The behavioural approach to explaining phobias

The two-process model

Emphasises the role of learning in the aquisition of behaviour.
Focuses on behaviour - what we can see.
Geared towards explaining avoidance, endurance and panic (behavioural characteristics).
Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model based on the behavioural approach to phobias.
States that phobias are aquired by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning.

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Classical conditioning involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus).
Watson and Rayner (1920) created a phobia in a 9 month old baby called 'Little Albert'.
Albert showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study - when shown a white rat, he tried to play with it.
The experimenters then set out to give Albert a phobia by making a loud frightening noise whenever the rat was present.
The noise is an unconditioned stimulus which creates an unconditioned response of fear.
When the rat (neutral stimulus) and the unconditioned stimulus are encountered close together the NS becomes associated with the UCS and both now produce the fear response.
Albert became frightened when he saw a rat.
The rat is now a conditioned stimulus that produces a conditioned response.
The conditioning then generalised to similar objects - Albert also displayed distress towards a non-white rabbit, a fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard made of cotton balls.

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Responses aquired by classical conditioning usually tend to decline over time.
Phobias are often long lasting - Mowrer has explained this as the result of operant conditioning.
Operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished.
Tends to increase the frequency of behaviour.
True of both positive and negative reinforcement.
In the case of negative reinforcement, an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant.
Such behaviour results in a desirable consequence which means that the behaviour will be repeated.
Mowrer 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.

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The two-process model was a definite step forward when it was proposed in the 1960s.
Went beyond Watson and Rayner's concepts of classical conditioning.
Explained how phobias could be maintained over time.
Important implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus.
Once a patient is prevented from practising their avoidance behaviour the behaviour ceases to be reinforced and so it declines.
The application to therapy is a strength of the two-process model.

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Not all avoidance behaviour is the result of anxiety reduction.
There is evidence to suggest that at least some avoidance behaviour appears to be motivated more by positive feelings of safety.
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.

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There are some aspects of phobias that require further explaining.
Bounton (2007) points out that evolutionary factors probably have an important role in phobias but the two-factor theory does not mention this.
We easily aquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past (snakes or the dark).
It is adaptive to acquire such fears.
Seligman (1971) called this biological preparedness - the innate predisposition to acquire certain fears.
It is quite rare to develop a fear of cars or guns which are actually much more dangerous to us today than spiders or snakes.
Presumably this is because they have only existed very recently and so we are not biologically prepared to learn fear responses towards them.
This phenomenon of preparedness is a serious problem for the two-factor theory because it shows that there is more to acquiring phobias than simple conditioning.

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Sometimes phobias appear following a bad experience and it is easy to see how they could be the result of conditioning.
However, some people develop a phobia and are not aware of having had a related bad experience.
E.g: someone may have a fear of snakes despite never actually seeing one.

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We know that behavioural explanations are oriented towards explaining behaviour rather than cognition.
This is why the two-process model explains maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance.
We also know that phobias have a cognitive element.

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