Behaviourist Approach to Phobias

• three symptoms of phobias are

  • persistent fear of a specific stimulus
  • irrational beliefs about the feared stimulus
  • avoidance of a feared stimulus
• for someone to have a phobia, the three symptoms must be regarding a specific stimulus
• the three symptoms of a phobia can be classified as behavioural, cognitive or emotional
• a specific fear of being in social situations is called a social phobia
• a specific fear of being in a situation where they feel trapped or have no space is called agoraphobia
• a fear of a specific object is called a specific phobia
• the behaviourist explanation of phobias claims that phobias are learned through classical conditioning
• according to the behaviourist explanation of phobias, phobias are maintained through operant conditoning
• by avoiding the feared stimulus, fear and anxiety have been removed, so the person is more likely to repeat that behaviour and continue avoiding their feared stimulus. this is negative reinforcement
• the two process model comes from the behaviourist explanation for phobias and claims that phobias are

  • acquired through classical conditioning
  • maintained through operant conditioning
• Little Albert was a case study conducted by Watson and Rayner

  • they wanted to test if humans could acquire a phobia through classical conditioning
  • before the experiment - white rat NS with a NR, loud noise UCS with crying UCR
  • repeated association between the rat and the loud noise
  • after the experiment, the white rat had become a CS giving a crying CR response
• Barlow and Durand

  • investigated the cause of peoples phobia of driving cars
  • according to behaviourist explanation, this phobia must have been acquired through classical conditioning, turning cars from a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
  • therefore they must have had a traumatic experience regarding cars
  • 50% of participants said that they could recall a traumatic experience regarding cars - showing support for classical conditioning
  • many participants hadnt driven since the traumatic event - avoiding the feared stimulus - negative reinforcement
• limitations of the behaviourist approach to phobias

  • not all phobias seem to be caused by a traumatic event (the other 50% from barlow and durand that couldnt recall a traumatic event)
  • Davey found that only 7% of people with a phobia of spiders could recall a traumatic event regarding spiders
  • phobias can also be partially genetically determined
• limitation of flooding

  • can be unethical due to subjecting people to psychological distress and anxiety
• systematic desensitisation strengths:

  • study support - Ost with 20 patients with phobias of blood or injury. did systematic desensitisation. followed up 4 years after and found that 90% of patients were improved or completely recovered. supports the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation
  • less distressing for the patient compared to flooding. exposes the feared stimulus to the patient gradually which may be more ethical than flooding
• effectiveness of flooding

  • kaplan and tolin found that 65% of patients with a specific phobia who were given a single session of flooding showed no symptoms of that specific phobia 4 years later