Behavioural approach to explaining phobias Flashcards
(10 cards)
The Two Process Model
The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning
The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is learning through association. A stimulus produces the same response as another stimulus because they have been consistently presented at the same time. This could be how phobias develop, as the stimulus the person is afraid of has, in the past, been associated with another frightening stimulus
An infant is born with certain reflexes (that they do not have to learn); the stimulus of a loud noise is an unconditioned stimulus and produces the reflex of fear as an unconditioned response.
Little Albert study
In one famous piece of research Watson and Raynor (1920) managed to give an infant boy referred to as ‘Little Albert’, a phobia of a white rat. Initially Albert had been keen to play with the rat. Watson and Raynor did this by striking a metal bar behind his head every time Albert reached for the rat. The loud noise startled Albert and made him cry. Eventually Albert cried every time he saw the rat. He also became afraid of other white fluffy objects.
Little Albert explained
A white rat is a neutral stimulus as it produces no reflexes. However, over time the white rat became associated with unconditioned stimulus of a loud noise.
The white rat then becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces fear as a conditioned response.
This conditioned response of fear can then be generalised to other objects or situations. Albert became scared of any object that was white and/or fluffy.
Social Learning Theory
This is based on observational learning whereby young children might observe a reaction that their parents or family have to a particular situation, and the child will copy this behaviour.
For instance if we watch someone have a traumatic experience (e.g. get bitten by a dog and start screaming), we might imitate this behaviour and also become scared of dogs, which means we develop a phobia by observational learning.
The psychologist Minneka found that when one monkey in a cage showed a fear response to snakes, the other monkeys in the cage copied this response and also showed a fear response to snakes too. This example can be applied to humans.
Advantages of classical conditioning
King (1998) supports the ideas proposed by classical conditioning. From reviewing case studies he has found that children acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with the phobic object e.g. children who have got bitten by a dog, might develop a phobia of dogs. (+)
Disadvantages of classical conditioning
The study on Little Albert can be criticised because it was only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated (not very reliable). Therefore it could be questioned whether the same results would be gained if this study was to be repeated when investigating whether phobias can be learnt via classical conditioning. The study could not be repeated nowadays due to ethical concerns (-)
DiNardo et al found evidence that contradicts classical conditioning. Some people do have a traumatic experience such as a car accident. However, they do not then go on to develop a phobia (e.g. of cars/driving), so classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop. The opposite is true for some phobias, some people are scared or an object, but they have not had a negative experience or even encountered the object before e.g. snakes. (-)
4) The psychologist Menzies criticises the behavioural model, especially classical conditioning. He studied people that had a phobia of water (hydrophobia), and he found that only 2% of his sample had encountered a negative experience with water (due to classical conditioning). Therefore, 98% of his sample had a phobia of water but had never had a negative experience involving water, which means that they had not learnt to become frightened of water via classical conditioning. Other findings include 50% of people who have a dog phobia have never had a bad experience involving a dog, so therefore learning cannot be a factor in developing phobias (-)
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is learning through the consequences of one’s behaviour.
Positive Reinforcement – The behaviour leads to a reward.
Negative Reinforcement – The behaviour stops something unpleasant.
Punishment – The behaviour leads to something unpleasant.
The avoidance of a phobic object reduces fear and so is a form of reinforcement. This is an example of negative reinforcement (escaping from something unpleasant)
Advantages of the Two Process Model
+ This model does not label people with the stigma of being mentally ill. Such labels can be damaging because they tend to be difficult to remove. Instead the model is positive, perceiving phobias as incorrect responses that can be corrected.
Bandura supports the idea of Social learning theory within the two process model. Research was conducted whereby a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded, and participants had to watch this reaction. Later on, participants heard the sound of the buzzer and they showed the same response (acted as if they were in pain). Therefore, social learning theory does seem to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object (+)
5) The two step process has received praise because it involves two clear steps that highlight how phobias are learned and how they are maintained. They are learnt by powerful classical conditioning or social learning theory, and then are maintained by operant conditioning (either positive or negative reinforcement). The process seems an accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall (+)
Disadvantages of the Two Process Model
- This model focuses on learning and the environment but does not take account of biological factors that can cause phobias. Some people could have a genetic
vulnerability to phobias
The two process model can be criticised for being reductionist. It take the complicated phenomenon of learning to have a phobia and breaks it down into two steps (learning and maintenance). This might be an over simplification of how the learning process actually works when acquiring a phobia (-)
