behaioural approach to phobias

What is the behavioural approach mean?

Focused on behaviour of a person as researchers believe that behaviour is the only reliable part of a person.

It insinuates that all behaviours are learnt and therefore can be unlearnt

Phobias can be unlearn

What is the main idea to use in A01 of behavioural approach to phobias

Mowrer’s 2 PROCESS MODEL (1947)

Acquisition (initiation) of phobia comes from classical conditioning and the maintenance comes from operant conditioning

Used the idea of Pavlov and skinner

BUT DONT USE PAVLOV AND SKINNERS RESEARCH TO SUPPORT THIS TOPIC

Give an example of how cc and operant conditioning can form a phobia

A wasp stung Jane’s hair several times before she freed herself. She then learnt afterwards to associate the sound of a wasp to pain and fear. She continuously avoids wasps now due to the hope to avoid the anxiety and she can even avoid going outside to avoid encountering a wasp.

The classical conditioning is shown through the association Jane makes

The operant conditioning is shown through the avoidance. By avoiding the phobia the anxiety response is maintained. It is a negative reinforcement as Jane is escaping or avoiding something unpleasant

What happened in 1920 that shows support of this model

watson and rayner demonstrated that little Albert had learnt to be scared of white fluffy animals

He was shown a white rat and then a metal bar was hit behind him each time the rat was shown.

After 6 presentations he had learnt to associate the fear caused by the loud. Noise with white or furry things.

He then showed fear to anything white and furry

Supports that phobias can be learnt

But it only shows the acquisition of the phobia not the manintenace as the experiment wasn’t done over an extended period of time

What is additional support that happened in 1922

BAGBY (1922)

A case of a woman who developed a phobia of water after getting her foot stuck in a rock near a waterfall. She then avoided running water because she associate it with the fear and pain of getting her foot stuck.

Supports 2 process model

The avoidance of running water shows maintenance part as avoiding it was negatively reinforcing the behaviour (operant conditioning)

What was the issue with both Watson and rayner and bagby

Both studies focus in a single individual and so cant be generalisable as these individuals could have something unique to them that caused them to behave that way and develop the phobia (individual diffferences)

However both results of studies are comparable and so it coul be said that 2 process model is a valid explanation of phobias

Who did the dental patient study and in what year

AD DE JANGH (2006)

A study on dental patients proved systematic evidence

73% of a sample of patients that had a phobia of dental treatments also has experienced a traumatic experience in the dentist

However 21% of the control group who had low anxiety to dental treatments also had experienced a traumatic event at the dentist

This could show that most people do experience a traumatic event that is related but some also do not develop a phobia at all

What happened in 1994

SUE et al (1994)

They had found that most people experienced a traumatic event at the start of the phobia

This supports cc

However some that had a phobia had not had a traumatic experience related to the phobia

Suggests that some phobias are learnt from others experiences and learnt form our own experiences

Example of social learning theory

What did SELIGMAN do

In 1970 SELIGMAN suggested that humans like the rest of mammals are more likely to develop a phobia on living things which he called “preparedness”

He suggests that this is because this type of learning would be beneficial in the evolutionary past

It explains why mos t people have phobias of spiders or snakes rather than cars or toasters.

Supports the idea phobias are learnt. But also introduces a biological approach that it could be in our genes’

It shows that the behavioural approach is too simplified and other factors should be considered.

What is the weakness of the behaviour approach?

Not everyone who experiences an event like a car crash will develop a phobia

This shows that the learning of phobias goes beyond the 2 process model

It could also be biological (as shown SELIGMAN)

What concept is important when considering the development of phobias

DIATHESIS STRESS HYPOTHESIS

We are born with genetic predisposition ( a genetic risk) to develop phobias and its triggered by a stressful situation

This goes beyond the behavioural approach and can explain why only some people develop phobias

What is the cognitive approach? And how is it a better explanation for phobias

Cognitive approach

There is an attentional bias where the persons attention system hyper orients to the feared things

So they are always on the lookout for the feared thing so they are more likely to notice it.

Cognitive explanations also explains a the phobias in terms of maladaptive thoughts.

This makes the cognitive approach better fo explaining things like the social phobia where irrational things are the main trigger for the phobia

Phobias have been treated successfully with CBT which focuses on the irrational thoughts that underlie behaviours

What study was done that shows the behavioural approach as limiting

Li and graham (2021)

Asked phobics and controls to estimate the size of spiders

The phobics group estimated the sized to be signifancly bigger than the control group

This shows cognitive distortion as the fear exaggerates thei perception