Hobart Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model based on the behavioural approach to phobias. This states that the phobias are:
acquired (learned in the first place) by classical conditioning - associating a previously neutral stimulus with a fear response
and then continue/maintained because of operant conditioning - where avoiding or escaping from a feared object/situation acts as a negative reinforcer (this reduces anxiety thus avoids unpleasant state = this is rewarding making it more likely to occur
Key study – Little albert. Watson and Raynor (1920)
• 11 month old named ‘Little Albert’
• No fear response to white fluffy objects
• Created a conditioned response to these previously neutral objects by making loud noise behind Albert’s head every time he went near a white rat
• They repeated this until whenever the rat was shown to Albert he would cry because he associated the rat with a loud and frightening noise – they had conditioned a fear response in him. He then generalised this to other similar stimulus (stimulus generalisation)
