The Behaviourist Approach to Phobias

• Watson and Rayner did a case in 1920 on Little Albert. This included presenting Little Albert with a white rat. Little Albert presented no fear response. However, every time little Albert was presented with the white rat, he would cry (neutral stimulus - conditioned stimulus). This supported the fact that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning.
• Barlow and Durand show further support for the behaviourist explanations of phobias. Many participants who could recall a traumatic event had not given since the event. The results of this study support the idea that phobias are maintained through operant conditoning.
• A strength of this approach is that there are supporting research studies.
• A weakness is that not all phobias are caused by a traumatic event. In Barlow's study, 50% of participants could recall a traumatic event that caused their driving phobia, whereas the other 50% could not. In 1992 research that was conducted proved, only 7% of people could recall a traumatic event with a spider.
• Over time, it is possible that some phobias are partially genetically determined or we may have evolved to fear certain things.
• One treatment for phobias is called flooding. This involves the patient being exposed to their worst fear, and remaining with it until their anxiety has worn off.
• Another treatment for phobias is systematic desensitisation. This involves gradually exposing patients to their fears over a period of time.
• A phobia is characterised by three factors:

  • Persistant fear of specific stimulus
  • Irrational beleives
  • Avoidance of feared stimulus
• There are three broad types of phobias: Social phobias, Aragaphobia, Specific phobias
• The behaviourist explanations to phobias is explained through

  The Two-process model
• Flooding works because it prevents the patient from avoiding the feared stimulus. Association between conditoned & unconditioned stimulus is extinguished.
• Systematic desensitisation involves three steps:

  • Anxiety Heirachy - making least feared to most
  • Relaxation Teachninques
  • Exposure
• Systematic desensitisation works because it is a gradual process and the client is able to control their own anxiety
• Counter conditioning can work as it allows the individual to replace negative feelings with positive ones
• Support for the use of Flooding comes from Kaplan and Tolin's therapy. They found that 65% of patients had no symptoms of a specific phobia 4 years after a specific session of flooding. This suggests that flooding is an effective treatment for phobias because it removes symptoms in patients for a long time after a session.
• Support for systematic desensitisation comes from Ost study, who found that 90% of patients had improved or completely recovered four years later after treatment. This supports that this can be effective.
• A strength of S.D is that it exposes the patient to the feared stimuli gradually, creating less distress. This makes it more ethical than flooding, and its effects are lasting after a long period of time.
• A limitation of S.D is that it is Less effective at treating social phobias and agoraphobias, where cognitive factors are also important.
• A limitation of Flooding is that it doesn't always work, and can strengthen the association between the conditioned and the unconditioned stimulus to exhibit an even stronger fear response.
• A limitation of flooding is that is it unethical, as it can create a lot of distress to patients, because of this, it may be inappropriate to use flooding on some cases of patients, for example Children, because it may be too traumatic.