PHOBIAS

• The DSM5 categories of phobias are specific phobias, social phobias and agoraphobia
• specific phobia is a phobia of an object or situation
• social phobia is a phobia of social situations such as using public toilets
• agoraphobia is a phobia of being outside or in public spaces
• The behavioural approach to phobias explain phobias using the two-process model
• Phobias are acquired trough classical conditioning
• Phobias are maintained through operant conditioning
• operant conditioning is learning through reinforcement/consequences
• When a person avoids a phobic stimulus, the avoidance behaviour leads to reduction in anxiety (creating a pleasant sensation). This is negative reinforcement.
• Negative reinforcement is likely to strengthen the phobia, making a person more likely to avoid it in the future
• A phobia can be formed when a neutral stimulus is associated with an unconditioned stimulus
• Describe the study of Little Albert (Watson + Rayner)

  The neutral stimulus of the rat was paired with the unconditioned stimulus of the loud noise created by the pole. The rat became the conditioned stimulus which then was able to produce a conditioned response of fear. Whenever little Albert saw the rat he would start crying
• the behavioural characteristics of phobias are avoidance, endurance and panic
• the emotional characteristics of phobias are anxiety, fear
• A strength of the two process-model is that it has real world application in treatments of phobias, as exposure therapies prevent avoidance and thus negative reinforcement
• A strength of the two-process model is that there is research to support the link between phobias and traumatic experiences:

  73% who feared dental treatment has traumatic experiences involving dentists compared to a control group where only 21% experienced traumatic events
• A limitation of the behaviourist explanation is that not all phobias follow a bad experience

  for example phobias of snakes are common even in places where exposure to snakes are low and therefore the theory is incomplete and cannot be used to explain all phobias
• A strength of systematic desensitisation is that there is research support:

  Gilroy et al - 42 pp had SD for spiders became less fearful of them later on than a control group who were treated by relaxation without direct exposure