Psychopathology - Behavioural approach - expalanations

Question 1

What is the two process model?

Answer 1

Phobias are acquired because of classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.

Question 2

What is Classical conditioning?

Answer 2

Classical Conditioning states that phobias are learnt through the process of association, when a person associates a negative experience with a harmless event.

Question 3

UCS

Answer 3

unconditioned stimulus - usually the negative experience

Question 4

NS

Answer 4

neutral stimulus - usually the phobic stimulus

Question 5

CS

Answer 5

conditioned stimulus - usually the phobic stimulus

Question 6

UCR

Answer 6

unconditioned response - fear

Question 7

CR

Answer 7

conditioned response - fear

Question 8

explain how phobias are maintained

Answer 8

operant conditioning suggests that phobias are maintained through negative reinforcement. when an indvidual avoids the phobic stimulus the avoidance behaviour becomes a negative reinforcer. as aoiding the phobic stimulus helps get rid of the fear response making you feel relaxed. this means the avoidance phobia is strengthened and thus the phobia is maintained.

Question 9

The Little Albert Experiment - watson an rayner

Answer 9

this experiment suggests that phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning. at first a 11 month boy had no fear of white rats (NS). However When the rat (NS) was paired with a loud noise (UCS), this produced a fear response (UCR). through several repetitions , Albert made the assumption between the white rat (CS) and the fear response(CR).

Question 10

evaluation of two process model - strengths (3)

Answer 10

• can explain how phobias are developed
• Little Albert experiment provides supporting research methods
• effective treatments based on behavioral approach.

Question 11

explain the strength - can explain how phobias are developed

Answer 11

it can explain how people can recall a specific event that led to them developing a phobia.
- E.g sue et al (1994) found that agoraphobics are most likely to explain their phobia in terms of a specific event which suggests that classical conditioning can be involved in the development of phobias.

Question 12

explain the strength - Little Albert experiment

Answer 12

This experiment carried out by Watson and Rayner (1920) provides supporting research evidence for the behavioral approach.
- explain the little Albert experiment.. end explanation with this study suggests that phobias can be learnt through classical conditioning.

Question 13

explain the strength - effective treatments based on behavioral approach.

Answer 13

• behaviorist ideas have been used to develop effective treatments such as systematic desentisation and flooding in addressing phobic symptoms.
• e..g systematic desentisation helps people unlearn their fear response , using principles of classical conditioning while flooding prevents people avoiding phobias and stops negative reinforcement from taking place.
  -the fact that therapy based on the behaviorist approach is effective in dealing with phobic systems provides support for the validity of the behaviorist explanation as to how phobias are acquired and maintained.

Question 14

evaluation of two process model - weaknesses (3)

Answer 14

• traumatic experience missing
• cannot explain all types of psychological disorders.
• ignores cognitive aspects

Question 15

explain the weakness - traumatic experience missing

Answer 15

A limitation of the two process model is that a phobia does not always develop after a traumatic incident.
- e.g Davies (1992) found that only 7% of people with a fear of spiders (arachnophobia) recalled having a traumatic incident with a spider which suggests not everyone has a negative experience which develops into a phobia.
- reduces the validity of the behavioral approach because it only offers a partial explanation as conditioning alone cannot explain phobia.

Question 16

explain the weakness - cannot explain all types of psychological disorders

Answer 16

another limitation of the behavioral approach is that it cannot explain other pathological disorders. behaviorism may comfortably explain how certain disorders develop such as phobias but the approach struggles to expelling more severe mental disorders.
e.g it is difficult to see how people may learn to behave schizophrenic (e.g symptoms of hallucination ,delusions,e.t.c) either through conditioning or observational learning.
- this suggests that the behavioral approach is limited to some extent as it does not fully explain all abnormal behaviour.

Question 17

explain the weakness - ignores cognitive aspects

Answer 17

it does not properly consider the cognitive aspects of development of phobias. this is how a person perceives the fear stimulus.
-e.g those who suffer from social phobia may think they are going to embarrass themselves in front of others which may trigger a phobic reaction.
-this is an irrational thought which may trigger and it shows that irrational thinking is also involved in the development of phobias
- it could explain why cognitive therapies can be more successful than behaviour therapies in treating phobias.
- as a consequence of ignoring cognitive aspects in the development of phobias the behavioral approach has bee criticisd for being reductionist because it offers a simplistic explanation for how phobias are acquired and maintained.
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