behaviour down to basic components can be a strength as it allows for treatment to be created.

Question 3

Practical appliaction

Answer 3

suggest phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and therefore can be unlearnt using classical conditioning.
This theory has been used to create systematic desensitisation. Works by teaching patient to relax and gradually exposing them to their phobic stimulus so they learn to associate their phobic stimulus with relaxation.
This helps to treat people in the real world and therefore the behavioural approach is an important applied psychology.