phobias evaluation

Question 1

what is the practical application of understanding the cause of phobias?

Answer 1

• successful therapies created from the explanations e.g. systematic desensitisation and flooding

Question 2

what is a supporting study of phobias?

Answer 2

• watson and rayner successfully classically conditioned a fear of white furry objects into little albert

Question 3

what is an issue with phobias existing of things that we have never seen before?

Answer 3

• e.g. people have a phobia of snakes but they’ve never seen one
• behaviourist explanation can’t account for this

Question 4

why is the behaviourist approach reductionist?

Answer 4

• doesn’t account for the cognition side of phobias
• e.g. two people may be stung by a wasp but one not become fearful due to their processing of the event

Question 5

why is classical conditioning not a full explanation for phobias?

Answer 5

• classical conditioning only explains the acquisition of phobias not the maintenance

Question 6

what is the supporting study of Barlow and Durand?

Answer 6

• for driving phobias, patients recalled a traumatic incident which triggered the phobias and the same can be said for choking
• supports the explanation of classical conditioning