Psychopathology - behaviourist explanation Flashcards
What are the 2 reasons suggested by the behavioural approach for phobias?
Classical conditioning (acuquiring phobias)
Operant conditioning (maintaining phobias)
who developed the two process model of phobias in the behavioural explanation?
Mowrer
what is meant by classical conditioning for the acquisition of phobias?
This is where the individual pairs a stimulus with a response, that then creates an association between the two. It suggests that phobias are a taught response to a stimuli.
Give an example for classical conditioning of a phobia:
Dogs have unconditioned responses to food and water. the ringing of a bell is just a neutral stimulus. The bell needs to be associated with the food and water to become a conditioned stimuli. Rover the dog associates the bell with food and water so when the bell rings he has unconditioned response even with no food or water present
What is meant by operant conditioning?
Refers to positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement occurs when a response produces the removal, termination, reduction, or postponement of a stimulus which leads to an increase in the future occurrence of that response. Retreating from the phobic object reduces anxiety
Give an example of operant conditioning:
Steve hasn’t showered in 2 months and started smelling really bad, to the point it was unbearable. he finally decides to take a shower, but this is negative reinforcement. Steve’s response (taking a shower) removed the stimulus (bad smell) So next time he had=s the smell and wants it gone, he will have a shower because it got rid of the smell in the past
What is stimulus generalisation?
Can occur when anxiety can become generalised to all similar objects/situations
What is higher order conditioning?
If a person avoids all phobic objects and associated situations this ultimately reduces their fear and anxiety through negative reinforcement, and can be referred to as higher order conditioning, because how other related objects and situations have also been associated with the phobic object.
What experimental support is their for the behaviourist explanation of phobias?
Watson and Raynor - Little Albert
What type of reductionism can the behaviourist explanation of phobias be argued to be and why?
Enviornmenatally reductionist - because evolutionary explanations are ignored, and suggesting that complex behaviours such as phobias can be reduced down to simples stimulus reactions could be breaking the behaviour down too much
What is an alternative explanation for phobias?
Biological preparedness - phobias may be promoted of our survival and may still serve our interests to keep us safe, so it makes sense that we have these phobias due to evolutionary reasons.
Is the behaviourist approach scientific and why?
Yes, the explanation is based on very specific principles. The 2 process model is based on objective and reliable data
In classical and operant conditioning was is are they learning via?
classical - association
operant - consequences
What are the three strengths of the behaviourist explanation for phobias?
Experimental support from Watson and Raynor
Practical applications - helping people to unlearn phobias
Scientific explanation
What is the practical application of the behaviourist approach for explaining phobias?
classical conditioning and operant conditioning can help treatment of phobias through systematic desensitisation
What are the three weaknesses of the behaviourist approach for phobias?
Not all incidences of trauma result in subsequent phobias - therefore CC and OC dont always lead to phobias
Environmentally reductionist
Alternative biological explanation
