Behavioural approach Flashcards
What two types of conditioning come under the behavioural approach?
- Operant conditioning
- Classical conditioning
What is classical conditioning predicated on?
What is operant conditioning predicated on?
- Association - - -acquisition of phobia
- Consequences - - -maintenance of phobia
What disorder will the behavioural approach explain & treat?
- Phobias
How does classical conditioning work to acquire phobias?
- The neutral stimulus (NS) does not initially cause a fearful response whereas an unconditioned stimulus does (UCS)
- During conditioning the NS becomes associated with the UCS & the unconditioned response (UCR) will gain the emotional response of fear when confronted with the now Conditioned stimulus (CS)
e.g. NS: Horse + UCS: Bite = UCR: Anxiety
CS: Horse = CR: Anxiety
How does operant conditioning work to maintain phobias?
- Avoidance of phobic stimulus, maintains the phobia as avoiding it reduces anxiety & reinforces it
- Example of negative reinforcement
i.e. the behaviour of avoidance is increased as it removes something unpleasant
e.g. avoidance of dogs is reinforced by absence of fear/anxiety experienced when the person uses strategies to avoid dogs
- So avoidance becomes a reward & increases avoidance further
Define stimulus generalisation?
Define higher order conditioning? -
- When a fear response acquired to a particular stimulus transfers to another similar stimulus (Yorkshire terrier becomes all small dogs)
- Conditioned stimulus of one experiment acts as the unconditioned stimulus of another
e.g. CS: Horse
NS: Bite + UCS: Horse = UCR: Anxiety
CS: Bite = CR: Anxiety
AO3 Behavioural explanation
Research support?
Watson & Raynor (1920)?
P - Theory has research support
E - Watson & Raynor (1920) conducted research on little albert in which they found the Albert developed a phobia through classical conditioning
E - They repeatedly (8 times) paired the rat (NS) with a loud noise (UCS) which caused fear (UCR)
- Little Albert began to fear (CR) to the white rat (CS) alone
L - Supporting research provides validity to the theory of environmental causes of phobic reactions
AO3 Behavioural explanation
Incomplete explanation?
P - Explanation is weakened by the fact not all incidences of trauma result in subsequent phobias
E - Suggests there are elements of cognition that mediate onset of phobia development as some people experience traumatic events & do not develop phobias
E - People may have a traumatic experience with a wasp yet won’t develop a phobia for wasps
L - Implies the learning account of phobias is incomplete & has issues with applying to real life
AO3 Behavioural explanation
Practical applications?
P - Good practical applications for treating phobias
E - Explanation has helped devise useful treatments to unlearn phobias based on two process model
- Systematic desensitisation involves using classical conditioning to create new positive associations between a previously feared CS
E -e.g. showing relaxation & calm with the previously feared item
L - Shows explanation had helped society & 20% that suffer phobias
AO3 Behavioural explanation
Environmentally reductionist?
P - Theory could be argued to be environmentally reductionist
E - Phobias can be reduced down to stimulus/response could be breaking the behaviour down too much, resulting in other relevant & applicable explanations
E - e.g. Snakes, heights, enclosed spaces can all be threatening, increasing chance of survival (Seligman)
L - Two process model of phobias is incomplete explanation
In the behaviourist approach what are the 2 treatments to phobias?
- Systematic desensitisation
- Flooding
What’s the aim of systematic desensitisation?
- Use principles of association (classical conditioning) to replace anxiety response (fear) with a relaxation response, removing the phobia
What are the 4 key features of systematic desensitisation?
- Fear Hierarchy
- Relaxation training
- Graduated exposure
- Reciprocal inhibition
Define fear hierarchy?
- Client & therapist construct a fear hierarchy
- List of situations where the client would feel anxiety, arranged from least to most anxiety production
Define relaxation training?
- Client taught techniques for relaxing
- Would include controlled breathing & muscular tension, using progressive muscle relaxation
- May include other techniques
Define graduated exposure?
What 2 ways can exposure be done?
