Behaviourist approach to explaining phobias

Question 1

Behaviourism

Answer 1

-Behaviours are learnt as a result of interaction with the environment

Question 2

Phobia

Answer 2

-A phobia is an extreme or irrational fear of an object or social situation

Question 3

The two process model

Answer 3

-The two-process model suggests that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning (learning through association) and maintained through operant conditioning (learning through reinforcement)

Question 4

Acquisition of a phobia: Classical Conditioning

Answer 4

-A phobic object (e.g a bee) starts off as a neutral stimulus, this produces a neutral response (no response)
-An unconditioned stimulus (e.g pain from bee sting) produces an unconditioned fear response (unconditioned stimulus and response bonds are automatic)
-An association is formed between the phobic object and the unconditioned stimulus
-This causes the object (bee) to become the conditioned stimulus, producing the conditioned fear response

Question 5

Phobias can also be generalised…

Answer 5

-Phobias can also be generalised to stimuli that is similar to the conditioned stimuli (e.g the fear of bees may be generalisable to other small insects)

Question 6

Maintenance of a phobia: Operant Conditioning

Answer 6

-A person will be aware of their phobia and will actively try to avoid this phobic object or avoid situations where they might come into contact with the phobia
-This avoidance behaviour leads to a reduction in anxiety which provides the individual with a pleasant feeling
-This reinforces this avoidant behaviour and makes the person more likely to avoid the phobic object in the future

Question 7

Little Albert (Watson and Rayner) (1920)

Answer 7

-Watson and Rayner (1920), when a rat was introduced to a young child called Little Albert for the first time, no fear response was produced
-However, when Watson paired the rat with hitting a large metal pole behind the baby’s head (producing an unpleasantly loud noise and scaring the baby) a phobic response was formed and the rat produced a fear response
-This demonstrates that phobias can be acquired throuhg associations
-Little Albert also showed generalisation, displaying a fear response to similar stimuli to the conditioned stimuli (e.g a small dog and a furry blanket)

Question 8

Mendes and Clarke (children with water phobias) negative

Answer 8

-Researchers Mendes and Clarke found that only 2% of children with a phobia of water had negative experience with water (conditioning event) suggesting that the behaviourist approach cannot fully explain all phobias

Question 9

Evolutionary theory of phobias (negative evaluation)

Answer 9

-Humans often do not produce phobic responses to objects that are most likely to cause us harm in our day-to-day lives (e.g knives and cars)
-A phobia of snakes or spiders is more common
-This may be explained by the evolutionary theiry, as these dangers were likely faced by our ancestors
-Those who had an instinctual fear of these dangers, were more likely to survive and reproduce, passing on these instinctual fears to the next generation and making these characteristics more frequent in the population
-This therefore suggests that phobias are hereditary rather than learnt through interaction with the environment

Question 10

Practical application of Behaviourist Phobia theories

Answer 10

-Behaviourist theories of phobias such as acquisition and maintenance have been practically applied to counter-conditioning therapy, systematic desensitisation and flooding
-These treatments are effective, which suggests that the behaviourist principles these therapies are based on have some level of validity