Psychopathology: Lesson 6 - The Behavioural Approach To Explaining Phobias: Classical And Operant Conditioning And The Two Process Model

Question 1

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 1

Learning via building up and association between two different stimuli

Question 2

What is Social learning theory?

Answer 2

Observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents or family have to a particular situation, and keep will copy this behaviour

Question 3

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 3

A way in which phobias are maintained

This method involves learning a new response that can result in reinforcement

Question 4

What is negative reinforcement? (Operant conditioning)

Answer 4

When you avoid the phobic object or situation to reduce the risk that you will fear

Question 5

What is positive reinforcement? (Operant conditioning)

Answer 5

When avoiding the phobic object and not feeling fear is rewarding, and so avoidance continues

Question 6

Outline the Little Albert Study (classical conditioning)

Answer 6

• study by Watson and Rayner
• they conditioned Albert to fear white rats via classical conditioning
• introduced Little Albert to a variety of animals with fur, to which he showed no fear. They chose to continue the experiment with the white rat, which was the neutral stimulus
• they then presented Albert with a loud banging noise (unconditioned stimulus) which made Little Albert cry (unconditioned response)
• Watson and Rayner then paired the two stimuli together six times (every time they introduced Little Albert to the white rat, they also played the loud banging noise
• Little Albert would then cry whenever he was presented with the white rate alone (conditioned stimulus) and would cry when he saw it (conditioned response)
• association had been established

Question 7

Evaluation of classical conditioning (unreliable)

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

Evaluation of Classical Conditioning (Bagby) (+)

Answer 8

• Bagby found support for classical conditioning as a method for learning phobias
• He focused on a woman who had a phobia of running water due to her feet getting stuck in some rocks near a water fall
• Eventually she recovered from her phobia, but the sound of running water became associated with fear and her phobia returned, which supports the idea that classical conditioning is a method of learning

Question 9

Evaluation of Classical conditioning (King 1998) (+)

Answer 9

• 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 10

Evaluation of Classical conditioning (some people have a traumatic experience and do not have a phobia from it & vice versa) (-)

Answer 10

• 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 11

Evaluation of Classical conditioning (Menzies) (-)

Answer 11

• 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 12

Who modelled social learning theory and what was their study + findings?

Answer 12

• 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 13

Evaluation of the two processes model (other factors( (-)

Answer 13

• 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 14

Evaluation of the two process model (learning in adults) (-)

Answer 14

• 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 15

Evaluation of the two process model (+)

Answer 15

• 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

Question 16

Evaluation of the two process model (clear and accurate) (+)

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