Behaviourist explanation of mental illness: Evaluation Issues & debates

Question 1

Free will vs Determinism

Answer 1

Behaviourist explanation of mental illness is deterministic- suggests experiences will cause us to develop a mental illness.
Maladaptive behaviours seen as product of interaction with environment, little to suggest we can change/influence them.
Not all negative experiences lead to phobias, may people who have phobias do not recall such unpleasant event.
This explanation ignores free will- classical conditioning where learning is ‘passive’- cannot decide.

Question 2

Individual vs Situational

Answer 2

Behaviourism supports situational explanation however only certain individuals will develop mental illness from conditioning- suggests these individuals may have predisposition triggered through observation, reinforcement or association- therefore possible that mental illness caused by both individual & situational explanations.

Question 3

Nature vs Nurture

Answer 3

Behaviourist explanation relies on nurture- proposing maladaptive behaviours e.g phobias being product of external environmental stimuli.
Insistence that all learning can be accounted for in terms of law-governed processes like classical/operant conditioning reflects nomological approach to studying human behaviour (science of law) although behaviourists never ignore individual differences since every persons history of learning is unique.

Question 4

Reductionism vs Holism

Answer 4

Behaviourists view that all behaviour can be broken down into fundamental processes of conditioning no matter how complex- making reductionist approach.
Ignores influences of mental processes on learning- in behaviourist theory people can only learn as result of their own experiences. This approach often criticised as dehumanising & mechanistic. People reduced to programmed stimulus response units.
However experience & studies show people are capable of observing & learning from behaviour & experiences of others (social learning theorists like Bandura).

Question 5

Psych as a science

Answer 5

Behaviourists look to take highly scientific approach to their work- approach proposes simple testable explanation supported by experimental evidence.
In offering explanation of mental health- seek casual link between known event in persons life which resulted in particular outcome e.g frightening experience of almost drowning causing phobia of water.

Question 6

Usefulness

Answer 6

Behaviourist approach is hopeful as it predicts people can change (relearn) their behaviours.
Flooding & Systematic desensitisation most popular treatments for phobias- both relatively quick and effective.
Outcome measured in terms of clinically significant improvement (CSI) - not always same as a cure.
Systematic desensitisation not effective in treating all phobias- conditioning cannot cure all disorders e.g schizophrenia and patients with phobias which have not developed through personal experience (classical conditioning) e.g fear of heights not effectively treated using systematic desensitisation- some psychologists believe certain phobias like heights have evolutionary survival benefit & are not result of personal experience but result of evolution.
These phobias highlight limitation of systematic desensitisation which is NOT effective in treating evolutionary phobias.