Phobias

• Phobia


  An anxiety disorder involving a persistent fear of an object, place or situation which is disproportional to the threat or danger posed by the object of fear
• The person who has the phobia will go to great lengths to avoid the object of the fear and experience great distress if it is encountered
• Types of phobias recognised by DSM-5

  • Specific phobia
  • Social anxiety (social phobia)
  • Agoraphobia
• Classical conditioning


  Learning to associate a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally elicits a fear response, resulting in the neutral stimulus also eliciting the fear response (conditioned response)
• Fear of the dentist

  • Nerve being hit (UCS)
  • Pain (UCR)
  • Drill (NS)
  • Pain (CR)
• Operant conditioning


  • Explains how phobias can be maintained once they have been learnt via classical conditioning
  • The consequences of our actions can lead to the behaviour being reinforced and carried out again, e.g. avoidance of the phobic stimulus is negatively reinforced as it removes the fear
• The behavioural approach assumes that all behaviour, including phobias, is learnt
• The two-process model suggests phobias are learnt/initiated through classical conditioning and then maintained through operant conditioning
• Behavioural Approach to Phobia


  The Behavioural Model of Abnormality says Behaviours are all Learnt
• Classical Conditioning


  1. Pairing a previously neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response

  2. The natural response becomes associated with the previously neutral stimulus
• Classical Conditioning


  • Pairing the sound of a bell with food to produce salivation in dogs (Pavlov's experiment)
  • Pairing the sight of a white rat with a loud noise to produce fear in a child (Little Albert experiment)
• Phobias can develop through similar classical conditioning processes as described above
• Operant Conditioning


  1. Learning through the consequences of actions

  2. Actions which have a good outcome (positive reinforcement) or removal of something bad (negative reinforcement) are more likely to be repeated

  3. Actions which have a bad outcome (punishment) are less likely to be repeated
• Operant conditioning is important in maintaining phobias
• Two-Process Model of Phobia

  1. Classical conditioning produces the phobia by pairing a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response

  2. Operant conditioning maintains the phobia by the person avoiding the phobic stimulus, preventing the anxiety from being extinguished
• Social phobia or agoraphobia can develop from a specific phobia through operant conditioning
• Strengths of Behavioural Explanation of Phobias

  • Barlow and Durand (1995) showed that 50% of severe driving phobics had been involved in a road accident, supporting classical conditioning
  • Behavioural therapies are effective at treating phobias by changing the response to the stimulus, suggesting they treat the cause
• Weaknesses of Behavioural Explanation of Phobias

  • Davey (1992) found that only 10% of spider phobics recalled a traumatic experience, suggesting other explanations like genetic factors
  • Just because some phobics couldn't remember the original conditioning event doesn't mean it didn't happen