1. Behavioural approach to explaining phobias

2. Phobias
What phobias do you have?
Do you know of any others?
Mind map

3. Can you guess what any of these rare phobias are:
Ablutophobia
Bibliophobia
Consecotaleophobia
Genuphobia
Hylophobia
Kathisophobia
Linonophobia
Omphalophobia

4. Ablutophobia
Fear of bathing, washing,
or cleaning

5. Bibliophobia
Fear of books

6. Consecotaleophobia
Fear of chopsticks

7. Genuphobia
fear of knees

8. fear of wood, forest or trees
Hylophobia
fear of wood, forest or trees

9. Kathisophobia
a fear of sitting down

10. Linonophobia
a fear of string

11. Omphalophobia
fear of bellybuttons

13. Behaviourist explanation of phobias
What may have caused phobias?
Behaviourist approach assumes all behaviour is learnt
The same basic laws of learning apply to humans and animals
So mental illnesses, including phobias are also learnt
We learn to fear a certain object or situation

14. Mowrer (1960) Two-Process Model
Proposed that phobias are learned through Classical Conditioning and maintained through Operant Conditioning

15. Mowrer (1960) Two-Process Model
1. Classical Conditioning
Learning to associate an event or situation with fear
Little Albert from part 2 from 2mins in
How did he react to the rat to begin with?
What was he afraid of?
How did he become afraid of the rat?
Clickview – secret history of brain 2/3 chapter 2, 2 mins

16. Unconditioned Response Unconditioned Stimulus
Neutral Stimulus
No response
CLANG!
Unconditioned Response
Unconditioned Stimulus

17. CLANG!

18. Conditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Response

19. Neutral Stimulus is any object that does not cause fear
Unconditioned Stimulus is any object that causes fear
Unconditioned Response is our natural reaction to an unconditioned stimulus (e.g. fear)
Conditioned Stimulus is the object we have learned to fear through association
Conditioned Response is the reaction (e.g. fear) we have learned to the conditioned stimulus

20. 2. Operant Conditioning Learning through reinforcement
If a behaviour is reinforced, it becomes more frequent.
Rewarded with a positive consequence (positive reinforcement)
Avoidance of an unpleasant consequence (negative reinforcement)
If it is punished, it is less likely to be repeated

21. How can operant conditioning explain phobias?
If an abnormal behaviour results in a positive consequence then it will be more likely to continue
How is the behaviour of “avoidance” rewarded?
Anxiety reduces
Mowrer argued that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we escape the fear & anxiety we would have felt had we stayed. This (negatively) reinforces the avoidance behaviour.
Phobia is maintained

22. Mowrer’s Two Factor theory of phobias (1960)
Phobias are acquired through classical conditioning i.e. they are associated with fear through a negative experience e.g. being locked in a cupboard (claustrophobia)
and maintained through operant conditioning i.e. avoidance reduces the anxiety

23. Rat Phobia (Little Albert)
Lightening
Phobia
Acrophobia (heights)
Stages
Rat =no fear
Loud banging = fear
Rat + loud banging paired
Fear of rat is learned
Lightening = no fear
Loud Thunder = fear
Lightening + thunder paired
Fear of lightening is learned
Neutral Stimulus
Rat
Unconditioned Stimulus
Loud noise
Unconditioned
Response
Fear
Conditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Response

24. Practice Example
Jackie’s fear of heights had begun when she  was ten years old. Her parents took her to Paris and as a birthday treat .On her actual birthday her parents had planned a surprise visit to the Eiffel tower  Jackie started to feel unwell before they got there and by the time they came out of the lift and looked at the view she felt sick and dizzy . She felt disorientated and couldn’t wait to get back to the hotel . Her father made matters worse as he was not very sympathetic and blamed her for spoiling everyone’s day. 

25. Before conditioning….no fear of lightening

26. Before conditioning….normal fear of thunder

27. During conditioning…association of lightening with thunder

28. After conditioning…fear of lightening is learned

29. Evaluation of the behavioural approach
 Supportive evidence
There is evidence to support the view that phobias are learnt
E.g. little Albert learnt to associate rat with fear
Also phobics are likely to report having traumatic experiences with phobic object, situation
 Explanatory power
Explains how phobias are maintained, not just formed
Why is this useful for treatments? – if face fear can remove fear
 Practical Applications – read p 146. What treatments are available? How do they apply learning theory?
E.g. flooding/systematic desensitisation teaches people to learn to associate object with relaxation
Mineka’s monkeys

30. Weaknesses  Phobias don’t always follow trauma
E.g. being in a car crash does not inevitably lead to phobia
This theory would predict that such incidents should lead to phobia
Similarly, people develop spider phobias without having a bad experience with one
This theory would predict that phobias such as this should not develop

31.  An incomplete explanation of phobias
Focuses too much on environmental determinants of behaviour and ignores role of biology/evolution
The fact that there are ‘common’ phobias implies there is some role played by evolution.
These all relate to threats that have existed for humans for millions of years
E.g. many people have traumatic experiences with cars, electricity etc but few people develop phobias of them
Appear biologically prepared to develop fears of objects that have had survival value e.g. snakes, heights, creepy crawlies etc
Preparedness (Seligman, 1971)

32. Alternative explanation for avoidance behaviour
Agoraphobics are motivated to stay at home in order to maintain the feelings of safety. They don’t avoid leaving the house if accompanied by a trusted friend.
Why is this a problem for the “maintenance by operant conditioning theory”?
Avoidance not motivated by avoiding anxiety but seeking safety…agoraphobic should not leave house under any circumstance but they can with trusted person

33. Past paper questions

34. Q1 a) Use 2 or three key terms
Likely content: the idea that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning;
fear is acquired when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a frightening event;
description of the two-process theory;
Phobias maintained through operant conditioning
Maximum 1 mark if outline does not refer to fear / phobias.

