2) behaviourist explanation for phobia

what are phobias classified as?

Anxiety disorders

What are specific phobias?

Fear of a specific object or situation

What are social phobias?

Extreme concern about one’s own behaviour and the reactions of others

What are behavioural characteristics of phobia?

Avoidance of any situation involving phobic object because it causes anxiety. Panic in response to the phobic stimulus. Endurance, remaining in the presence of the phobic stimulus whilst experiencing high anxiety

What are emotional characteristics of phobia?

A persistent fear of an object or situation that’s excessive and unreasonable. Feeling of anxiety of panic that are out of proportion to the actual threat

What are cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Cognitive distribution such as catastrophising. Selective attention to the feared object that impare concentration, a recognition that the fear is excessive

What does the behaviourist approach say about the acquisition of phobia?

phobias are acquired through learning from the environment

What does the two process model say?

That phobias are acquired through classical condition and maintained through operant condition.

How are phobias mantained?

When an individual avoids the phobic object it is negatively reinforced because we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that would have been suffered. Reduction of fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is mantained

Contradictory finding that phobia are learnt through classical condition

Miners et al (1984) put monkeys in seperate enclosure but visible to each other, when one monkey was bitten by a snake the second monkey witnessed its fear response, when shown the snake, the second monkey reacted with anxiety. The monkey acquired the phobia though vicarious reinforcement

Why may the two process model of phobia be reductionist?

It fails to take into account the impact of cognitive factors such as irrational thoughts

Why can the two process model be deterministic?

Not everyone whose bitten by a dog will experience a phobia.

Why may the diathesis-stress model be a better explanation for phobia?

It explains that we may be be genetically predisposed to develop a certain fear, but it will only develop when triggered by some sort of experience

What’s systematic desensitisation?

fear can be eliminated by associating it to a positive stimulus

Steps of systematic desensitisation

Step 1: create a desensitisation hierarchy, step 2: relaxation, patients imagine scenarios with phobic stimulus whilst practicing relaxation technique step 3: client is exposed to phobic stimulus whilst in relaxed state

What’s reciprocal inhibition

Since its impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, one emotion will outweigh the other

How do we know the treatment for phobia is successful?

When the client can stay relaxed in situations high on the hierarchy

What is flooding?

Immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus without the option of avoidance so that the client quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless. This process is known as extinction. Clients can achieve relaxation by becoming exhausted by their own fear response

Why may it be seen as unethical?

Flooding can be traumatic for patience and it’s not suitable for those with heart condition and older/younger people, if it fails, it will only lead to negative reinforcement. However flooding is quicker than systematic desensitisation

Why may drug treatment be better for phobia?

Drugs can be just as affective whilst being quicker and more time efficient because it does not require multiple sessions

Why may it not work on all time of phobias?

social situations phobia may not work with flooding and systematic desensitisation