Phobias and the Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias Flashcards
Definition of phobias
Instances of irrational fears that produce an avoidance of the feared object or situation
DSM5
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5
What does the DSM5 categorise phobias into:
1- Specific Phobias
2 - Social Phobias
3 - Agoraphobia
Specific phobias:
Fears relating to a particular object or situation. Include animal or situational phobias
Social phobia:
Excessive fear of situations involving other people. Most people are nervous about public speaking but someone with a social phobia is afraid of any activity performed in public (e.g eating in public)
Agoraphobia:
Fear of public spaces. This can result in people being afraid to go out of their home, so they are unable to go to work or shop for provisions.
- It is thought to be most serious of all phobias
- Many ppl with agoraphobia also prone to panic attacks when they venture into public spaces
What are the three characteristics:
- Behavioural
- Emotional
- Cognitive
What are behavioural characteristics:
Something that you DO
What are the three behavioural characteristics:
- Panic
- Avoidance
- Endurance
Describe behavioural characteristic: Panic
Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away
Describe behavioural characteristic: Avoidance
People with a phobia make conscious effort to avoid coming into contact with phobic stimulus. This can make it hard to go about daily life
Describe behavioural characteristic: Endurance
The alternative to avoidance is endurance, in which a sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety
What are emotional characteristics:
How you are FEELING
What are the two emotional characteristics:
- Anxiety
- Emotional responses are unreasonable
Describe emotional characteristic: Anxiety
Phobias are examples of anxiety disorders. They involve emotional response to anxiety and fear. Anxiety prevents sufferer from relaxing and makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion. Fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when encounter or think about phobic stimulus
Describe emotional characteristic: Emotional responses are unreasonable
The emotional responses experienced in relation to phobic stimuli go beyond what is reasonable
What are cognitive characteristics:
What you are THINKING
What are the two cognitive characteristics:
- Decrease in concentration
- Irrational beliefs
Describe cognitive characteristic: Decrease in concentration
People with phobias often find it difficult to concentrate therefore have inability to complete tasks when the phobic object or situation is around
Describe cognitive characteristic: Irrational beliefs
A phobia may hold irrational beliefs in relation to phobic stimuli e.g, ‘that spider can kill me instantly’
What are the three main points of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias: (AO1)
- The two-process model
- Acquisition by Classical Conditioning
- Maintenance by Operant Conditioning
What does the Two-Process Model state:
- the behavioural approach emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. The approach focuses on behaviour- what we can see and it is geared towards explaining the avoidance, endurance and panic aspects of phobias
- Mowrer proposed 2-process model based on behavioural approach to phobias. States that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and are maintained by operant conditioning
Who proposed the two-process model?
Mowrer
How are phobias acquired:
Classical conditioning
How are phobias maintained?
Operant conditioning
Describe acquisition of phobias by classical conditioning:
CC involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditional stimulus).
People learn to associate response produced by UCS (fear) with the NS. NS becomes CS (phobic stimulus) and produces CR of fear which leads to acquisition of phobia
E.g, the traumatic experience of being bitten by a dog (NS) could create a phobia of dogs. Person has come to fear dogs bc they associate them with being bitten
Before conditioning
UCS =
UCR
During conditioning
NS + UCS =
UCR
After conditioning
CS =
CR
Describe the maintenance of phobias by operant conditioning:
Whilst CC explains acquisition- OP maintains via negative reinforcement. Responses aquired through CC usually decline over time (extinction). However phobias often long lasting - Mowrer says due to result of OC
OC takes place when beh is reinforced or punished. Reinforcement increases freq of beh
Negative reinforcement- individual avoids unpleasant situation - results in desirable consequence which means beh will be repeated. Indiv avoid phobic stimulus or situation + example of this
Example of case of negative reinforcement in phobias.
Someone with phobia of dentists will avoid going to the dentist. Such behaviour will result in desirable consequence of removing anxiety which means behaviour will be repeated
A strength of the 2-process model is that there is supporting evidence.
Research by Watson & Rayner - created phobia in 9 month old baby called ‘Little Albert’. Albert showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study. When shown white rat - tried to play w it. However, when experimenters presented rat - made loud frightening noise (banging an iron bar close to albert’s ear). Eventually due to association, Albert - frightened when saw rat even without noise. rat became conditioned stimulus - produced conditioned response of fear. This shows that phobias are aquired through CC.
Increases validity of two-process model as behaviourist explanation of phobias
What was the 9 month old baby called?
Little Albert
What was the loud frightening noise they made while presenting the rat?
Banging an iron bar close to Albert’s ear
Who were the researchers to experiment association in Little Albert?
Watson and Rayner
A strength of the TPM - went beyond W&R’s concept of how CC leads to phobias.
Explained how phobias can be maintained over time - had important implications for therapies bc explains y patients need to b exposed to feared stimulus. This led to practical applications through treatments like flooding where patients are prevented from avoiding their phobic stimulus - eventually helps them get over their phobia. Furthermore, research from Ougrin et al showed that flooding is comparable in effectiveness in treating phobias to treatments like CBT, suggesting the underlying assumptions of the TPM are valid. The effectiveness of flooding in adressing phobic symptoms lends support to the behaviourist explanation of phobias.
What was the name of the researcher who showed that flooding is comparable in effectiveness in treating phobias to treatments like CBT?
Ougrin et al
A weakness of TPM - could be considered an incomplete explanation of phobias.
Bounton (2007) points out that evolutionary factors have important role in phobias too. E,g. we easily aquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past, such as fears of snakes. Whereas it is much rarer having a phobia of guns or cars which can be much more dangerous to us today. Seligman called this biological preparedness - the innate predisposition to acquire such fears. Shows that our evolutionary past can be a mediating factor (in addition to experiences) in developing phobias. Therefore the TPM - invalid - doesnt consider all factors that could affect acquisition of a phobia.
Who said evolutionary factors have important role in phobias too?
Bounton (2007)
Who came up with the theory of biological preparedness?
Seligman
Another limitation of TPM - could be an alternative explanation for acquisition of phobias.
The cognitive approach proposes phobias may develop as result of irrational thinking, (e,g person in a lift may think “I will get trapped in here”). Thoughts like these then contribute to feelings of anxiety that lead a person to show emotional symptoms of phobias. SInce TPM does not account for this - can be seen as very simplistic model that does not consider cognitive mediating factors that affect how phobias are acquired, reducing its validity.
