Psychopathology - Behaviourist Explanation of Phobias Flashcards
What does the two-process model emphasise?
The role of learning on phobias
What are phobias acquired and maintained through according to Mowrer?
Acquired through classical conditioning (CC) and maintained through operant conditioning (OC)
What did Watson and Rayner discover?
How phobias can be conditioned during the Little Albert study
Classical conditioning
Learning by association. Neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus become uncontrolled response
Operant conditioning
Learning by consequences, rewards or punishment
What does Watson claim about CC?
He claimed that most emotional responses including fear of objects are learnt through CC
Evidence backing Watson’s claim
Watson demonstrated a rat phobia in Little Albert by pairing loud bang with white rat
What does DiNardo about people with dog phobias?
Over half of people with dog phobias could recall being bitten but others developed phobia of dogs without a triggering event
When does OC take place?
When our behaviour is reinforced or punished
What does OC increase frequency of?
A behaviour
What do we do when we avoid a phobic stimulus?
We successfully escape the fear and anxiety test is rewarding and negatively reinforced the avoidance behaviour and the phobia is maintained
What does the behavioural approach explaining phobias ignore?
Biological explanations for our phobias
Example of how process of classical conditioning can explain how we acquire phobias
We learn to associate something we do not fear, such as a dog (neutral stimulus), with something that triggers a fear response, such as being bitten (unconditioned stimulus).
After an association has formed, the dog (now a conditioned stimulus) causes a response of fear (conditioned response) and consequently, we develop a phobia
