Psychopathology: Explaining Phobias Flashcards
What research supports the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias?
The Little Albert experiment. Child participant witnessed a rat being paired with a loud noise, Albert developed a fear response to rats that he didn’t have before the experiment. Supports the behavioural explanation for phobias as it shows how phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning. Rats were a neutral stimuli for Albert to begin with, the researcher then conditioned Alberts phobia by pairing the rat with the loud noise, (the NS and the unconditioned stimulus). After the experiment Albert developed a conditioned response showing he had acquired a response of fear to the rat, proving a development of a phobia. The researchers also found that post conditioning stage Albert has developed a fear response to other stimuli similar to the white rat. This provides evidence for stimulus generalisation as Alberts fear towards rats has generalised to similar stimuli. However thus evidence is only conducted on a single participant meaning the behaviourist explanation of phobias may lack population validity.
What is a strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
The behavioural explanation has led to successful treatments like flooding, where a person learns to confront their phobias for a sustained period of time. This provides support for the behavioural approach as is the two processed model wasn’t a valid explanation for phobias then we would expect treatments to be ineffective. Flooding is effective because it prevents people with phobias maintaining their phobia through avoidance eventually leading to the original association becoming extinct. Therefore this supports the validity of the second process of the two process model.
What limitation is there for the behaviourist approach when explaining phobias?
The success of social learning treatments for phobias presents a challenge to the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias. Bandura showed nursery school age children with a phobias of dogs a video of a little boy comfortably interacting with a dog. After this 67% of the children were able to comfortably interact with the real dog. This challenges the two process model explanation for phobia as it suggests phobias are only maintained in the absence of direct exposure to a phobic stimulus. In Banduras study, extinction of the phobia occurred through social learning, rather than direct exposure. This doesn’t mean the behaviourist explanation in necessarily wrong but it does mean that it can only provide a limited explanation for phobias.
What does the two process model state about phobias?
States that phobias are acquired through a process of classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.
Explain the stages of Process 1 in the Two-Process model.
A person initially acquires a phobia through classical conditioning.
1. Pre- conditioning stage, this is where the object of the eventual phobias is a neutral stimulus meaning the person has not yet learnt to fear it.
2. Conditioning stage, the neutral stimulus is experiences with an unconditioned stimulus that produces an unconditioned response of fear. The pairing of the unconditioned stimulus and the neutral stimulus form an association developing the post-conditioning stage.
3. Post-conditioning stage, the person will have developed a conditioned response of fear to their phobic stimulus, which was once the neutral stimulus. The phobia is acquired.
What is Stimulus generalisation?
This is when people with phobias are often afraid of more than a single stimulus but the phobia being generalised to stimuli that share characteristics with the original phobic stimulus. ( e.g. phobia of pigeons may develop into a phobia of all birds ).
Explain the stages of Process 2 in the two process model.
The role of operant conditioning in maintaining a phobia.
Mowrer argued that the phobia will become extinct (CR will fade) if the learnt phobia is not maintained by the person repeatedly encountering the object of their phobia (their CS) whilst also encountering an UCS which produces a UCR of fear. Mowrer argues that extinction of phobias fails to occur in most people as most people avoid the object of their phobia and therefore never learn to dissociate the object of their phobia ( their CS) with something that causes fear ( an UCS). Mowrer explained this avoidance using negative reinforcement, because the voluntary behaviour of avoiding the object of a persons phobia brings it a reward ( avoiding a fear ). The continuation of this means extinction does not occur and the phobia is maintained.
