The behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Question 1

How do behaviourists explain phobias?

Answer 1

The behaviourist approach emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of phobias. It attempts to explain the behavioural characteristics of phobias rather than the emotional and cognitive characteristics.
Orval Hobart Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model.

Question 2

What does the two-process model?

Answer 2

This states that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and then are maintained because of operant conditioning.

Question 3

According to behaviourists how are phobias learnt?

Answer 3

Phobias tend to be learnt following a traumatic event.

Question 4

What is an example of classical conditioning and phobias?

Answer 4

For example, Little Albert showed great distress towards other white furry objects such as a fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard made out of cotton balls.

Question 5

What is maintenance by operant conditioning?

Answer 5

Operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced or punished. In the case of negative reinforcement an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant. Such behaviour results in a desirable consequence, which means the behaviour will be repeated.

Question 6

What does Mowrer suggest?

Answer 6

Mowrer 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 negatively reinforces the behaviour, and so the phobia is maintained.

Question 7

AO3: Support for social learning

Answer 7

An experiment by Bandura and Rosenthal (1966) supported the social learning explanation.
In the experiment a model acted as if he was in pain every time a buzzer sounded. Later on, those participants who had observed this showed an emotional reaction to the buzzer, demonstrating an acquire ‘fear’ response.
This demonstrates that modelling the behaviour of others can lead to the acquisition of phobias.

Question 8

AO3: The two-process model ignores cognitive factors.

Answer 8

Another limitation of the two-process model is that there are cognitive aspects to phobias that cannot be explained in a traditionally behaviourist framework.
An alternative explanation to the cognitive approach, which proposes that phobias may develop as the consequence of irrational thinking. For example, a person in a lift may think ‘I could become trapped in here and suffocate’. Such
thoughts create extreme anxiety and may trigger a phobia.
The value of this alternative explanation is that it leads to cognitive therapies such as CBT that may, in some
situations, be more successful than behaviourist
treatments. For example, a social phobia responds better to CBT.