Eval BA Explanation of Phobias

• S - supporting evidence for the two process model. Watson and Rayner created a phobia in a 9 month old baby 'Little Albert'. Albert showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study. When shown a white rat, he tried to play with it. Whenever the rat was presented they made a loud frightening noise by banging an iron bar close to Albert's ear to create a phobia. Eventually, Albert became frightened when he saw a rat even without the noise. The rat then became a conditioned stimulus that produced a conditioned response of fear...
• (S-supporting evidence for 2 process model)... Strength because it shows that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning thus increasing the validity of the two process model as a behaviourist explanation of phobias.
• S of the 2 process model is that it went beyond Watson and Rayner's concept of how classical conditioning leads to phobias. It explained how phobias could be maintained over time and this had important implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus. This led to practical applications through treatments like flooding where patients are prevented from avoiding the phobic stimulus and this eventually helps them get over their phobia...
• (S of the 2 process model is that it went beyond Watson and Rayner's concept of how classical conditioning leads to phobias)... Research from Ougrin et al showed that flooding is comparable in effectiveness in treating phobias to treatments like CBT suggesting the underlaying assumptions of the 2 process model are valid.
• W-Incomplete. Bounton found that evolutionary factors have an important role. We easily acquire phobias of things that have been sources of danger in our evolutionary past e.g. snakes as it is adaptive. It is much rarer to have a phobia of guns or cars which can be much more dangerous to us today. Seligman called this biological preparedness, the innate predisposition to acquire such fears. This shows that our evolutionary past is a mediating factor, and past experiences. Therefore BA loses validity as it doesn't consider all factors
• W-alternative explanation for the acquisition of phobias. The cognitive approach proposes that phobias may develop as a result of irrational thinking e.g. a person in a lift may think they could get trapped. Thoughts like these contribute to feelings of anxiety that lead a person to show emotional symptoms of phobias. Since the 2 process model does not account for this, it can be seen as simplistic, not considering important, cognitive mediating factors, thus decreasing validity