The Behavioural Approach to explaining Phobias

What is two-process model in phobias?

Mowrer (1960) suggested that phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and then is maintained due to operant conditioning

Which study showed the role of classical conditioning in the acquisition of phobias?

Watson and Rayner (1920)

Summarise Watson and Rayner (1920)

- they created a phobia in a 9-month-old baby called Little Albert

- when a white rat was shown to Little Albert he tried to play with it initially

- the experimenters paired the presence of the white rat with a loud, frightening sound by banging an iron bar close to Albert's ear

- over time, Albert developed a fear of he rat

- the experimenter also tested Albert by showing him other furry objects such as a non-white rabbit and a fur coat - Albert displayed distress with all these objects as well

What was the UCS in Watson and Rayner (1920)?

The loud banging noise from the iron bar

What was the UCR in Watson and Rayner (1920)?

Fear

What was the NS in Watson and Rayner (1920)?

The rat

What type of stimulus did the rat become after being associated with the loud frightening noise in Watson and Rayner (1920)?

a conditioned stimulus

What was the CR in Watson and Rayner (1920)?

Fear

What did Mowrer say happens when we avoid a phobic stimulus?

He suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have suffered if we had remained there

This reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained

How does the two-process model have good explanatory power?

- the two-process model was a definite step forward when it was proposed in 1960 as it went beyond Watson and Rayner's concept of classical conditioning

- 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

- once a patient is prevented from practicing their avoidance behaviour, the behaviour ceases to be reinforced and so it declines

What is an alternative explanation for avoidance behaviour, and explain why it's a weakness for the two-process model?

- not all avoidance behaviour associated with phobias seems to be the result of anxiety reduction, at least in more complex phobias like agoraphobia

- there is evidence to suggest that at least some avoidance behaviour appears to be motivated more by positive feelings of safety

- in other words, the motivating factor in choosing an action like not leaving the house is not so much to avoid the phobic stimulus but to stick with the safety factor

- this explains why some patients with agoraphobia are able to leave their house with a trusted person with relatively little anxiety but not alone (Buck, 2010)

- this is a problem for the two-process model, which suggests that avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction

How can the two-process model be an incomplete explanation of phobias?

- even if we accept that classical and operant conditioning are involved in the development and maintenance of phobias, there are some aspects of phobic behaviour that requires further explaining

- Bounton (2007) points out, for example, that evolutionary factors probably have an important role in phobias but the two-factor theory doesn't mention this

- for example, we easily acquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past, such as fears of snakes or of the dark

- it is adaptive to acquire such fears. Seligman (1971) called this biological preparedness - the innate predisposition to acquire certain fears

- however, it is quite rare to develop a fear of cars or guns, which are actually much more dangerous to most of us today than spiders or snakes presumably because they have only existed recently and so we aren't biologically ready to learn fear responses towards them

- this shows that acquiring phobias is more complex than simple conditioning