Acquisition of phobias

• Classical conditioning

  Watson and Rayner - Little Albert:

  • Originally, Albert tried to play with the rat
  • Researchers made a loud noise when the rat was presented
  • The noise is a UCS, which creates a UCR of fear
  • The rat is then associated with the loud noise and both now produce the fear response
  • The rat is now a CS that produces a CR
  • The conditioning is then generalised to similar objects - e.g. cotton balls