Phobias

What is a phobia?

persistent, irrational fear of an object or situation

What type of disorders are phobias?

anxiety disorder

What are the 3 categories of phobias?

1. specific phobias

2. social phobias

3. agoraphobia

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

Selective attention - inability to focus on much else apart from stimulus

Irrational beliefs - what could happen etc

Cognitive distortions - irrational perceptions of stimulus

Emotional characteristics of phobias

Persistent, excessive fear - high levels of anxiety due to presence of or anticipation of feared objects/scenarios

Fear from exposure to the phobic stimulus- immediate fear response due to presentation of phobic object/situation

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

Avoidant/anxiety response- avoiding feared objects/situation to reduce chances of anxiety response

Disruption of functioning- interfere with ability to conduct everyday working and social functioning

What is the behaviourist explanation of phobias?

- phobias are learned

- 2 process model

What is the Two-Process Model?

- Mowrer (1960)

- Phobias initially caused by classical conditioning, maintained overtime by operant conditioning

First part of the two-process model

1. classical conditioning- initiation of the phobia

caused when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a frightening unconditioned stimulus

NS becomes a CS, and fear of it becomes a conditioned response

Second part of the two-process model

2. operant conditioning

avoidance of the phobic stimulus is negatively reinforced

this strengthens and maintains the avoidance behaviour as it is successful at avoiding and reducing fear and anxiety so will be repeated

Why is avoidance of the phobic stimulus negative reinforcement?

the unpleasant consequence (fear) is successfully avoided by behaving in this way

Strength of the two-process model- strong empirical support from classical conditioning

- Watson and Rayner's (1920) "Little Albert" experiment- baby conditioned to fear a white rat by pairing with a loud, frightening noise

- supports idea phobias learned through association

- demonstrates generalisation as fear extended to similar stimuli

- validates the two-process model

Counterpoint of classical conditioning support

- not all frightening experiences lead to phobias

- not all phobias appear following a traumatic event- fear of snakes even in places with no snakes

- association between phobias and frightening experiences not as strong as expected if behavioural theories offer a complete explanation

Strength- real world application

- real world application in exposure therapies

- e.g. systematic desensatisation, flooding

- therapies directly based on principles of classical and operant conditioning, aim to break the association between the phobic stimulus and fear response

- once the avoidance behaviour is prevented it ceases to be reinforced

- behavioural therapies quick and effective, particularly for specific phobias, e.g. fear of spiders

- practical success supports behaviourist claim that phobias are learned behaviours that can also be unlearned

- highlights usefulness of approach in clinical psychology

Weakness- cognitive and biological factors

- ignores important cognitive and biological factors in the development of phobias

- cannot fully explain why some people develop phobias without any clear traumatic experience or conditioning

- cognitive theories- phobias result from irrational beliefs

- evolutionary theories- biologically prepared to fear certain stimuli

- behaviourist model fails to account for this innate predisposition- treats all phobias as learned- limits its explanatory power

- ignores individual and evolutionary differences in fear acquisition