Phobia acquisition and maintenance (LT)

Question 1

Strength

Answer 1

I - A strength of learning theories as an explanation is that there is a lot of supporting evidence from human and animal studies.
J - Evidence that humans can acquire fear responses to non-threatening objects comes from Watson and Raynor’s study of little Albert, where he learned to fear white fury objects through classical conditioning. Mower’s studies of rats also demonstrated that animals could avoidance behaviour towards aversive stimuli, as this would provide negative reinforcement when the anxiety is reduced.
E - This suggests that even though learning theories do not provide a full explanation for phobias, learning does take place in some cases.

Question 2

Weakness

Answer 2

I - Learning theories cannot explain some phenomena associated with the acquisition of phobias.
J - Researchers like Seligman (1971) have found that we acquire certain phobias more easily than others. For example a fear of snakes, or the dark is more easily acquired than a fear of cars.
E - This suggests that we are pre-programmed to acquire fears of things which were hazardous in our evolutionary past. This suggests that learning is an incomplete explanation for phobias as there may be an evolutionary component.