behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Question 1

Phobia

Answer 1

A type of anxiety disorder usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation, the effected person will go to great lengths to avoid typically disproportional to the actual danger posed by

Question 2

Behavioural approach

Answer 2

• emphasises the role of learning in forming behaviours
• avoidance, endurance, panic
• Mowrer proposed a two-process model: classical conditioning and operant conditioning

Question 3

Classical conditioning of phobias

Answer 3

• learning to associate something we have no fear of (NS) with something that already triggers a fear response (UCS)

Question 4

Watson and Raynor

Answer 4

• little Albert case study
• rat paired with loud noises
• rat becomes associated with the noise and fear of rats occur
• was then generalised to similar objects: all white things

Question 5

Maintenance by operant conditioning

Answer 5

• responses acquired by classical conditioning tend to decline overtime, but phobias are often long lasting
• mowrer suggested that phobias continued because of operant conditioning
• operant conditioning takes place when behaviour is reinforced/punished
• negative + positive reinforcement increases frequency of a behaviour
• in negative reinforcement an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant, results in desirable consequences so the behaviour will be repeated
• therefore, mowrer suggested when we avoid a phobic stimulus we escape the fear and anxiety we would have suffered if we had remained
• this reduction in fear reinforces avoidance behaviour so the phobia maintained

Question 6

Strength: good explanatory power

Answer 6

• goes beyond purely classical conditioning and links to operant conditioning showing how phobias occur and have they are maintained
• important in treating phobias with therapy as it explains why patients need to be exposed to feared stimulus (gradual or flooding)
• prevention of avoidance behaviour causes the behaviour to stop being reinforced so phobia gradually declines

Question 7

Limitation: alternative explanation of avoidance behaviour

Answer 7

• not all avoidance behaviour associated with phobias are a result of anxiety reduction (agoraphobia)
• evidence that some avoidance behaviour motivated by positive feelings (safety)
• motivating factor to not leave house is not to avoid phobic stimulus but ti stay in safety
• hence why some agoraphobics can leave house with little anxiety if with trusted person, but not alone
• shows flaw in 2 process model that assumes avoidance is motivated by purely anxiety reduction

Question 8

Limitation: an incomplete explanation

Answer 8

• evolutionary factors?
• past of avoiding dangerous, biological preparedness = innate predisposition to acquire such fears
• some phobias don’t follow trauma? Cognitive aspects? Social learning theory of modelled emotions?