behaviourist explanation & treatment of phobias

• Explanation of phobias: Mowrer (1960)

  • stage one: people acquire a phobia through classical conditioning (association)
  • stage two: people maintain a phobia through operant conditioning (negative reinforcement). A behav characteristic of phobias is avoidance, by avoiding the phobic stimulus people are rewarded with not feeling fear. This avoidance continues, negatively reinforcing the phobia.
• Example of acquiring a phobia through classical conditioning: Little Albert.

  • UCS ----------> UCR
  • (loud noise) ---> (fear)
  • NS -----------> NR
  • (rat) ---------> (no response)
  • UCS & NS -----> UCR
  • (noise & rat) --> (fear)
  • CS -----------> CR
  • (rat) ---------> (fear)
• Behavioural explanation of phobias - AO3:

  • practical application: exposure therapies. In exposure therapies, people can't avoid their phobia so the phobia is not negatively reinforced. The explanation has use & increased validity.
  • explanatory power: explains why people with phobias behave as they do e.g., avoidance. D: reductionism - doesn't look at emo/cog factors that can cause phobias. Limited explanation.
  • alternative explanation: evolutionary explanation. Have phobias of things that harmed ancestors. Prepared to have the phobia. Decreases the validity of this explanation.
• Systematic desensitisation:

  • Wolpe (1958)
  • is a behavioural therapy which treats phobias via classical conditioning.
  • phobia is cured through pairing the stimulus with relaxation, not anxiety - counterbalancing. Reciprocal inhibition: can't be scared and relaxed at the same time.
  • an anxiety hierarchy is created, patients work with the therapist to list scenarios involving their phobia stimulus from the least anxiety to the most anxiety felt.
  • in sessions, they work up the hierarchy until the person no longer has a phobia.
• Flooding:

  • patients are exposed to an extreme form of their phobia until they no longer fear it.
  • exposure to the stimulus is immediate, patients cannot avoid it.
  • patients are out in the presence of their phobic stimulus until they learn that it is harmless - the learnt response of fear then goes away.
• Systematic desensitisation - AO3:

  • research support: Gilroy et al (2003) found that patients who had systematic desensitisation were less fearful of their phobia than those who did not have SD. Shows that it is an effective treatment.
  • Can be used for most people. Rational thinking is not needed, unlike other treatment options. Means that it is a good/effective treatment for most people with phobias - has use.
  • Causes less harm than flooding. Gradual exposure = more ethical. Patients are more likely to complete SD.
  • limited application: only treats learnt phobias, not irrational.
• Flooding - AO3:

  • more time effective than SD. Flooding can be successful in one session, SD cannot. HOWEVER, this therapy is unethical - it is traumatic and causes psychological harm, high attrition rates. Gives psychology a bad rep, better options.
  • can't be used to treat all phobias. Only treats phobias with irrational thinking. The treatment cannot be generalised to other phobias.
• Stimulus generalisation is when a conditioned stimulus can cause a conditioned response to a stimulus that is like the conditioned one. Example: little Albert being scared of anything white and fluffy, not just the rat.
• Extinction is when the conditioned response to the phobia stimulus gradually weakens.