phobias - eval

• support

  the importance of classical conditioning

  evidence to support that phobias can develop through association, e.g. sue et al (1994) found that people with phobias often recall a specific incident when their fear/phobia appeared (e.g being bitten by a dog). it can, therefore, account for some unusual phobias such as button or zip phobia
• counter

  not all bad experiences lead to phobias

  many of us have experienced an unpleasant encounter, e.g. being bitten by a dog that has not resulted in a phobia (di nardo et al, 1998). this indicates that there must be more to it than just a specific negative incident, e.g. there must also be a vulnerability
• alternative explanations

  biological preparedness is the idea that people and animals are inherently inclined to form associations between certain stimuli and responses e.g. cooke and mineka (1990) found that monkeys could easily learn an association between fear and snakes but not between fear and flowers
• applications

  therapy for phobias

  ideas of classical and operant conditioning have been applied to different phobia treatments:

  • systematic desensitisation
  • flooding
• i&d 1

  reductionist - ignores cognitive factors. the focus on stimulus and response indicates that there is no mental processing involved in our behaviour. we have been reduced to the simplicity of a salivating dog or a lever pressing rat
• i&d 2

  nature-nurture - behaviourism focuses on the environment (nurture) at the expense of our biology (nature).

  diathesis-stress suggests that illness is a combination of both our genetic predisposition (diathesis/nature) and our environmental triggers (stress/environment)