The Behavioural Approach To Explaining Phobias Flashcards
Define Phobia.
Anxiety disorders characterised by extreme irrational fears.
Outline the Two-process model.
Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model based on the behavioural approach to phobias.
This states that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and then continue because of operant conditioning.
Acquisition by classical conditioning
When two stimuli are paired together which causes the development of a phobia.
Involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus).
Process of classical conditioning
Unconditioned stimulus is paired with an unconditioned response of fear.
A neutral stimulus produces a neutral response.
Neutral stimulus paired with unconditioned stimulus to produce an unconditioned response of fear.
This becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces a conditioned response.
Process of classical conditioning example -
Little Albert
Little Albert had a phobia of rats created when he was a baby by associating a loud ‘bang’ with rats.
‘Bang’ = Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) which creates an unconditioned response (UCR) of fear.
When the rat (NS) and the UCS are encountered close together in time the NS becomes associated with the UCS and both now produce the fear response.
Albert displayed fear when he saw a rat (the NS). The rat is now a learned or conditioned stimulus that produces a conditioned response (fear).
Maintenance by operant conditioning
Operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced or punished.
Reinforcement tends to increase the frequency of a behaviour. This is true of both negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement.
In the case of negative reinforcement an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant. Such a behaviour results in a desirable consequence, which means the behaviour will be repeated.
Mower suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have experienced if we had remained there. This reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained.
AO3 — Strength
Real-world application
Used in exposure therapies (systematic desensitisation, flooding).
The idea that phobias are maintained by avoidance of the phobic stimulus is important in explaining why people with phobias benefit from being exposed to the phobic stimulus.
Once the avoidance behaviour is prevented it ceases to be reinforced by the experience of anxiety reduction and avoidance therefore declines. Therefore, when the avoidance is prevented the phobia is cured.
This shows the value of the two-process approach because it identifies a means of treating phobias.
AO3 — Weakness
Cognitive aspects of phobias
Does not account for the cognitive aspects of phobias.
The two-process model only explains behaviour. The key behaviour presented in phobias is avoidance of the phobic stimulus. However, phobias are not simply avoidance responses — they also have a significant cognitive component.
For example, people hold irrational beliefs about the phobic stimulus (such as thinking that a spider is dangerous). The two-process model explains avoidance behaviour but does not offer an adequate explanation for phobic cognitions.
This means that the two-process model does not completely explain the symptoms of phobias.
AO3 — Strength
Traumatic experiences
There is a link between bad experiences and phobias. For example, Little Albert.
Jongh (2006) also found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had experienced a traumatic experience, mostly involving dentistry.
This can be compared to a control group of people with low dental anxiety where only 21% had experienced a traumatic event.
This confirms that the association between stimulus (dentistry) and an unconditioned response (pain) does lead to the development of the phobia.
AO3 — Counter
Traumatic experiences
Not all phobias appear following a bad experience — Some common phobias such as snake phobias occur in populations where very few people have any experience of snakes let alone traumatic experiences.
Also, not all frightening experiences lead to phobias. This means that the association between phobias and frightening experiences is not as strong as we would expect if behavioural theories provided a complete explanation.
AO3 — Weakness
Learning and evolution
Behavioural models of phobias provide credible individual explanations (explains how a particular person develops and maintains a particular phobia).
However, there are other more general aspects to phobias that may be better explained by evolutionary theory. For example, we tend to acquire phobias of things that have presented a danger in our evolutionary past (such as snakes and the dark) — Preparedness.
This adds a genetic vulnerability to the learning theory.
