Explaining PHOBIA

• how is there incomplete explanation for explaining phobias

  • Seligman suggests we are more likely to develop phobias towards 'prepared stimuli'
  • stimuli which would have posed a threat to our evolutionary ancestors
  • running away from such stimulus increases the likelihood of survival and reproduction (this behaviour has selective evolutionary advantages) --> Meaning that alternative theories can explain why some phobias are more frequent than other phobias
• 2 limitations of using the biological approach as an explanation of phobia

  - Alternative explanation for the acquisition of phobia

  - an incomplete explanation of phobias
• how does explaining phobia using the biological have good explanatory power?

  • can explain the mechanism behind the acquisition and maintenance of phobia, which CC and OC alone can't do
  • Translates to practical benefits in desensitisation and flooding
  • can realise that the phobic stimulus is harmless TRANSLATING INTO A SUCCESSFUL THEORY
• 1 Strength of using the biological approach to explaining phobia

  Good explanatory power
• what did Molwer suggest about phobia?

  we avoid the phobic stimulus we successfully avoid fear and anxiety - Reinforcement the avoidance behaviour, maintaining the phobia
• how does negative reinforcement increase behaviour?

  an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant, this results in a disable consequence, meaning that the behaviour would be repeated
• What does reinforcement do?

  increases the likelihood of a behavior
• when does operant conditioning take place?

  when our behaviour is reinforced or punished
• what keeps a phobia long lasting?

  operant conditioning
• how does the conditioning in the 'Little Albert' study become generalised?

  the conditioning becomes generalised to similar objects:

  • showed Albert furry objects and he became distressed
• PROCEDURE for the 'Little Albert' study

  - showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study

  - when show rat Albert played with it

  - every time a rat came into the room the experimenter would make a loud banging an iron bar close to his ear
• AIM for the 'Little Albert' study

  to create phobia in a 9 month old baby
• Who did the study on the acquisition by classical conditioning (phobia)?

  John Watson + Rosaline Ryan (1920) Little Albert
• what is classical conditioning (interference with phobia)?

  learning to associate something which we initially have no fear, with something that already triggers a fear
• whop proposed the two-process model?

  Hobart Mower (1960)
• how are phobias acquired?

  through the two-process model

  - classical and operant conditioning