- 6-12 sessions the client is brought into contact with their phobic object/situation
- Start at bottom of their fear hierarchy & work upward
- Each level of exposure client is encouraged to use their relaxation training until completely relaxed
- In Vitro: client imagines exposure to phobia
- In Vivo: Client is physically exposed to the phobia
Define reciprocal inhibition?
- Crucial feature of therapy
- Two opposite emotions (fear & relaxation) cannot co-exist simultaneously
- So under specific relaxation techniques you cannot be anxious
AO3 Systematic desensitisation
Research support?
Wolpe (1950s)
P - Research support for SD
E - Wolpe (1950s) reported 39 cases
showing desensitisation process rate of success was determined as completely/partially successful
E - Out of 39 cases, total of 68 phobias were treated, 62 of phobias (32 patients) were completely/partially successful (91% success rate)
L - Implies SD is an effective way of treating phobias
AO3 Systematic desensitisation
Superficial?
P - Psychologists argue SD does not deal with root cause of phobias so does not offer a full cure
E - SD may appear to resolve a problem, but this can result in new symptoms establishing (symptom substitution)
E - Patients develop phobic responses to new things
L - Implies therapy is superficial & provide temporary belief only
AO3 Systematic desensitisation
Strong Ethics?
P - Ethics of therapy can be argued to be stronger based on classical conditioning
E - The patient is given more autonomy in procedures & will only action when they feel comfortable
E - Therefore the patient is safeguarded & clearly protection from harm is upheld in the therapy
L - Therefore the patient is cared for during therapy & so the therapy should be praised for upholding ethical guidelines
AO3 Systematic desensitisation
Research against for limited use?
Craske & Barlow (1993)?
P - Research suggests systematic desensitisation is not the same for all phobias e.g. social phobias
E - Complex/social phobias (agoraphobia) do not respond well & relapse rates are high
E - Craske & Barlow (1993) found between 60% & 80% of agoraphobia sufferers show only some improvement after SD
L - Implies use of SD is only appropriate to certain phobias, so had limited use
What’s the aim of Flooding?
- Like SD it also bases on classical conditioning & works similarly to SD
- Exposure to the phobia is all at once vs gradual
- Aim of flooding is to expose sufferer to the phobic object/situation for extended period of time in a safe/controlled way
- Done through in Vivo methods (client physically exposed)
What are the 3 key features of flooding?
- Prior to exposure client learns relaxation techniques to help control their anxiety response e.g. 7/11 breathing
- Key principle revolves around fear being temporary e.g. adrenaline can only last so long before parasympathetic ANS kicks in
- Prolonged intense exposure creates a new association e.g. phobia & calm response through inability to escape/avoid the phobic situation eliminating the phobia
AO3 flooding
Research support?
Wolpe (1960)?
P - Flooding has research support from Wolpe (1960)
E - Wolpe found using flooding was effective in removing a girl’s phobia of being in cars
E - Girl was forced into a car & driven around for 4 hours until her anxiety diminished, demonstrating effectiveness of flooding
L - Shows potential for flooding as a treatment for phobias
AO3 flooding
Unethical?
P - Flooding is accused of being unethical, restricting its use, especially with children
E - Can be due to breach of 7 ethical guidelines
E - e.g. If someone is exposed to their phobia through flooding the protection from harm will be irrevocably broken
L - Means flooding may not be the most appropriate method to treat phobias
AO3 flooding
Cost effective?
P - Flooding can be viewed as cost effective in time & resources
E - Therapy only needs to be conducted once to ‘flood’ the patient
E - e.g. After the therapy the therapist will not have to intervene much further making it very efficient
L - This deposits the therapy is attractive to health care providers (NHS) who have been subjected to budget cuts
AO3 flooding
Limited use?
P - Like SD flooding is less effective in treating complex/social phobias (agoraphobia)
E - Social phobias involve more cognitive analysis vs specific phobias (arachnophobia) as they do not just deal with anxiety response but also unpleasant thoughts in a social situation
E - Flooding fails to deal with this element
L - Therefore the root cause of these phobias is not behavioural, implying flooding is inappropriate for their treatment
