Behaviorual Apporach To Phobias Flashcards
What is the main idea
The fear and avoidance behaviour in phobias are learned as a result of experience
So phobias can be unlearned
What is mowrers two process model
Classical conditioning - association of the phobic object which fear due to frightening experiences
Operant conditioning - person learns to avoid or escape because their fear reduces. This is negatively reinforcing the avoidance behaviour and maintains the phobia
Outline and evaluate Watson and Rayner - little Albert
11 months old boy presented with a white rat, initially showed no fear
Scared Albert with a loud clanging noise and the rat together
Albert became classically conditioned to fear the rat itself, and his fear generalised to all other furry things
- he couldn’t be deconditioned - unethical
He needed top up conditioning to maintain the phobia
Outline mowrers study of operant conditioning
Classically condoned rats to fear a buzzer with an electric shock
Put them in a cage where they could escape by jumping over a barrier
Jumping behaviour became negatively reinforced by reduction of fear
What is observational learning
People witnessing someone else experience fear become phobic of it - vicarious learning
What is generalisation
Fear generalises to other objects such as rats to all fury things
Outline bandura and rosenthal
Participants watched a confederate hooked to an electrical
When buzzer sounded they showed signs of pain
Participant began to show fear to sound of buzzer
Supports observational learning
Give weaknesses of the behavioural approach
- Doesn’t take into account distorted thinking
- many people don’t recall a frightening event and have a phobia of vice Versa
- can’t explain why some phobias are most common - eg spiders vs light switches
Give strengths of the behavioural approach
- Considerable conditioning evidence
- gave good treatments with strong effectiveness evidence
- high face validity - many people recall a frightening experience.
