Behavioural Approach to EXPLAINING PHOBIAS Flashcards
Aim of the case of little Albert
Watson and Rayner (1920)
If there is a negative association to learn a phobia -emotional responses learnt through classical conditioning
Procedure of
case of little Albert
Watson and Rayner (1920)
- White rat (Neutral stimulus) - Albert no response
- Loud noise (Unconditioned stimulus) - Albert - fear response
- Loud noise + white rat (UCS and NS) -Albert - Unconditioned Response
- White rat (conditioned stimulus) - Albert - conditioned response
Conculsion
case of little Albert
Watson and Rayner (1920)
The conclusion is classified conditioning is making an association with stimulus having negative impact
This causes irrational thoughts of phobic stimulus
Strength of
the case of little Albert
Watson and Rayner (1920)
Experiment
Controlled environment
Good control over extraneous variables
establish a cause and effect
increase validity
Strength of
the case of little Albert
Watson and Rayner (1920)
Phobias
People with phobias often recall the incident when phobia appears
Everyone who has a phobia can’t recall - may be traumatic
What is operant conditioning?
Term used by B.F Skinner -
People can learn to perform new behaviours through the consequences and if the behaviour is folloed by reinformcement , likelhood of that behaviour repeated increase in future (behaviour is strengthened)
What is the positive reinforcement of classical conditioning?
Consequence which are pleasant and which bring about a repetition of behaviour
What is negative reinforcement?
Behaviour that is repeated in order to escape an unpleasant consequence
What is a punishment?
If behaviour is followed by a punishment then the likelihood of that behaviour is being repeated in future decreases (behaviour is weakened)
Explain phobias
Phobia of school
Continue as a positive reinforcement by being pleasant of the repetition of not going to school
avoidance of school (fear)
Negative reinforcement of learning affect
Punishment is going
Explain phobias
Phobia of heights
Positive of avoiding heights
Negative reinforcement -burden on social situations
Punishment is heights
What does social learning theory state?
Abnormal behaviour can be learnt by watching others and copying (modelling their behaviour)
Therefore phobias can be learnt by repeated positive reinforcement - feared person get attention
Structure of AO1 of behavioural approach to EXPLAIN PHOBIAS
- Behavioural approach
- Classical Conditioning
- Operant Conditioning
- e.g phobias
- Social Learning Theory
What does the behavioural approach assume?
All behaviour , normal and abnormal is learned from the envirnoment
What happens in classical conditioning?
Triggers and unconditioned stimulus (e.g loud noise_
triggers a natural reflex (natural fear)
but if another stimulus (seeing spider) occurs at the same time
elict the fear response
A limitation of behavioural explain phobias
not all bad experience lead to phobias
Some phobias do appear following a bad experience and it is easy to see how they could result in conditioning
People having a bad experience do not develop a phobia (e.g getting bitten by a dog)
Suggests that conditioning alone cannot explain phobias. They may only develop a vulnerability exists
Limitation
Alernative explanantion for avoidance behaviour
In more complex behaviour like agoraphobia, there is evidence that at least some avoidance behaviour is motivated more by positive feelings of safety
Explains why some agoraphobias are able to leave their home with a trusted friend with relativity little anxiety but not alone
Problem for the two-way process model - suggests avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction
A strength of the two-way process is it has good explanatory power
- The two-way model went beyond Watson and Rayner’s simple classical conditioning explanining phobias
- It has important implications for therapy. If a paitent is prevented frompractising their avoidance behaviour then phobic behaviour declines
- The application to therapy is a strength of two-way process
A limitation
The two-way process doesn’t properly consider the cognitive aspects of phobias
- We know behavioural explanations in genral are oriented towards explaining behaviour rathee than cognition (thinking)
- This is then two-way process model explains maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance - but we also know that phobias have a cognitive element
- The two-way process does not adequately address the cognitive element of phobias
