Behavioural Approach to explaining and treating phobias Flashcards
Cook and Mineka (1989) - argues against two process model
Aimed to test whether some phobias are learned more easily than others.
Monkeys in the wild are very scared of snakes, but aren’t innately.
-Lab monkeys had never seen a snake or a rabbit before.
-the monkeys were shown a picture of a snake and a video next to it of their mother acting fearfully. Then the same was done with a picture of a rabbit.
Results: the monkey learned to be afraid of the snake but not of the toy rabbit.
Conclusion: that monkeys are biologically prepared to fear snakes but not rabbits.
Gilroy (2000) support for systematic desensitisation
Aim- to identify the best treatment for phobias (systematic desensitisation)
-45 patients, split in to 3 different treatments: a) computer aided vicarious exposure. b) therapist-delivered live exposure. c) relaxation placebo (without exposure).
- each group received three 45 minute session.
Results: both the computer and live exposure were more effective than the relaxation placebo treatment.
Follow up: 42 were followed up 33 months later and improvements were maintained
Barlow (2002) supports flooding
Aim was to see the effectiveness of flooding (excessive exposure straight away, going straight in the deep end).
Concluded: that flooding is often just as effective as systematic desensitisation, but it relies on the patient being willing to undergo flooding.
Watson and Rayner (1920)- little Albert - supports classical conditioning
Aimed to test whether phobia could be learned by conditioning
A case study where an 11month old baby was shown a white rat and this was paired with a loud, frightening noise repeatedly
Found that Little Albert started to show fear and avoidance to the rat (which he had NOT been scared of at the start)
This result is consistent with the theory that fears can be acquired through classical conditioning, because Little Albert appeared to have associated the white rat with the frightening loud noise.
What’s the behavioural explanation of phobias?
Mowers two-process model
What’s mowers two-process model?
Classical conditioning- where the person associates the phobic object with fear due to a frightening experience.
Operant conditioning- when the person learns to avoid or escape from the phobic object because their fear reduces whenever they get away from the phobic object. The escape reinforces their fear of the object.
Show how classical conditioning works
Unconditioned stimulus (chocking on
button ) — unconditioned response (fear)
=
Conditioned stimulus (button) — conditioned response (fear)
Show how operant conditioning works
Button-fear-avoid all buttons-fear reduces-avoidance negative reinforcement
What is generalisation of phobias
When your phobia is generalised to other objects e.g. Phobia of buttons causes fear of all round objects.
What’s observational learning of phobias
Where you see someone have intense fear of something therefore you get those symptoms (bandura and rosenthal)
Mower (1060)
Aim- to see the role of operant conditioning in phobias
Method- classically conditioned rats to fear the sound of a buzzer with an electric shock
- rat was put in a cage that they could jump out of.
Results- when the rat heard the buzzer it jumped out of the cage with out the shock
Conclusion- supports operant conditioning.
Bandura and rosenthal (1966)
Aim- to find evidence for the observational learning of fear
Method- participants saw a man hooked up to electrical lab equipment
-when a buzzer sounded the man quickly pulled his hand away and looked in pain, they saw this a few times
Results- after seeing it a few times participants started to show signs of fear at the sound of the buzzer even if they’re weren’t being shocked.
Strengths and weaknesses of behavioural explanations of phobias
Strengths- considerable evidence behind it with studies on both human and animals
- has had a great impact on treatments such as flooding and systematic desensitisation.
Weaknesses- many have frightening events but don’t Aquire phobias
- some peoples phobias may not be due to events (biological reasons)
- doesn’t take in to account the effect of our cognitive thoughts on phobias
- doesn’t explain why phobias are much more common in some areas than others.
What are the two treatments for phobias
Systematic desensitisation and flooding
Explain wolpe’s systematic desensitisation procedure
- Patient trained in deep muscle relaxation
- Patient and therapist draw up a fear hierarchy
- Patient gets in to relaxed state
- Patient asked to imagine of encounter the first step on their hierarchy until they feel no more fear
- Move to the next step on the hierarchy and then to real life exposure
- Patient usually given homework.
