lesson 6 behavioural approach to phobias

Question 1

behavioural approach to phobias

Answer 1

-suggests that all behaviours including phobias cam ne learnt, and people who have an abnormality can learn negative behaviours
-two way process model: phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning, and maintained by operant conditioning

Question 2

classical conditioning phobias

Answer 2

-white rat presented on its own = neutral stimulus
-loud banging noise makes baby cry or have emotional response = unconditioned stimulus
-repeatedly paired together until classical conditioning and learning takes place, emotional response when they hear loud noise and see rat
-present white rat alone = conditioned stimulus, produces emotional response = conditioned response
-learning has taken place via classical conditioning and an association has been established

Question 3

classical conditioning study

Answer 3

-Watson and Rayner 1920
-Little Albert was 11 moths old
-three times a week then repeated the following week
-generalisation- the tendency to transfer a response from one stimulus to another that is quite similar
-recondition- remove the implemented fear, eliminate induced fear and relearn
-show people playing with white rat and then let him try a play again

Question 4

classical conditioning ao3

Answer 4

-Little Albert study can be criticised as it was only conducted once and findings have not been repeated, not reliable, questioned whether same results would be gained if repeated when investigating whether phobias can be learnt, cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns
-King (1998) supports idea, from reviewing case studies he found children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with phobic object
-some people do have traumatic experiences but do not then develop a phobia so classical conditioning does not explain all phobias, opposite is also true for some
-Menzies studied people with hydrophobia and found only 2% of his sample had encountered a negative experience with water due to classical conditioning, therefore 98% had phobias but had never had a negative experience involving water which means they had not learnt to become frightened of water due to classical conditioning

Question 5

social learning theory/modelling ao1

Answer 5

-based on observational learnt g whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents or family have to a particular situation and the child will copy this behaviour
-Minneka found that when one monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes the other monkeys copied this response and also showed fear, can be applied to humans

Question 6

operant conditioning ao1

Answer 6

learning a new response to a phobia that can result in reinforcement
negative reinforcement- avoids phobia in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear
positive reinforcement- rewarding feeling by avoiding phobia therefore avoidance continues

Question 7

two process model ao3

Answer 7

-limited as it ignores other factors that could cause phobias, does not take into account biological or evolutionary factors that could cause phobias, some people might have a genetic vulnerability to developing phobias
-explains development of phobias in young children and animals but not strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias
-Bandura supports idea, research conducted where a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded and participants had to watch reaction, later participants were given chance to hear the sound of the buzzer and they showed the same response, seems to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object
-involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learned and how they are maintained learnt by powerful classical conditioning/social learning, and maintained by operant, process seems to be accurate in explaining how phobias are learnt overall