THEORY
The Behaviourist Explanation of Phobias:
- According to behaviourists, phobias are learned.
STUDY
MOWRER (1960) - The TWO PROCESS-MODEL:
- Mowrer (1960) developed the TWO-PROCESS MODEL.
- This explains how phobias are learned in two stages: they are caused initially by classical conditioning, and then they are maintained over times by operant conditioning.
Stage 1: Classical Conditioning - Initiation of the Phobia:
- Classical Conditioning is learning through association. It involves pairing a response naturally caused by one stimulus with another, previously neutral, stimulus.
- Phobias are caused when a neutral stimulus, NS (ie: one that does not provoke fear) becomes associated with a frightening unconditioned stimulus, UCS (ie: one that provokes a reflex, unconditioned fear response, UCR). The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus, CS, and fear of it becomes a conditioned response, CR.
A person who is not afraid of dogs is one day attacked and severely bitten by a dog. The person develops a phobia of all dogs.
What could have occurred in this situation for the person to develop a phobia?
Before conditioning: NS (dog) - no response
UCS (pain) - UCS (fear)
During conditioning: NS (dog) + UCS (pain) - UCR (fear)
After conditioning: CS (dog) - CR (fear)
Stage 2: Operant Conditioning - Maintenance of the Phobia:
- Responses learned via classical conditioning tend to fade over time (a process called extinction), yet one feature of phobias is their persistence over time.
- Mowrer proposed that this can be explained by Operant Conditioning. Avoidance of the phobic stimulus is negatively reinforced (EG: the dog phobic goes out of their way to avoid situations where they might encounter a dog). This is negative reinforcement because the unpleasant consequence (fear) is successfully avoided by behaving in this way.
- This strengthens and maintains the avoidance behaviour (ie: because it is successful at avoiding and reducing fear and anxiety, it will be repeated)
- This maintains the phobia, because the person is avoiding situations in which they might encounter dogs without a frightening experience, which would tend to extinguish the phobia..