Lesson 6: Two Process Model Of Phobias Flashcards
What is the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
The behavioural model suggests that all behaviour (including phobias) can be learnt, and people who have an abnormality can learn negative behaviours.
What is the two process model?
A) The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning
B) The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
This method of learning involves building up an association between two different stimuli so that learning takes place.
Give an example of classical conditioning
Little Albert - Watson and Rayner
• White rat (neutral stimulus with no initial reaction) is presented to a person (on its own) • Loud banging noise (unconditioned stimulus) is presented which makes the person cry or have an emotional response (on its own)
• We then repeatedly pair the two stimuli together many times and present both stimuli together until classical conditioning and learning take place. The person will have an emotional response when they hear the loud noise and see the rat
• We can then present the white rat alone (conditioned stimulus) and the person will have an emotional response (conditioned response). Learning has taken place via classical conditioning and an association has been established.
Advantage of classical conditioning
1) 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. children who have got bitten by a dog, might develop a phobia of dogs. (+) Also It’s a key focus in behavior therapy, which is an an approach that focuses on reinforcing desired behaviors and eliminating undesired behaviors and is often used help drug users deal with cravings.
Disadvantage of classical conditioning
1) The study on Little Albert can be criticised because it was only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated (not very reliable). Therefore it could be questioned whether the same results would be gained if this study was to be repeated when investigating whether phobias can be learnt via classical conditioning. The study could not be repeated nowadays due to ethical concerns (-)
1) disadvantage of classical conditioning is that some people do have a traumatic experience such as a car accident. However, many people do not then go on to develop a phobia (e.g. of cars/driving), so classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop. The opposite is true for some phobias, some people are scared or an object, but they have not had a negative experience or even encountered the object before e.g. snakes. (-)
What is the social learning theory?
This is 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 behaviour. For instance if we watch someone have a traumatic experience for instance they get bitten by a dog and start screaming, then we might imitate this behaviour and also become scared of dogs, which means we develop a phobia by observational learning.
The psychologist 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 example can be applied to humans.
What is operant conditioning?
This method involves learning a new response (phobia) that can result in reinforcement. Operant conditioning helps to explain how phobias can be maintained.
What does open conditioning encompassed?
Negative reinforcement: For instance if someone is scared of snakes, they will try to avoid snakes in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear.
Positive reinforcement: By avoiding snakes and not feeling fear, this is rewarding. Therefore the avoidance of snakes continues.
Advantages of the two process model
1) 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 (acted as if they were in pain). Therefore, social learning theory does seem to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object (+)
2) The two step process has received praise because it involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learned and how they are maintained. They are learnt by powerful classical conditioning or social learning theory, and then are maintained by operant conditioning (either positive or negative reinforcement). The process seems an accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall (+)
Disadvantages of the two process model
1) The behavioural model/two process model is limited as it ignores other factors that could cause phobias. The Behavioural model focuses on learning and the environment, but would not take into account biological or evolutionary factors that could cause phobias. Some people might have more of a genetic vulnerability to develop phobias than others and the behavioural model would ignore this (-)
2) Social learning theory can be successful in explaining how learning a phobia can occur in animals and young children. However, social learning theory is not very strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias. Therefore the behavioural model is limited to only explaining learning in young children and animals only (-)
