LS6 - Behavioural Approach To Explaining Phobias Flashcards
The Behavioural Model
Suggests that all behaviour (inc phobias) can be learnt, and people who have an abnormality can learn negative behaviours.
Two Process Model
- The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning.
- The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
A method of learning that involves building up an association between 2 different stimuli so that learning takes place.
Example Of Classical Conditioning
Presenting a white rat and a loud banging noise to an individual and repeatedly pair these 2 stimuli together, until classical conditioning and learning takes place, The person will have an emotional response when they see both the rat and hear the noise. The white rat alone will become the conditioned stimulus and the person will have a conditioned response, meaning the association and learning has been established.
Classical Conditioning Strength
There’s research support by King (1998)
Classical Conditioning Weaknesses
Low Reliability.
Mans don’t develop phobias from traumatic experiences.
Criticism from Menzies.
Research Support King (1998) (+)
King (1998) found that children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with the phobic object.
Low Reliability (-)
The study on Little Albert was only conducted once and findings haven’t been repeated, so you don’t know if the results would still be the same and it can’t be repeated due to ethical issues.
No Phobia From Traumatic Experience (-)
People don’t develop phobias from traumatic experiences e.g. car crashes, so classical conditioning doesn’t explain how all phobias develop, some mans haven’t even had a traumatic experience and they’re stressed ffs.
Criticism From Menzies
Psychologist Menzies studied people that had hydrophobia and found 2% of his sample had never had a negative experience involving water, meaning that classical conditioning wasn’t to blame, which brings the question of how they got the phobia. Another statistic is 50% of people with a phobia of dogs haven’t had a traumatic experience.
Social Learning Theory/Modelling
Based on observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents/family have to a particular situation, the child will then copy this behaviour. Minneka found that when 1 monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes the other monkeys in the cage copied the response.
Operant Conditioning
Based on learning a new response that can result in reinforcement, it helps to explain how phobias can be maintained.
Negative Reinforcement
If someone is scared of snakes, they will try to avoid snakes in order to reduce the risk that they will fear fear.
Positive Reinforcement
By avoiding snakes and not feeling fear, this is rewarding. Therefore the avoidance of snakes continues
Strengths Of The 2 Model Process
Bandura supports Social Learning Theory.
Involves 2 Clear Steps
Weaknesses Of The 2 Model Process
Doesn’t explain phobia development for adults.
It ignores other factors that could cause phobias.
Bandura Supports Social Learning Theory (+)
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.
Involves 2 Clear Steps (+)
The 2 tips highlight how phobias are learned and maintained. They’re learnt by powerful classical conditioning/social learning theory and maintained through operant conditioning. The process appears as an accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall.
Doesn’t Explain Phobia Development For Adults (-)
The behavioural model is limited to only explaining learning in young children and animals.
It Ignores Other Factors That Cause Phobias (-)
The behavioural model focuses on learning and the environment, but ignores 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.
