Evaluation of the Behavioural Approach to Explaining Phobias

• strengths

  • good explanatory power
  • practical applications
• good explanatory power 


  people with phobias often do recall a specific incident when their phobia appeared, for example being bitten by a dog or having a panic attack in a social situation.

  Ad De Jongh et al. (2006)- 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had experienced a traumatic experience, mostly involving dentistry compared to the control group of people with low dental anxiety where only 21% had experienced a traumatic event
• good explanatory power COUNTER ARGUMENT 


  however, not everyone who has a phobia can recall a traumatic experience that caused it. some people might have a fear of snakes, but never actually encountered one. also not all frightening experiences lead to phobias. this suggests that other processes, other than classical conditioning, may be involved in the development of phobias
• practical applications 


  the behavioural explanation has been used to develop effective treatments for phobias- systematic desensitisation and flooding. this has proved very practical in the real world to help people deal and overcome their fears, using research based on the behavioural approach
• limitations

  • ignores biological factors
  • ignores cognitive factors
• ignores biological factors

  • if a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a fearful experience the result should be a phobia, but this doesn’t always happen
  • research has found that not everyone who is bitten by a dog develops a phobia of dogs. this could be explained by the diathesis-stress model. this suggests that we inherit genetic vulnerability for developing mental disorders. however, a disorder will only manifest itself if triggered by a life event, such as being bitten by a dog.
  • a dog bite only leads to a phobia in people with such a vulnerability
• ignores cognitive factors 


  there are cognitive aspects to phobias that cannot be explained in a traditionally behaviourist framework. an alternative explanation is the cognitive approach, which proposes that phobias may develop as the consequence of irrational thinking. for example, a person in a lift may think ’I could become trapped in here and suffocate‘ (an irrational thought). such thoughts create extreme anxiety and may trigger a phobia

  the two-process model explains avoidance behaviour but doesn’t offer an adequate explanation for phobic conditions