Acquisition and maintenance

• What is a phobia?

  Persistent fear of classes or situations
• What percentage of the population has phobias?

  2.6% of the population
• What type of disorder is a phobia classified as?

  Anxiety disorder
• What are specific phobias?

  Fear of animals or objects
• What are social phobias?

  Fear of social situations
• What is agoraphobia?

  Fear of specific places or crowds
• How are phobias created according to classical conditioning?

  Through association with fearful experiences
• How might a spider phobia develop?

  Through association with pain or death
• What did Dollinger, O'Donnell, and Staley (1984) study?

  Child lightning survivors' fear responses
• What does the research by Dollinger, O'Donnell, and Staley validate?

  Fear through classical conditioning
• What did Watson and Rayner condition in Little Albert?

  Fear of rats
• What percentage of students studied by Heumon (1987) had a conditioning experience related to phobia?

  23%
• What does Heumon's study suggest about phobias?

  Not all phobias are due to association
• What is the evolutionary explanation for phobias?

  Some phobias do not require traumatic experience
• What is operant conditioning?

  Learning through consequences
• How does operant conditioning relate to phobias?

  Fear leads to avoidance of phobic stimuli
• What is the main explanation for social phobias according to operant conditioning?

  Avoidance is reinforced by negative outcomes
• How do panic attacks relate to social anxiety disorders?

  Panic attacks maintain social phobias
• What is the role of clinical models in understanding phobias?

  They show stages of operant conditioning
• What does social learning theory emphasize?

  Learning through observation and association
• How might a child learn to fear spiders according to social learning theory?

  By observing a sibling's fearful reaction
• What did Dubi (2008) find regarding toddlers and fear behaviors?

  Toddlers show fear after observing negative reactions
• What did Coombes (1980) study about rats and water?

  Rats learned through vicarious reinforcement
• What is a limitation of much research on phobia acquisition?

  It often lacks ecological validity
• What do common patterns in phobias reflect?

  Survival benefits from evolutionary past
• How are past phobias explained in terms of instincts?

  They are likely based on instincts and nature