Behavioural Explanation of Phobias

Question 1

The Behavioural Approach:

Answer 1

• According to the behavioural approach, all behaviour, including phobias, are learned rather than being innate or inherited from parents.
• Abnormal behaviour can be caused by: 1) classical conditioning, 2) operant conditioning and 3) social learning theory.

Question 2

Two Process Model:

Answer 2

• Created by Mowrer (1947)

- Used to explain how phobias are learned through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning

Question 3

Classical conditioning: Watson & Raynor (1920):

Answer 3

• Conducted a lab experiment to examine whether a fear response could be learned through classical conditioning in humans
• Watson and Raynor gave a 11 year old boy referred to as Little Albert a phobia of white rats.
• White rat (neutral stimuli) was given, he was fond of it
• Loud banging noise (unconditioned stimulus) was presented which made him cry every time he reached for the rat
• Repeatedly paired (6 times over 2 weeks) the two stimuli together many times and present them together until classical conditioning and learning takes place
• When the white rat is now presented alone (conditioned stimulus), Lit Albert cries (conditioned response). Learning has taken place and an ASSOCIATION has been established
• Little Albert generalised his fears to other white and fluffy objects

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

• Classical conditioning is learning through association
• A stimulus produces the same response as another stimulus because they have been constantly presented at the same time
• This could be how phobias develop, as the stimulus the person is afraid of has, in the past, been associated with another stimulus.

Question 5

Eval of Classical Conditioning: Study on Little Albert can be criticised because it was…

Answer 5

…Only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated - not very reliable.
- The study could not be repeated nowadays due to ethical concerns

Question 6

Eval of Classical Conditioning: King (1998)

Answer 6

• Supports the ideas proposed by classical conditioning
• From reviewing case studies he has found that children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with the phobic object

Question 7

Eval of Classical Conditioning:

Many people who have a traumatic experience such a car crash..

Answer 7

• ..Do not then go on to develop a phobia, so classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop.
• The opposite is true for some phobias as some may have never had a negative experience but are scared of the object

Question 8

Operant Conditioning:

Answer 8

• According to operant conditioning phobias can be negatively reinforced where they avoid the phobia in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear and positive reinforcement occurs as avoiding the phobia is a reward therefore avoidance of phobia continues.
• Although classical conditioning can explain can explain why we develop a phobia, it struggles to explain why our phobias do no decay over time.

Question 9

Social Learning Theory

Answer 9

• Based on observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents have to a particular situation, and the child will copy this behaviour.
• Minneka: when 1 monkey showed a fear of snakes, the other monkeys copied the reaction