Section 4 : Psychopathology - The Behavioural Approach to Phobias

Question 1

What does the behavioural model of abnormality say

Answer 1

That all behaviours are learnt

Question 2

What do behaviourists argue about phobias

Answer 2

They argue that phobias are learnt in the same way that all behaviours are learnt - through operant and classical conditioning

Question 3

How are phobias formed in classical conditioning

Answer 3

• In classical conditioning a natural reflex is produced in response to a previously neutral stimulus
• Phobias can be created when the natural fear response becomes associated with a particular stimulus

Question 4

Phobias can…

Answer 4

Generalise to similar stimuli

Question 5

Examples of when phobias generalise to similar stimuli

Answer 5

Watson and Rayner 1920 conditioned a phobia in little Albert. Albert’s resulting phobia of white rats was generalised to fluffy white objects

Question 6

Give the method of a how a phobia develops through classical conditioning

Answer 6

• UCS, e.g. loud noise, triggers a natural reflex e.g. fear (UCR)
• UCS repeatedly presented with another stimulus, e.g. rat makes loud noise, (turns to CS) triggers an UCR, e.g. fear
• overtime the rat presented by itself triggers fear (CR)

Question 7

How does operant conditioning create phobias

Answer 7

-Operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of actions
-Actions which have a good outcome through positive reinforcement (reward) or negative reinforcement will be repeated.
-Actions which have a bad outcome (punishment) will not be repeated

Question 8

What is the relationship between operant conditioning and phobias

Answer 8

Operant conditioning is important in maintaining phobias

Question 9

What explains how phobias are priced and maintained

Answer 9

The Two-Process model

Question 10

What does the two process model explain

Answer 10

How classical and operant conditioning produce and maintain phobias

Question 11

How does classical conditioning link to phobias

Answer 11

People develop phobias by classcial conditioning - a CS is paired with a UCS to produce the CR

Question 12

What happens when a phobia is developed

Answer 12

• Once somebody has developed a phobia, it is maintained through operant conditioning - people get anxious around the phobic stimulus and avoid it.
  -This prevents the anxiety which acts as negative reinforcement

Question 13

What does operant conditioning also explain apart from how phobias are maintained

Answer 13

• It also explains how social phobia and agoraphobia develop from a specific phobia
• People are anxious that they’ll experience a panic attack in a social situation or an open place so they avoid these situations

Question 14

What are the strengths of the behavioural explanation of phobias

Answer 14

• Barlow and Durand 1996
• Behavioural therapies are very effective at treatign phobias by getting the person to change their response to the stimulus - suggest that they treat the cause of the problems

Question 15

What did Barlow and Durand show

Answer 15

showed that in cases of individuals with a severe fear of driving, 50% of them had actually been involved in road accident. Through classical conditioning the road accident had turned driving into a CS for those now with the phobia

Question 16

What are the weakness of behavioural explanations of phobias

Answer 16

• Davey 1992 found that only 7% of spider phobics recalled having a traumatic experience with spiders
• suggests that there could be other explanations e.g. biological factors (but just because they couldn’t remember the experience this doesn’t mean it didn’t happen)

Question 17

How are phobias treated

Answer 17

• systematic desensitisation
• flooding

Question 18

How does systematic desensitisation work

Answer 18

It works by using counter-conditioning so that the person learns to associate the phobic stimulus with relaxation rather than fear

Question 19

How do systematic desensitisation happen

Answer 19

• phobic person makes a ‘fear hierarchy’ (list of feared events - what they fear least to most feared)
• then taught relaxation technique, e.g. deep breathing
• patient imagines anxiety provoking situations starting with least stressful
• they are encouraged to use the relaxation techniques and process stops if they feel anxious
• this is repeated until the feared event is only linked with relaxation
• whole process is repeated for each stage of the fear hierarchy until they are cal, through their most feared event

Question 20

What happens in flooding

Answer 20

• Involves exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus straight away without any relaxation or gradual build up
• can be done in real life, or patient can be asked to visualise it
• the patient is kept in this situation until the anxiety they feel at first has worn off.
• they realise that nothing bad happened to them in this time, and their fear should be extinguished

Question 21

What are the advantages of behavioural therapy treating phobias

Answer 21

• Behvaiour therapy is very effective for treating specific phobias
• Zinbarg et al 1992 found that systematic desensitisation was the most effective known methods for treating phobias
  -It works very quickly
  -Ost et al 1991 found that anxiety was reduced in 90% of patients with a specific phobia after just one session of therapy

Question 22

What are the disadvantages of behavioural therapy

Answer 22

• Ethical issues, especially flooding - causes patient a lot of anxiety
• if patients drop out before fear has extinguished then it can end up causing more anxiety than before therapy started
• behavioural therapy only treats the symptoms for the disorder. Other therapies try to tackle the cause of it