35. b) Discuss one limitation with behavioural explanation
What’s the limitation?
Why is it a limitation? What evidence is there that it is a limitation?
explanation cannot account for all phobias;
Do not always develop a phobia when we experience a traumatic event
fails to account for evidence that phobias may have a biological basis;
Up to 2 marks for discussion of the limitation which might include analysis / expansion;
counter-argument;
use of evidence;
reference to alternative explanations.
Possible answer: Not all phobias are triggered by a traumatic experience (1), where the initial association (between the phobic object / situation and fear) is formed (1), which suggests that alternative explanations are needed (1).

36. 2 Two colours 1- highlight key terms
colour 2 – highlight links to kirsty
Credit features of classical and / or operant conditioning (the ‘two process model’) applied to Kirsty’s phobia of balloons.
Possible content:
•        Kirsty’s phobia has developed through classical conditioning – she has formed an association between the neutral stimulus (balloon) and the response of fear
•        the conditioned response is triggered every time she sees a balloon (or hears similar noises)
•        her phobia has generalised to situations where balloons might be present, such as parties and weddings, and to similar noises, ‘banging’ and ‘popping’
•        her phobia is maintained through operant conditioning – the relief she feels when avoiding balloons becomes reinforcing.

37. Activity: How did Mary acquire her phobias?
Mary, a married mother of three, was 47 at the time of her first seeing treatment for both claustrophobia and acrophobia. She reported having been intensely afraid of enclosed spaces and of heights since her teens. She remembered having been locked in closets by her older siblings when she was a child; the siblings also confined her under blankets to scare her, and added to her fright by showing her pictures of spiders after releasing her from the blankets. She traced the onset of her claustrophobia to those traumatic incidents, but she had no idea why she was also afraid of heights.

38. Apply it Read about Zelda p.144 Read about Amina p.144
Use the 2 process model to explain their phobias
Extension:

39. Behavioural/Learning treatments for phobias
Based on classical conditioning
= assumption is phobias can be unlearned by changing the association from negative fear to positive emotions

40. Examples Person How does it work How do they make it ethical? Jackie
Fear of feathers
Treatment: systematic desensitisation
Trevor
Fear of heights
Treatment: flooding
Primal Fears (in GCSE folder) part 1 from 2 mins, part 3, 4 & 5 from 2 mins

41. Flooding What does it involve? How does it work?
How do they make it ethical?

42. Flooding Immediate exposure to very frightening situation
Longer sessions (up to 3 hours)
Often only 1 needed

43. How / why does it work?

44. Evaluating Flooding  COST EFFECTIVE
Why is this cheaper than systematic desensitisation?
 ETHICALLY PROBLEMATIC
How could you argue this?
 LESS EFFECTIVE FOR CERTAIN PHOBIAS
Can you think of any phobias where this would be difficult or impossible to use?

46. Systematic desensitisation
1) Anxiety hierarchy
What do you think this means?
How is it devised?
2) Relaxation
What sort of techniques could you use?
Why would you do this?
3) Exposure
How is the patient exposed in this treatment?
When do they move to the next level?

47. Another example
Baked beans phobia!
9 mins 40 in

48. hierarchy to treat dog phobia

50. Re-cap What are the three stages of systematic desensitisation?
How is it different to flooding?

51. Evaluating Systematic Desensitisation
 EFFECTIVENESS
Research: Gilroy et al (2003) (p.147)
What two treatments were compared?
What was the effect after 3 months and 33 months?
What does it show about the treatments?
APPROPRIATENESS
How could you argue that this is more suitable than flooding for people with anxiety or learning difficulties?
 COSTLY
Why is this more expensive than flooding?
 TIME CONSUMING
Why is this more time consuming than flooding?

52. Gilroy et al (2003) (p.147) What two treatments were compared?
Systematic desensitisation & relaxation (control group) – 42 patients
What was the effect after 3 months and 33 months?
SD group were less fearful
What does it show about the treatments?
SD more effective than relaxation & long lasting effects

53. Alternative Learning Explanation: Social Learning Theory
May explain phobias in terms of observation of phobia in a role model. Then imitation of the phobia.
E.g. My sister was scared of spiders. I observed her fear of spiders (screaming, pointing) and my Mum comforting her.
Then imitated it (also screamed pointed when I saw spiders) and my Mum comforted me.

54. Mediational Processes of Learning
Attention
Retention
Motor Reproduction
Motivation
Learning
Performance

55. Key Concepts
Vicarious reinforcement: reinforcement via witnessing someone else being reinforced. Affects the likelihood of imitation via consideration of consequences for ourselves. Identification: occurs when a person changes features of themselves to be more like someone else (role models) Modelling: The actual reproduction of a role model’s behaviour