Psychopathology L6 - The Behavioural Approach To Explain Phobias: Classical And Operant Conditioning And The Two Process Model

Question 1

What does the behavioural model suggest - by Mowrer

Answer 1

All behaviour (including phobias) can be learnt
People who have an abnormality can learn negative behaviour

Question 2

What makes up the two process model

Answer 2

1) The phobia is learnt by classical conditioning or social learning
2) The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning

Question 3

How does classical conditioning work

Answer 3

Method of learning that builds up an association between two different stimuli so learning takes place
E.g.
- White rat (neutral stimulus with no initial reaction) is presented to a person by itself
- Loud banging noise (unconditioned stimulus) is presented which makes the person cry/emotional response on its own
- repeatedly pair the two stimuli together many times until classical conditioning and learning takes place - will have emotional response when hear noise and see rat
- then present white rat alone (conditioned stimulus) and the person will have an emotional response (conditioned response)
- learning has taken place via classical conditioning and an association has been established

Question 4

Classical conditioning case study

Answer 4

• little Albert study - 11 month old boy
• used white rat and struck steel bar with hammer
• 3x a week for 2 weeks (6 times in total)

Question 5

Generalisation meaning

Answer 5

The tendency to transfer a response from one stimulus to another that’s similar
E.g. scared of white fur coat due to fear of white rat

Question 6

Evaluation of classical conditioning (3 negative, 1 positive)

Answer 6

positive
Case studies
negative
Not repeated
Traumatic experience
Criticism of behavioural model

Question 7

Not reliable study

Answer 7

• The study on Little Albert can be criticised because it was only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated (not very reliable)
• Therefore it could be questioned whether the same results would be gained if this study was to be repeated when investigating whether phobias can be learnt via classical conditioning
• The study could not be repeated nowadays due to ethical concerns

Question 8

Case studies (classical conditioning) - evaluation point

Answer 8

• King (1998) supports the ideas proposed by classical conditioning
• From reviewing case studies he has found that children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with the phobic object e.g. children who have got bitten by a dog, might develop a phobia of dogs.

Question 9

Traumatic experience

Answer 9

• A disadvantage of classical conditioning is that some people do have a traumatic experience such as a car accident
• However, many people do not then go on to develop a phobia (e.g. of cars/driving), so classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop
• The opposite is true for some phobias, some people are scared or an object, but they have not had a negative experience or even encountered the object before e.g. snakes

Question 10

Criticism of behavioural model

Answer 10

• The psychologist Menzies criticises the behavioural model, especially the idea of classical conditioning
• He studied people that had a phobia of water (hydrophobia), and he found that only 2% of his sample had encountered a negative experience with water (due to classical conditioning)
• Therefore, 98% of his sample had a phobia of water but had never had a negative experience involving water, which means that they had not learnt to become frightened of water via classical conditioning.
• Therefore; how did these people get their phobia of water if they had not learnt it? Other findings include 50% of people who have a dog phobia have never had a bad experience involving a dog, so therefore learning cannot be a factor in causing the development of the phobia

Question 11

Social Learning Theory/Modelling

Answer 11

• This is based on observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents or family have to a particular situation, and the child will copy this behaviour
  E.g. if we watch someone have a traumatic experience for instance they get bitten by a dog and start screaming, then we might imitate this behaviour and also become scared of dogs, which means we develop a phobia by observational learning.
• The psychologist Minneka found that when one monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes, the other monkeys in the cage copied this response and also showed a fear response to snakes too.
• This example can be applied to humans.

Question 12

Operant conditioning

Answer 12

• This method involves learning a new response (phobia) that can result in reinforcement
• Operant conditioning helps to explain how phobias can be maintained.
• Negative reinforcement: For instance if someone is scared of snakes, they will try to avoid snakes in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear.
• Positive reinforcement: By avoiding snakes and not feeling fear, this is rewarding. Therefore the avoidance of snakes continues.

Question 13

Evaluation of two process model (x2 each)

Answer 13

Positives
Research
Two clear steps
Negatives
Adults
Ignores other factors

Question 14

Limited model

Answer 14

• The behavioural model/two process model is limited as it ignores other factors that could cause phobias
• The Behavioural model focuses on learning and the environment, but would not take into account biological or evolutionary factors that could cause phobias
• Some people might have more of a genetic vulnerability to develop phobias than others and the behavioural model would ignore this

Question 15

Doesn’t t explain adults

Answer 15

• Social learning theory can be successful in explaining how learning a phobia can occur in animals and young children
• However, social learning theory is not very strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias
• Therefore the behavioural model is limited to only explaining learning in young children and animals only

Question 16

Clear two steps

Answer 16

• The two step process has received praise because it involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learned and how they are maintained.
• They are learnt by powerful classical conditioning or social learning theory, and then are maintained by operant conditioning (either positive or negative reinforcement)
• The process seems an accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall

Question 17

Research support (social learning theory)

Answer 17

• Bandura supports the idea of Social learning theory.
• A piece of research was conducted whereby a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded, and participants had to watch this reaction
• Later on the participants were given the chance to hear the sound of the buzzer and they showed the same response (acted as if they were in pain)
• Therefore, social learning theory does seem to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object