The Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias Flashcards
Who propsed the two stage behaviourist approach to explaining phobias
Mowrer suggested the first stage is classical conditioning and the second stage is operant conditioning
How are phobias initiated in the behaviourist model of phobias
Through classical conditioning. Watson et al created a phobia of furry animals in an 11 month old baby by associating a neutral stimulus, a furry white rat, with a loud noise
Who did the little Albert experiment
Watson
What was the Little Albert experiment
Watson et al paired the unconditioned stimulus of a loud noise, and the unconditioned response of fear, with the neutral stimulus of a white rat. By pairing the loud noise with the furry object, the furry object took on the same properties as the UCS and produced the conditioned response of fear
What did Little Albert’s phobia generalise to
Furry objects other than the rat, as he showed anxiety to a non-white rabbit and a fur coat
How is a phobia maintained according to the behavioural approach
Using operant conditioning. The avoidance of a fear object reduces fear and is therfore rewarding, increasing the likelyhood of the behaviour being repeated. This is negative reinforcement, as the individual avoaids the anxiety created by a phobic stimulus by avoiding it entirely
How does social learning theory feed into the behavioural approach to phobias
Phobias may also be aquired through modelling the behaviour of others, for example seeing a parent respond to a spider with extreme fear may lead to a child acquiring similar behaviour
Why is the behavioural approach to explaining phobias an incomplete explination
A fearful experience does not always result in the development of phobias. Research has found that not everyone bitten by a dog develops a phobia of dogs, where the behavioural explination suggests the dog should become a conditioned stimulus.
What may be a better approach to phobias than the behavioral approach (not cognitive or Freudian)
The diathesis stress model, which suggests that people inherit a genetic vulnerability for developing mental disorders which only manifest if triggered by a real life event. This suggests that a fearful experinece would only lead to a phobia in those with such a vulnerability, and therefore the behavioural explination is insufficient on it’s own
What is a possible reason for the development of phobias
Seligman argued for the idea of biological preparedness, which is the idea that animals are genetically programmed to rapidly learn an assocaition between potentially life threatening stimuli and fear. These stimuli are called ancient fears, things that would have been dangerous in the evolutionary past
How does the idea of biological preparedness explain the differences in fear objects
If we fear things that would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past, it would explain why people are much less likely to develop fears of modern objects such as toasters which cause many more deaths than spiders as they weren’t an evolutionary threat. This suggests there are more influences than just association in developing phobias
How can the cognitive approach explain phobias better than the behaviourist approach
The cognitive approach proposes that phobias develop as a consequence of irrational thinking, such as thinking “that spider is going to burrow under my skin”. These thoughts create extreme anxiety and may trigger a phobia. The value of this explination is that it leads to cognitive therapies like CBT, with CBT being more successful at treating SOCIAL phobias than behaviourst treatment
