The Behaviourist Approach and Phobias

• Emotional characteristics of phobias

  • Emotional response of anxiety and fear
  • Unpleasant state of high arousal (fight/flight)
  • Emotional response is disproportional to real threat
• Behavioural characteristics of phobias

  • Panic → crying, screaming, freezing (fainting), fight/flight
  • Avoidance → effort to keep away from the phonic stimulus - makes it hard to go about daily life
  • Endurance → in unavoidable situations
• Phobia definition

  • Anxiety disorder
  • Irrational or disproportional fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation
  • Maladaptive and disruptive to everyday life
• Cognitive characteristics of phobias

  • Selective attention to the phobic stimulus (ex. crying) → cognitive distortion
  • Irrational thought process that exaggerates the threat
  • Failure to respond to rational arguments (ex. most dogs are not violent)→ person knows that their fear is excessive
• Two-Process Model

  • Proposed by Mower and suggests that phobias are acquired
  • States that phobias are learnt by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning
  • Classical conditioning → if an unpleasant emotion is paired with a stimulus, then the two become associated with each other through conditioning
  • Operant conditioning → maintained through negative reinforcement - the phobic object is avoided and this further reinforces the phobia
• Explaining Phobias - Classical Conditioning - (A)PF(C) - Little Albert Experiment (Watson and Rayner)

  P - For several weeks, Albert played happily with a white rat showing no fear

  • One day while he was paying with the rat the experimenters struck a steel bar with a hammer close to Albert’s head which frightened him
  • This was repeated every time he reached for the rat

  F - Little Albert then developed a fear of white rats
• Explaining Phobias - Operant Conditioning

  • Avoidance of phobic object or situation is reinforced by the reduction of anxiety
  • Frequent contact with a phobic object may reveal that it is harmless, which will lead to the extinction of the phobia - however people with phobias usually go to great lengths to avoid their fears
  • Two-Process Theory argues that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning but maintained through operant conditioning
• Explaining Phobias - Scientific AO3

  • Behavioural approach is scientific and its key principles can be measured in an objective way
  • Ex. Phobia developed by Little Albert was clear to measure - variables manipulated to ensure that phobia development was as a result of a neutral; stimulus being associated with an UR
  • Sue et al suggested that people with phobias do recall specific incidents when phobias appeared
  • This is positive because it allows concepts such as CC to be demonstrated scientifically and has resulted in a large amount of empirical support for behavioural therapies
• Explaining Phobias - Deterministic AO3

  • Ex. Two Process Model suggests that when an individual experiences a traumatic event and uses this event to draw an association between a neutral stimulus and unconditioned response they will go on to develop a phobia
  • This is a weakness because this theory suggests that we are programmed by our environmental experiences and ignores individual free will
  • Furthermore, many people have negative or traumatic experiences that do not lead to phobias
  • This suggests that the behavioural approach cannot account for the different phobias
• Explaining Phobias - Reductionist AO3

  • Two Process Model suggests that complex mental disorders such as phobias are caused solely by our experience of association, rewards and punishment
  • This is a problem because the approach can be seen as too simplistic as it only explains all behaviour through learning experiences (nuture) as it ignores the role of other factors, such as the role of biology (ex. genes, neurotransmitters) in the development of abnormality
  • Seligman argued that we are biologically prepared to learn associations between stimuli - innate fear for survival
• What is the first step in the process of systematic desensitization according to Wolpe?

  Clients are taught relaxation techniques.
• What is the aim of teaching relaxation techniques in systematic desensitization?

  To replace the fear response with relaxation.
• What is created in step 2 of systematic desensitization?

  A fear hierarchy.
• How is the fear hierarchy structured?

  It is a list of feared objects or situations ranked from least to most feared.
• In step 3, what do clients do in the presence of the therapist?

  They confront each item in the hierarchy while in a state of deep relaxation.
• What is the process followed by clients in step 3 of systematic desensitization?

  Clients start with the least feared item and move on once they feel relaxed and unafraid.
• What happens in step 4 of systematic desensitization?

  Clients cope with every level of the hierarchy over a series of sessions.
• What flexibility do clients have in step 4 of the process?

  They can stop and restart at a lower level if needed.
• What indicates that systematic desensitization has been successful in step 5?

  Clients have been counter conditioned and no longer associate the object or situation with fear.
• What does counter conditioning mean in the context of systematic desensitization?

  It means clients have learned a new response to a stimulus.
• Systematic Desensitisation - Effective AO3

  • McGrath et al found that 75% of patients responded to SD
  • Also supported by Gilroy who found that at 3 months and 33 months after the treatment patients were less fearful, hence helpful in reducing anxiety for arachnophobia
  • This is positive because this therapy is effective at removing the symptoms of a phobia and these effects are long lasting
• Systematic Desensitisation - Appropriate AO3

  • Suitable treatment for a diverse range of patients
  • Much well suited to some patients than flooding or other cognitive therapies
  • Some sufferers of phobias also have learning difficulties which may make it difficult for them to understand what is happening during flooding/other cognitive therapies which require reflection on what they are thinking
  • SD is considered to be most appropriate which is a strength because it provides a treatment for different types of patients to help them with their phobia
• Systematic Desensitisation - Not effective for more complex phobias AO3

  • Ohman et al suggested SD might not be effective in treating anxieties that have an underlying survival component (ex. fear of heights)
  • This is a problem because by only focusing on the removal of symptoms rather than in identifying the underlying cause a disorder may only be removed temporarily and may reoccur at a later date - often worse than before (called symptom substitution)
• What is flooding

  • Approach directly exposes clients to the objects or situations they fear
  • In theory exposing the client repeatedly to the feared stimulus will allow them to see that there is no basis for their fear
  • If the therapy works this leads to the extinction of the fear
• How does flooding work

  • Exposure to phobic stimulus without gradual build up - immediate exposure to frightening situation
  • Stops phobic response more quickly
  • No avoidance behaviour tolerated - sufferers have to face fear and realise it is harmless
  • Extinction - learned response (CS) no longer produces conditioned response
  • Patients may achieve relaxation in presence of stimulus as they get exhausted by own fear response
• Flooding - Cost-effective AO3


  • Can be achieved in one session only
  • Allowing patients to carry on with their own lives
  • Clinically effective and not expensive
  • More people can be treated at the same cost with flooding than with SD using a longer session
• Flooding - Less effective for some types of phobia AO3

  • Ex. some phobias are known to be complex in nature - likely to involve cognitive factors
  • Ineffective for complex phobias as only targets behavioural responses
  • Cognitive and behavioural treatment is the most effective for complex phobias (CBT)
• Flooding - Traumatic AO3

  • Inappropriate for patients lacking insight - issues with informed consent
  • Schumacher et al - participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD
  • Unethical as it may cause harm
  • Also ineffective as patients may leave before treatment ends (attrition), reinforcing their phobia
  • Suggests that overall therapists may avoid treatment