Phobia Explanation

• Maintenance of phobias by operant conditioning is when you successfulyy escape the fear and anxiety of a phobic stimulus. The reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained
• Two process model:

  • acquisition
  • maintenance
• Evaluation of the behavioural explanation of phobia:

  1. Supporting Studies (Ad de Jongh et al [2006] found that 73% of people that fear the dentist have had a traumatic experience) - traumatic event conditioned the patients to fear the dentist.
• Evaluation of the behavioural explanation of phobias:

  2. Weakness = Supporting studies have methodological issues.

  • As Little Albert was brought up in hospital, he doesn't accurately represent all babies.
  • The experiment was idiographic which means the test was only carried out on Little Albert

  This means that the methodology is inaccurate and so are the results and the results cant be generalised
• Evaluation of the behavioural explanation of phobias:

  3. Its models cant explain all symptoms of a phobia. This behavioural approach only provides an explanation of the behavioural symptoms but not the emotional or cognitive.

  Therefore not a full explanation!
• Evaluation of the behavioural explanation of phobias:

  4. Has real life application in exposure therapies - helps explains why people with a phobia benefit from exposure - helps give them a better quality of life

  
  

  Therefore can be applied in the real life.
• Two - process model = An explanation for the onset and persistence of disorders that create anxiety, such as phobias. The two processes are classical conditioning for onset and operant conditioning for persistence
• Watson and Rayner (1920) - Little Albert Study

  • created a phobia in a 9-month old baby
  • associated the loud noise (UCS) which creates fear (UCR)
  • With the rat (NS)
  • Conditions a phobia that can be generalised to white fluffy things
• Operant conditioning takes place as the negative behaviour is reinforced or punished
• Negative reinforcement - avoids a situation that is unpleasant so repeats this behaviour for avoidance
• Phobia Explanation PEELs:

  1. Strength - Supporting Study - Ad de Jongh (2006
  2. Weakness - Findings can’t be generalised
  3. Weakness - Not a full explanation (ignores cognitive)
  4. Strength - Real life Application - Exposure therapy
• Proposed by Mowrer (1960)
• Classical conditioning involves learning to associate something of which we originally had no fear (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus)