AO3 - Behavioural Explanation for Phobias

• The behaviourist approach to explaining phobias can be criticised for environmental reductionism. This is because it reduces the complex human behaviour of phobias down to the simple basic units of leaning via stimulus, response and association between a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. This neglects a holistic approach which would take into account how a person’s culture and social context would influence phobias. Therefore the behavioural explanation (two-process model) may lack validity as it does not allow is to understand the behaviour in context.
• The behavioural approach to explaining phobias has practical applications. The principles of the theory suggest that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and can therefore be unlearnt via classical conditioning, which has led to the development of systematic desensitisation. This works by teaching a patient relaxation techniques and gradually exposing them to their phobic stimulus so they can learn to associate them together, extinguishing the phobia. Therefore, the behavioural explanation is an important part of applied psychology as it helps to treat people in the real world.
• Research to support the behaviourist explanation of phobias was conducted by Ad De Jongh et al. He found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had a traumatic experience mostly involving dentistry. This can be compared to a control group of people with low dental anxiety where only 21% had a traumatic experience. This confirms the association between a stimulus (dentistry) and an unconditioned stimulus (pain) leading to the development of a phobia. Therefore supporting the behaviourist explanation of phobias.
• However, not all bad experiences lead to phobias. For example, in Ad De Jongh’s study, 21% of people in the control group experienced a traumatic event linking to dentistry but did not develop a phobia. In addition, some people have phobias of stimuli that they have never encountered/had a bad experience with. Therefore suggesting that other explanations should be considered when understanding phobias other than the behaviourist explanation.