Two Process Model (Behavioural Approach to explaining phobias)

Question 1

What is the two process model?

Answer 1

• Mowrer proposed the two-process model based on the behavioural approach to phobias
• This states tjat phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning

Question 2

What is acquisition by classical conditioning?

Answer 2

• Involves learning to associate something we initially don’t fear (NS) with something that already triggers a fear response (UCS)
• Association leads to response produced by UCS (i.e fear) also being produced by phobic stimulus (CS)
• e.g the traumatic experience of being bitten by a dog (NS) could create a phobia of dogs. The person now hasa fear of dogs as they associate them with being bitten

Question 3

What is maintenance by operant conditioning?

Answer 3

• Conditioned responses e.g. a learned fear decline over time (extinction)
• However, phobias are usually long lasting. Mowrer suggests they are maintained through operant conditioning
• Individuals avoid/remove themselves from an unpleasant/threatening situation acting as a desirable action which ends the unpleasant experience (anxiety)
• This reinforces avoidance behaviour thus increasing its frequency - person will continue to avoid phobic stimulus thus maintaining phobia
• Thus phobias are maintained through negative reinforcement
• e.g. someone with arachnophobia being near a spider (unpleasant experience) - avoiding it removes the unpleasantness acting as a negative reinforcement. The person repeating the avoidance maintains the phobia

Question 4

How do Watson and Rayner support the TPM?

Answer 4

• A strength of the TPM is that there’s research support
• Watson and Rayner created a phobia in a 9 month old baby ‘Little Albert’. Initially, when shown a white rat he tried to play with it and showed no fear. During conditioning, the rat was repeatedly presented with a loud, frightening noise (banging on an iron bar close to Albert’s ear). Eventually, Albert became afraid when he saw the rat even without the noise
• The rat had become a CS that produced a CR being fear. This shows that we learn phobias by pairing a stimulus we are already scared of with a new stimulus. By doing this we develop a phobia of an initially neutral stimulus
• This validates TPM

Question 5

How does Ougrin et al support?

Answer 5

• A strength of TPM is that it went beyond just the concept of how CC leads to phobias. Explaining how phobias could be maintained over time has had important implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the phobic stimulus
• This has led to practical applications through treatments like flooding where patients are prevented from avoiding the phobic stimulus eventually helping them get over the phobia
• Ougrin et al showed that flooding is as effective as CBT suggesting the underlying assumptions of TPM are valid

Question 6

How does Bounton weaken the TPM?

Answer 6

• A weakness of TPM is that it may be an incomplete explanation of phobias
• Bounton points out that evolutionary factors have an important role in phobias too. We easily acquire acquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past e.g. fear of snakes as it is adaptive to have these phobias
• Whereas it’s much rarer to have a phobia of guns or cars which pose a greater risk today
• Seligman called this biological preparedness; the innate predisposition to acquire such fears thus showing that our evolutionary past can be a factor in developing phobias
• Thus TPM could be seen as invalid as it doesn’t consider all factors in the acquisition of phobias

Question 7

How does the cognitive approach weaken TPM?

Answer 7

• A weakness of TPM is that there could be an alternative explanation for the acquisiton of phobias
• The cognitive approach proposes phobias actually develop due to irrational thinking (e.g. assuming they’ll get trapped in a lift). Thoughts like these then contribute to feelings of anxiety leading a person to show the emotional symptoms of phobias and avoidance of the phobic stimulus (e.g. always taking the stairs) - a key behavioural sympton
• Since TPM doesn’t account for this it can be seen as a very simplistic model that doesn’t consider important cognitive mediating factors affecting phobia acquisition thus reducing its validity