Lesson 6 - Classical and operant conditioning and the two process model

Question 1

What is the behaviourist approach?

Answer 1

This model suggests that all behaviours, such as phobias, can be learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operation conditioning.

Question 2

What is the two process model?

Answer 2

Mowrer’s Two Process Model

a. The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning

b. The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning

Question 3

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

This is a method of learning through association between two different stimuli.

Neutral stimulus - A white rat (no response)

Unconditioned stimulus - Loud banging noise (already provokes a fear response)

Pair these two stimuli together repeatedly to build up an association (present the white rat simultaneously with the loud banging noise)

Conditioned stimulus - A white rat (now produces a fear response on its own w/o the noise)

Question 4

Watson and Rayner (1920)

Answer 4

The Little Albert Experiment

• 11 month old ‘Little Albert’
• Watson and Rayner paired an unconditioned stimulus (a loud bang) which provokes a fear response (the baby would cry) with a neutral stimulus (a white rat)
• They repeated this 3 times, then 3 times a week later

Question 5

What is generalisation?

Answer 5

The similar objects to the conditioned stimulus eg. a white rat, result in a similar conditioned response. For example, a white rabbit may also evoke a fear response in the patient

Question 6

What is reconditioning? How does it occur?

Answer 6

This is the process of removing the association between the previously neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus. This could be done by pairing a positive stimulus with the object.

Question 7

Strengths of classical conditioning

Answer 7

King (1998) 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 e.g getting bitten by a dog may result in a fear of dogs.

Question 8

Weaknesses of classical conditioning

Answer 8

• The ‘Little Albert’ experiment can be criticised as it can only be conducted once, as it cannot be repeated due to the vast ethical issues associated with it. For example, the participant could not have given fully informed consent to the study and could not withdraw and experienced possibly long lasting psychological effects. This study is not repeatable and we cannot see if the same results could be yielded.
• One disadvantage of classical conditioning is that many people may be involved in traumatic events, such as a car crash, but do not then develop a fear of cars/driving. The opposite could be argued, that people do not have any form of traumatic experience but still develop a phobia. Therefore this explanation does not provide a full picture of how phobias develop.
• Menzies criticised the behavioural model and classical conditioning. He studied people who had hydrophobia and found only 2% of his sample had encountered a negative experience with water (classical conditioning). So, 98% of the sample had hydrophobia, but did not have any negative experience with water. Other studies find similar results, that only 50% of people who have a dog phobia had a negative experience with dogs. Therefore, learning is not a holistic explanation of causing phobias

Question 9

Social Learning Theory

Answer 9

Based on observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents or family have to a particular situation, and the child will copy this response. For example, if we see someone get bitten by a dog and start screaming, we may imitate this behaviour and we develop a phobia of dogs by observational learning.

Minneka found that when one monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes, the other monkeys in the cage copied this response and also showed a fear response to snakes too. This can be applied to humans.

Question 10

Operant conditioning

Answer 10

This involves learning and maintaining a response to a phobia through reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement - if someone is afraid of snakes, they will avoid them to reduce the risk of a fear response. This is avoiding ‘punishment’.

Positive reinforcement - by avoiding snakes, they receive a ‘reward’ which is safety. This encourages them to continually avoid the snakes and this maintains the phobia.

Question 11

Strengths of the two process model

Answer 11

• Bandura supports the idea of social learning theory. A piece of research was conducted whereby a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded, and participants had to watch this reaction. Later on the participants were given the chance to hear the sound of the buzzer and they showed the same response. Therefore, social learning theory does seem to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object.
• The two step process has received praise because it involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learned and how they are maintained by operant conditioning