Lesson 6 - Phobias: Behavioural Approach To Explaining Phobias (classical & operant conditioning)

Question 1

What does the behavioural model suggest?

Answer 1

all behaviour (including phobias) can be learnt, and people who have an abnormality can learn negative behaviours

Question 2

What is the two process model?

Answer 2

A) phobia learnt via classical conditioning/social learning
B) phobia maintained by operant conditioning

Question 3

Ao1: what is classical conditioning & what are the steps?

Answer 3

• involves building up an association between 2 different stimuli so that learning takes place

1) neutral stimulus with no initial reaction’s presented to a person

2) unconditioned stimulus’ presented which makes person have an emotional response

3) repeatedly pair the 2 stimuli together many times & present both stimuli together until classical conditioning & learning take place

4) then present conditioned stimulus alone & person will have a conditioned response; learning taken place via classical conditioning & an association has been established

Question 4

Who conducted a study on classical conditioning & what is it called?

Answer 4

Watson & Rayner
Little Albert

Question 5

What was the Little Albert study?

Question 6

Ao3: strength of classical conditioning
(King supports ideas proposed by C.C)

Answer 6

• 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

Question 7

Ao3: weakness of classical conditioning
(Little Albert study can be criticised)

Answer 7

• only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated (not very reliable)
• thus 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
• study couldn’t be repeated nowadays due to ethical concerns

Question 8

Ao3: weakness of classical conditioning
(People have traumatic experiences but don’t develop phobias)

Answer 8

• e.g. a car accident, however, many people do not then go on to develop a phobia of cars/driving
• classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop
• 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

Question 9

Ao3: weakness of classical conditioning
(Menzies criticises idea of classical conditioning)

Answer 9

• 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)
• thus, 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.
• so how did these people get their phobia of water if they had not learnt it?
• 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 causing the development of the phobia

Question 10

Ao1: what is the social learning theory / modelling

Answer 10

• 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
• e.g. if we watch someone have a traumatic experience: they get bitten by a dog and start screaming, then we might imitate this behaviour and also become scared of dogs, which means we develop a phobia by observational learning

Question 11

Ao3: strength of social learning theory
(Bandura supports idea of SLT)

Answer 11

• piece of 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 the participants were given the chance to hear the sound of the buzzer and they showed the same response (acted as if they were in pain)
• thus, SLT does seem to be an effective method when learning to become fearful of an object

Question 12

Ao3: weakness of social learning theory
(Can be successful in explaining how learning a phobia can occur in animals & young children)

Answer 12

• However, SLT is not very strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias
• thus, the behavioural model is limited to only explaining learning in young children and animals only
• so, is unable to be generalised to the population

Question 13

Ao1: what is operant conditioning?

Answer 13

• involves learning a new response that can result in reinforcement ; explains how they can be maintained
• Negative reinforcement: e.g. if someone is scared of snakes, they will try to avoid snakes in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear
• Positive reinforcement: By avoiding snakes and not feeling fear, this is rewarding
• thus, the avoidance of snakes continues.

Question 14

Ao3: strength of behavioural approach
(received praise due to clear steps)

Answer 14

• highlights how phobias are learned and how they are maintained
• learnt by powerful classical conditioning or social learning theory, and then are maintained by operant conditioning (either positive or negative reinforcement).
• process seems an accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall

Question 15

Ao3: weakness of the behavioural approach
(Limited - ignores other factors that could cause phobias)

Answer 15

• behavioural model focuses on learning and the environment, but would not take into account biological or evolutionary factors that could cause phobias
• some people might have more of a genetic vulnerability to develop phobias than others and the behavioural model would ignore this