A03 Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias

• Evaluation of Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias:

  + Application

  -Phobias don't necessary follow bad experience/trauma (Hackmann et al 2000 and DiNardo et al 1988 and Menzies & Clarke 1993 and Barlow & Durand 1995)

  -Alternate explanation for avoidance behaviour (Buck 2010)

  + Little Albert

  -An incomplete explanation of phobias (Seligman 1971 and Bounton 2007)

  -Two-process model does not properly consider the cognitive aspects of phobias
• Alternate Explanation for avoidance behaviour - BAtEP A03 - PART 1


  P: Not all avoidance behaviour associated with phobia is result of anxiety reduction.

  E: Evidence suggests some avoidance behaviour appears to be motivated by POSITIVE feelings of safety in more complex behaviours/phobias e.g. agoraphobia. Basically motivating factor in choosing an action e.g. not leaving house is not to avoid phobic stimulus but to stick with safety feeling
• Alternate Explanation for avoidance behaviour - BAtEP A03 - PART 2


  E:e.g. , this explains why patients with agoraphobia are able to leave house with trusted person but not alone (Buck, 2010)

  L: This is problem for 2 process model, which suggests avoidance motivated by anxiety reduction, this goes against it weakening the model and reducing its validity.
• Application - BAtEP A03


  P: Two-process model was definite step forward when it proposed in 1960 as it went beyond Watson & Raynor's simple concept of classical conditioning explanation of phobias.

  E: It explained how phobias maintained over time & this important applications for therapies coz it explains why patients need to be exposed to feared stimulus to remain afraid.

  E: Key implications for therapy. If patient prevented from practicing avoidance behaviour, behaviour ceases to be reinforced so declines.

  L: This is strength since it shows the 2 process model has application to therapy.
• Two procces is an incomplete explanation of phobias - BAtEP A03 - PART 1


  • P: Even if we accept that classical & operant conditioning are involved in the development and maintenance of phobias there are some aspects of phobia behaviour that require further explaining.
  • E: We easily acquire phobias of things that were a danger in our evolutionary past (e.g. snakes/dark(. This is biological preparedness - we are innately prepared to fear some things more than others - innate predisposition to acquire certain fears (Seligman 1971).
• Two procces is an incomplete explanation of phobias - BAtEP A03 - PART 2


  • E: Bounton (2007) - points out e.g. evolutionary factors probably have a key role in phobias (2 factor/process model does not explain this)
  • L: The phenomenon of biological preparedness is a problem for the two-process model because it shows there is more to acquiring phobias than simply conditioning (meaning it is incomplete and more research must be done on it)
• Not all phobias appear following a bad experience - BAtEP - PART 1


  P: Sometimes phobias do appear following a bad experience and it is easy to see how they could be the result of conditioning. Not all phobias appear following a bad experience.

  E: However, sometimes people have a bad experience (such as being bitten by a dog) and don't develop a phobia (DiNardo et al 1988)

  E: Hackmann et al (2000) found 96% of social phobics remembered some socially traumatic experience that had happened to them (often in adolescence)
• Not all phobias appear following a bad experience - BAtEP - PART 2


  E: Menzies & Clarke (1993) found only 2% of water-phobic recalled an unpleasant experience with water

  E: Barlow & Durand (1995) found 50% of driving phobias recalled a traumatic experience while driving.

  L: this suggests that conditioning alone can not explain phobias. They may only develop where a vulnerability exists.
• Two-process model does not properly consider the cognitive aspects of phobias - BAtEP A03

  P: We know that behavioural explanations in general are orientated towards explaining behaviour rather than cognition (thinking)

  E: This is why the two-process model explanins maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance - but we also know that phobias have a cognitive element

  L: The two-process theory does not adequately address the cognitive element of phobias
• Little Albert Study - BAtEP A03

  Little Albert gives evidence for classical conditioning