Psychopathology: Behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Question 1

What characterises phobias??

Answer 1

Excessive fear and anxiety triggered by an object, place or situation.
the extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus

Question 2

What are some of the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics of a phobia??

Answer 2

Behavioural = Panic & avoidance
Emotional = Anxiety, fear
Cognitive = Selective attention (difficult to divert attention from phobic stimulus), irrational beliefs

Question 3

What is Mowrer’s two-process model and what year was it developed??

Answer 3

Behaviours are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant.

1960

Question 4

How does classical conditioning develop phobias??

Answer 4

We learn to associate something that we are not initially scared of (NS) with something that already triggers a fear response (UCS)

Question 5

Describe the Little Albert experiment!

Answer 5

• Conducted by John Watson
• 9-month-old baby
• Exposed to series of stimuli: white rat, monkey, rabbit & burning newspapers
• Next time he was exposed to the rat, Watson hit a metal pipe with a hammer
• Eventually, Albert cried when just seeing the rat
• He grew up to fear other furry objects

Question 6

How are phobias said to be maintained??

Answer 6

Mowrer (1960) -> Phobias are maintianed through operant conditioning.

Usually the results of classical conditioning fade over time but phobias are long-lasting, so they are said to be maintained with operant conditioning.

Negative reinforcement: Avoidance behaviour is reinforced by consistently avoiding the phobic stimulus.

Question 7

What are the 3 evaluation points for the behavioural approach to explaining phobias??

Answer 7

• Strong explanatory power
• Doesn’t explain cognitive aspects (explains behaviour not cognition)
• Bouton (2007) -> Evolutionary factors

Question 8

Why does the behavioural approach to explaining phobias have strong explanatory power??

Answer 8

It explains both why phobias develop and how they are maintained.
Knowing how they are maintained can help with treatment by trying to prevent the avoidance behaviour.

Question 9

What did Bouton (2007) state??

Answer 9

That some phobias are a result of evolution because our ancestors needed them for survival. This goes against Mowrer’s model because it means that phobias are innate, not learnt.