Explaining Phobias Flashcards
(16 cards)
What does the behavioural approach propose about behaviour?
All behaviour is learned
What is another term used by behaviourists that means learning?
Conditioning
What was the neutral stimulus in little Albert study that later became the condition stimulus?
White rat
In the two process model proposed by Mowrer, what is the first stage of phobia acquisition?
Classical conditioning
How does operant conditioning contribute to the maintenance of phobia?
(negative reinforcement) Avoidance of the feared object leads to the removal of anxiety/fear.
According to the two process model why do individuals continue to feel fearful and avoid the fed object?
Negative reinforcement - avoidance leads to the removal of anxiety/fear
(operant conditioning)
Which learning theory explanation involves acquiring phobias through modelling the behaviour of others?
Social learning theory
What is the percentage of phobias in the UK?
2.6
What are some emotional characteristics of phobia?
Anxiety, Fear - persistent
Likely to be excessive and unreasonable
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Avoidance- Freeze or faint, stress
Freeze = adaptive response (predator thinks prey is dead)
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Irrational beliefs
- Person recognises that their fears are excessive and unreasonable
- Distinguishes from mental illness as they are aware
- Selective attention: hyper vigilance on phobic stimuli
- Cognitive distortion: perception is distorted
Give a brief description of the little Albert study.
- Beginning Albert had no fear of rat (NS)
- Watson and Reyner conditioned Albert to fear the rat + other fluffy objects
- Did this by striking a bar with a hammer to produce loud noise (UCS)
- This causes fear naturally
- W + R paired the noise with the rat
- Albert then shows fear of by crying (CR) when seeing rat (CS)
A03 - A strength of the two process model is that it has practical applications
- The model explains how phobias can be maintained over time.
- Has Implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared
- Once a patient is prevented from practising avoidance, they exhaust the phobic’s response. (due to extinction)
- strength as our knowledge of the cause of phobias had led to successful treatments for phobias (systematic desensitisation and flooding).
-Therefore, understanding of phobias allow for individuals to eliminate their phobia and live a better quality of life.
A03 - However not all phobias can be explained by classical conditioning
- Seligman (1970) argued that animals and humans are genetically programmed to rapidly learn association between potentially life threatening stimuli and fear.
- The stimuli are referred to as ancient fears, things that would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past (snakes height strangers)
- Phobias are not always developed after a traumatic incident it could be explained as a biological preparedness.
- Humans don’t often display phobic response to objects that cause pain in day-to-day life (Knife), However phobias of snakes/spiders are more common
- Explained better by evolutionary theory, suggesting phobias are hereditary
A03 - a limitation of the two process model is that it is an incomplete explanation
- If a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a fearful explanation the result could be a phobia But this doesn’t always happen.
- Research has found not everyone who is bitten by a dog develops a phobia of the dog (Di Nardo et al 1988)
- This could be explained by the diathesis-stress model, which proposes we inherit a genetic vulnerability for developing a mental disorder.
- A dog phobia will only manifest if triggered by a life event
- suggests that a dog bite would only lead to a phobia in people who are vulnerable
- Therefore behavioural explanation is incomplete on its own.
A03 - The two process model ignores cognitive factors
- Cognitive aspects to phobias cannot be explained by behaviourist framework
- An alternative explanation is the cognitive approach, this proposes that phobias may develop as the consequence of irrational thinking
- For example, a person in a lift may think that ‘I could be Stuck and suffocate in here’ (irrational thought)
- These thoughts create anxiety and trigger a phobia
- Therefore, the two process model can explain some elements of phobia but cannot account for all the symptoms experienced by individuals suggesting that it is an incomplete explanation.
