Behaviourist approach to phobias

• What are the key elements of the two-process model?

  Acquisition and maintenance.

  Acquisition - learning the phobia through associating the object with something negative

  Maintenance - phobia is maintained through reinforcement
• Maintenance in the two-process model affects phobias by:

  • making phobias long-lasting
  • Avoidance to prevent experience = negative reinforcement
  • avoidance maintains phobia as thoughts are not tested and fear increases
• Mowrer (1947) developed the two-process model which explains how phobias can be acquired and maintained. It suggests that phobias are learned through classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
• What is one psychologist that disagrees with the two-process model and why?

  Seligman believes that humans are biologically scared of things that threatened the lives of our ancestors. limitation of the two-process model is that there are other aspects to consider
• The two process model has been criticised for not explaining why some people develop phobias while others dont
• The two behaviourist approaches to treating phobias are : systematic desensitisation and flooding
• Systematic desensitisation treats phobias by removing the fear of a phobia and substituting a relaxation response to the stimuli gradually using counter conditioning
• The process of systematic desensitisation:

  • Teach patients relaxation techniques
  • Start with less scary version of the phobia and slowly work up
  • Patient must be completely relaxed at the end of each stage
  • Gradual process
• A strength of both treatments is that they have high success rates - around 80% of patients overcome their phobias
• A weakness of these treatments is that they may cause temporary anxiety as the patient faces their fears
• Give two strengths and two limitation of systematic desensitisation

  STRENGTHS:

  • Easier to withdraw
  • Patient controlled

  LIMITATIONS:

  • Multiple sessions can be expensive over time
  • can take a long time to complete treatment, which means that patients need to commit to therapy over an extended period of time
• Flooding therapy involves exposing the patient to the feared object or situation all at once rather than gradually
• Flooding treats phobias by:

  • Continuous exposure causes anxiety levels to decrease
  • Patient unable to negatively reinforce phobia
• What are two strengths and two limitations of flooding as a treatment for phobias?

  STRENGTHS:

  • Highly effective and quicker
  • Less sessions needed means its cheaper

  LIMITATIONS:

  • Only works for simple phobias and not social phobias
  • Not good for vulnerable groups