Behaviourist approach to phobias

• the first symptom of a phobia is a persistent fear towards a specific stimulus, this is emotional
• the second stimulus of a phobia is the irrational beliefs about the feared stimulus, this is cognitive
• the third symptom of a phobia is the avoidance of the feared stimulus, this is behavioural
• a social phobia is when people are scared to be in social situations
• agoraphobia is when people are scared of being trapped somewhere and not being able to escape
• a specific phobia is when someone is scared of a certain animal or object
• the behaviourist approach to phobias says that we acquire phobias through classical conditioning
• the behaviourist approach to phobias says that phobias are maintained through operant conditioning
• when a person avoids a feared stimulus the fear is removed and is therefore negatively reinforced
• one strength of this explanation to phobias is that it is supported by research studies
• one limitation of this explanation to phobias is that not all phobias are caused by traumatic events. in studies 50% of participants couldnt recall the event that caused their phobia
• flooding is when you are exposed to your worst fear until the anxiety of the fear has worn off
• flooding works because it prevents the patient from avoiding the eared stimulus, when confronted with the feared stimulus, the patient can see that the conditioned stimulus does not lead to the unconditioned stimulus
• research shows that 65% of patients showed no symptoms of a specific phobia 4 years later, this supports the use of flooding
• a limitation of flooding is that it doesn't work for every patient and can sometimes result in the phobia becoming worse
• a limitation of flooding is that it can create distress for the patients and therefore can be considered unethical
• the first step in systematic desensitisation is to create a fear hierarchy which is putting your fears in a list from least to most scary
• the second step in systematic desensitisation is to learn relaxation techniques
• the third step to systematic desensitisation is exposing yourself to the feared stimulus starting with the least scary in a systematic way, ensure that you stay relaxed at each stage
• unlike flooding, systematic desensitisation builds up in stages, this gives the patient more exposure to the feared stimulus and therefore has more opportunities to extinguish the association between the stimuluses.
• one strength of systematic desensitisation is that research shows that 90% of patients in an experiment recovered from their phobia
• a strength of systematic desensitisation is that it is less distressing to the patient and is therefore more ethical to use than flooding
• a limitation of systematic desensitisation is that its less effective at treating social and agoraphobia where cognitive factors are also important