Behaviourism & phobias

• What does the behaviourist view of phobias focus on?

  Focuses on explaining avoidance, endurance and panic rather than emotional or cognitive aspects.
• What is the two-way process model?

  That we learn a phobia by classical conditioning and maintain a phobia by operant conditioning.
• Explain the two-way process model:

  The feared object is associated with a fear or anxiety sometime in the past. Fear is maintained through negative reinforcement and the individual avoids the feared stimulus (negative). This produces a desirable response, which is reduced fear, and thus the action is repeated (reinforcement).
• Strengths of the behaviourism explanation of phobias:

  • Watson & Rayner: Little Albert study. Suggests model has wider academic credibility
  • Empirical support - DiGallo reported around 20% of people who suffered from car accidents developed a phobia of travelling in cars. NS had become CS & associated with fear and anxiety.
  • Scientific validation - uses objective measures; use of scientific experiments so can easily support/reject a hypothesis. Behaviourists use objective measures so not prone to bias
• Weaknesses of the behaviourism explanation of phobias:

  • Environmentally reductionist - assumes all abnormal behaviour is due to faulty learning. Can't explain individuals who have phobias of stimuli they have never encountered. Suggests model oversimplifies causes of mental disorders. Holistic approach needed for full explanation.
  • Ethical problems - Treatments can be useful but focus on symptoms of disorder & not underlying cause, therefore patient may think they're cured but disorder returns at a later stage. Suggests explanation could be useful if used in conjunction with other therapies.