PHOBIAS-behaviourism

• Social phobia involves intense fear or anxiety about being judged negatively by others in social situations.
• Phobia- an extreme and irrational fear of a particular object or situation.
• Behaviourism suggests phobias are gained through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
• One treatment for phobias is called flooding where a PT is exposed to their fearful stimuli
• Another treatment for phobias is systematic desensitisation which involves relaxation techniques being used alongside exposure therapy
• Operant conditioning

  Learning based on the consequences of actions. Actions which have a good outcome through positive reinforcement (reward) or negative reinforcement (removal of something unpleasant) will be repeated. Actions which have a bad outcome (punishment) will not be repeated.
• Operant conditioning is important in maintaining phobias
• Two-Process Model

  Explains how phobias are produced and maintained
• How phobias are produced and maintained

  1. People develop phobias by classical conditioning - a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to produce the conditioned response (phobia)

  2. Once somebody has developed a phobia, operant conditioning maintains it - people get anxious and the phobia, and this process reinforces the phobia
• Operant conditioning can also explain how social phobia and agoraphobia develop - people are anxious about having a panic attack in a social situation or an open place because of their specific phobias, so they avoid these situations
• Behavioural explanation of phobias

  • Strengths: Barlow and Craske (1989) showed that in cases of people with a severe fear of driving, 50% had actually been involved in a road accident. Through classical conditioning, the road accident became the unconditioned stimulus that led to driving becoming the conditioned stimulus and the phobia
  • Weaknesses: Davey (1992) found that only 7% of spider phobics recalled having a traumatic experience with a spider. The explanation couldn't account for why the other 93% developed the phobia
• Systematic desensitisation

  1. Specific hierarchy of feared situations is created

  2. The patient is gradually exposed to the least feared situation first

  3. They are then taught relaxation techniques

  4. The patient then imagines the anxiety-provoking situation, starting with the least feared

  5. Relaxation and imagery can't happen at the same time, showing what you've learned
• Flooding

  1. Exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus right away, without any gradual build-up

  2. The patient is kept in this situation until the anxiety they feel at first how wears off
• Behavioural therapy for phobias

  • Strengths: Zinbarg et al (1992) found that systematic desensitisation was the most effective of the currently known methods for treating phobias. It works very quickly, e.g. Ost et al (1991) found that anxiety was reduced in 90% of patients with a specific phobia after just one session of therapy
  • Weaknesses: Flooding can be problematic as some patients drop out of the therapy before the fear has been extinguished, then it can end up causing more anxiety than before therapy started
• Behavioural therapy only treats the symptoms of the disorder. Other therapies try to tackle the cause of it, e.g. cognitive behaviour therapy
• A specific phobia can develop through classical conditioning

  A neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus to produce the conditioned response (phobia)
• Flooding

  Behavioural therapy involving exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus right away, without any gradual build-up
• Behavioural therapy is very effective for treating specific phobia
• Behavioural- avoidance and panic
• Cognitive- selective attention and irrational beliefs
• Emotional- excessive and unreasonable panic and fear
• Strengths of systematic desensitisation

  • Proven to be successful with a range of phobias and effective on different types of people
  • Successful with patients who have a vivid imagination and can imagine their phobia
  • Fast treatment and requires less effort than most other psychotherapies
  • Technological advances mean dangerous situations can be lessened as the patients can also be treated with virtual reality
  • Successful treatment for those with learning disabilities, where other treatments may not be suitable
  • Doesn't require a huge cognitive load and means the patients are less likely to become confused
  • Has huge practical uses: Certain airlines use systematic desensitisation courses to help fearful flyers overcome their phobia
• Systematic desensitisation as a treatment for spider phobia

  • Gilroy et al. (2003) followed a group of 42 patients who had systematic desensitisation as a treatment for their spider phobia over three 45 minutes sessions and she found that at both 3 and 33 months they were less fearful and more in control of their phobia compared to the control group, who had not had any sessions
• Systematic desensitisation courses for fearful flyers

  Start with a walk through the airport, listening to a pilot explain what happens during a commercial flight before taking a short flight themselves
• Limitations of systematic desensitisation

  • It is less effective for evolutionary therapies
  • Systematic desensitisation doesn't treat the cause of the phobia, only the behaviour it causes
  • Virtual reality systematic desensitisation is less effective than using real stimulus
  • It is difficult to prove if it works in real life or just in the hierarchy situations
  • Some patients struggle to deal with the phobia outside of the therapy sessions
• Systematic desensitisation not treating the cause of the phobia

  May leave the patient vulnerable to other phobias developing as the real reason behind the fear has yet to be uncovered (Psychodynamic theory)
• Patients cannot apply what they have learned to actual everyday situations
• Strengths of flooding

  • Flooding is cost-effective, although individual flooding sessions are usually longer than systematic desensitisation sessions, fewer sessions are needed
  • Flooding works well with 'simple' phobias e.g. arachnaphobia (fear of spiders)
• Limitations of flooding

  • Flooding can be very traumatic for the patient therefore it may be ethically compromised: Schumacher et al. (2015) found both patients and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than systematic desensitisation
  • Flooding is less effective with more complex phobias, such as social phobias 
• Ideal mental health


  Jahoda's six criteria necessary for
• Absence of any of these characteristics indicates individuals as being abnormal, in other words displaying deviation from ideal mental health
• Resistance to stress


  • Having effective coping strategies
  • Being able to cope with everyday anxiety-provoking situations
• Growth, development, or self-actualization


  • Experiencing personal growth
  • Becoming everything one is capable of becoming
• High self-esteem and a strong sense of identity


  • Having self-respect
  • Having a positive self-concept
• Autonomy


  • Being independent
  • Being self-reliant
  • Being able to make personal decisions
• Accurate perception of reality

  • Having an objective and realistic view of the world