Lesson 6: Classical and Operant Conditioning and The Two Process Model

Question 1

What does the behavioural model suggest?

Answer 1

That all behaviour including phobias can be learnt

Question 2

What is the two process model?

Answer 2

A – The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning
B - The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning

Question 3

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 3

Building up an association between two different stimuli so that learning takes place, e.g

1) White rat is presented (no initial reaction)
2) Long banging noise is presented (alone)
3) Both stimulus are presented together until classical conditioning takes place
4) The person will have an emotional response and when the white rat is presented alone and the person will have an emotional response. Learning has taken place via classical conditioning and an association has been established.

Question 4

Evaluation of classical conditioning (-)

Answer 4

• Only conducted once, findings not being repeated, not very reliable. Study cannot be repeated due to ethical concerns.
• People experience traumatic events, but do not develop a phobia. This does not explain how all phobias develop. The opposite is also true
• Menzies studied people with hydrophobia, and found 2% of his sample had a negative experience with water, leaving 98% of his sample to have a phobia of water without a negative experience. This shows that they have never learnt that behaviour

Question 5

Evaluation of classical conditioning (+)

Answer 5

• King has found that children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with the phobic object for example children who have been bitten by a dog may have a phobia of dogs

Question 6

What is social learning?

Answer 6

• when a young child may observe a reaction to a particular situation and copy the behaviour, e.g Minneka did this with monkeys and snakes
• It is observational learning

Question 7

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 7

Operant conditioning helps to explain how phobias can be maintained, this can result in reinforcement. There are two types of reinforcement:

• negative reinforcement: when someone is scared they will try to avoid the phobic object in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear
• positive reinforcement: when someone avoids the phobic object and doesn’t feel fear, it becomes rewarding, and therefore avoidance continues

Question 8

Evaluation of the two process model (-)

Answer 8

• The model is limited as it ignores other factors that could cause phobias. It focuses on learning and environment but does not take into account biological or evolutionary factors. (Genetic vulnerability)
• social learning theory can explain how learning a phobia can occur in young children, but cannot explain how adults can learn phobias. This makes the model very limited.

Question 9

Evaluation of the two process model (+)

Answer 9

• It involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learnt and maintained
• research was conducted where a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded, and participants watched this reaction. Later when participants heard the sound of the buzzer, they showed the same response.