Behavioural explanations of phobias

• Two-process model of phobia development

  1. Classical conditioning - phobias are learned

  2. Operant conditioning - phobias are maintained
• Little Albert study

  • Aimed to discover whether a feared response can be conditioned via classical conditioning and if it can, consider how long one fear response will last
  • Procedure: Before - neutral stimulus (rat), during - paired with loud noise (unconditioned stimulus), after - rat alone caused crying (conditioned response)
  • Findings: Fear response generalised to other similar stimuli and lasted at least a month
• Operant conditioning

  When people avoid their phobic stimuli, they escape the anxiety/negative feelings they associate with it. This makes them want to continue avoiding their phobia, hence the maintenance of it.
• Social learning theory

  Phobias can be developed by modelling the behaviour of others and observing the consequences of those actions (vicarious reinforcement)
• Real world application

  The two-process model helps in exposure therapies like systematic desensitization by addressing avoidance behaviors to treat phobias.
• cognitive aspects of phobias

  This explanation of phobias is reductionist because it only covers behavioural aspects, ignoring cognitive factors like distortions and irrational beliefs, making it incomplete.
• phobias and traumatic experiences

  The Little Albert study shows phobias can form through classical conditioning. De Jongh et al. support this, finding 73% of those with traumatic dentist experiences feared the dentist, compared to 21% without.
• counterpoint

  Not all phobias result from traumatic experiences. Many people fear snakes despite little contact with them, suggesting the behaviourist explanation is incomplete as it doesn't account for such cases.