Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias Flashcards
What does the behavioural approach emphasise?
the role of learning in the acquisition approach
What does the approach focus on?
-Behaviour- what we can see and it is geared towards explaining the avoidance, endurance and panic aspects of phobias
What did mowrer (1960) do?
-Proposed two-process model based in the behavioural approach to phobias
What does the two process model state?
phobias are acquired by cc and when maintained because of operant conditioning
What is the stage of Acquisition by CC?
-cc involves learning to associate something which we have initially feared (NS) with something that already triggers a fear response (UCS)
What is the Little Albert research (Watson and Rayner 1920)?
-Created a phobia for 9 month old
-No anxiety at start of study
-Shown rat- played with it
-Whenever rat presented- loud bang by banging iron bar close to albert’s ear
-Eventually became frightened when saw rat without noise (rat became a CS that produces a CR of fear
What happened to the conditioning when albert got the phobia?
-generalised- tested him by showing other furry objects (non- white rabbit, fur coat and Watson wearing santa beard made of cotton balls)
-little albert displayed at sight of all of these- demonstrating stimulus generalisation.
What does operant conditioning do?
Maintains phobia through negative reinforcement- responses acquired by cc usually decline over time but phobias long lasting as a result of oc
When does OC take place?
When our behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished
What does reinforcement do?
increase the frequency of behaviour (negative and positive reinforcement)
What is the explanation of negative reinforcement?
-individual avoids situation that is unpleasant (e.g. dentist)
-such behaviour (avoiding dentist) results in a desirable consequence meaning their behaviour will repeated
-therefore individual will avoid their phobic object or situation
