Phobias

Question 1

What is a phobia?

Answer 1

An irrational fear or panic reaction about a situation, living creature, place or object.

Question 2

How can phobias be explained by classical conditioning?

Answer 2

-A person associates a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a fear response.

Question 3

How can phobias be explained by operant conditiong?

Answer 3

-Maintaining a fear
-NR- Avoid the fear so it goes away so will keep avoiding it.
-PR- Showing fear so given comfort so fear will occur again.
-PP- Facing fear causes anxiety so not likely to face fear again.

Question 4

How can social learning theory explain phobias?

Answer 4

Pay attention to role model having fear and getting the reward of comfort, then remember it, copy behaviour to get the same reward of comfort.

Question 5

How can biological theories explain phobias?

Answer 5

-Hormones- adrenaline causes fear/flight response of fear.
-Brain structure- fear/emotions come from the amygdala.