behaviourist explanations for phobias

Question 1

what is the two process model of phobias?

Answer 1

phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning

Question 2

who came up with the two process model of phobias?

Answer 2

Mowrer

Question 3

watson and rayner : little albert

Answer 3

made a loud, frightening noise every time albert interacted with a mouse. over time the mouse became the conditioned stimulus for fear (conditioned response). also found conditioning can be generalised, showed fear to fluffy rabbit, fur coat, etc.

Question 4

how are phobias maintained?

Answer 4

behaviour gets reinforced. avoidance removes emotional responses (negative reinforcement), which reinforces the behaviour and causes the phobia to be maintained

Question 5

+ ao3 : rwa treatments

Answer 5

understanding the maintenance of phobias has allowed treatments to be developed, i.e exposure therapies which remove the avoidance behaviours and therefore prevent reinforcement of the phobia

Question 6

• ao3 : cognitive aspects

Answer 6

behaviourist explanation ignores cognitive aspects of phobias, such as irrational thoughts and beliefs . fails to offer a complete explanation of phobias without the cognitive aspects

Question 7

+ ao3 : rs - Jongh et al.

Answer 7

found that 73% of people with a fear of dentists had had a traumatic experience, usually involving dentistry. control group with no dental anxiety 21% traumatic experience

Question 8

• ao3 CA for RS

Answer 8

cannot explain all phobias, e.g. some people hold phobias of snakes in regions where snakes are very uncommon, meaning traumatic experience would be rare. association between fear and phobias may not be as strong as believed