Explaining phobias

• What is the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?

  • Emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour, geared towards explaining the behavioural characteristics of phobias
  • Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model - stating that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
• How are phobias acquired through classical conditioning?

  • We learn to associate something of which we have no fear of (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus)
  • Watson and Rayner (1920) exposed a 9 month old baby called 'Little Albert' to a rat which he previously showed no anxiety to - but whenever the rat was present, researchers made a loud frightening noise near Albert's ear
  • Rat (neutral stimulus) became associated with the noise (unconditioned stimulus), both becoming conditioned to produce fear and this distress was generalised to similar objects like fur coats
• How are phobias maintained through operant conditioning?

  • Phobias are often long-lasting because our behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) increasing its' frequency
  • Mowrer suggests this happens specifically through negative reinforcement -whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape a fearful and anxiety-provoking situation
  • Reduction in fear reinforces the avoidant behaviour and so the phobia is maintained
• What is one strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?

  • Real-world application: has led to the development of exposure therapies such as systematic desensitisation
  • Idea that phobias are maintained by avoidance is important in explaining why phobics benefit from being exposed to it - once avoidant behaviour is prevented it cannot be reinforced and so the phobia is cured
  • Shows the value of the two-process model by identifying a means of treating phobias
• What is another strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?

  • Research support: Jongh et al. (2006) found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had previously experienced a traumatic event mostly involving dentistry compared to a control group of 21%
  • Confirms association between stimulus (dentistry) and an unconditioned response (pain) leads to the development of phobias
  • HOWEVER not all phobias follow a bad experience - some people have phobias of snakes but live in populations where experiences with snakes are rare - shows association is not strong
• What is one limitation of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?

  • Incomplete explanation: doesn't account for the cognitive aspects of phobias
  • Explains key behavioural aspects such as avoidance yet doesn't explain cognitive components such as irrational beliefs regarding the phobic stimulus, offering adequate answers for everything but phobic cognitions
  • Two-process model doesn't explain all symptoms of phobias, making it a limited explanation
• What is another limitation of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?

  • Evolutionary theory: behavioural models provide credible individual explanations for particular people and specific phobias
  • Seligman (1971) argued that all animals are genetically programmed to rapidly learn an association between fear and potentially life-threatening stimuli due to an increased risk in our ancestry
  • 'Ancient fears' - things that would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past like snakes
  • Explains phobic acquisition as just an adaptation to these ancient fears, providing a different explanation that the two-process model does not account for