Discuss Psychological Explanations of Phobic Disorders (8 and 16 marks)

One Psychological explanation for Phobic Disorders is the Behavioural approach which says that phobias are acquired through conditioning. Classical conditioning (or learning through association) first conditions that phobia by associating a fear response with a neutral object/situation. Operant conditioning (or learning through reinforcement) then reinforces this fear response by reinforcing the fact that no fear response is apparent when that situation/object is avoided. Extreme phobias can also be learnt through Social Learning Theory which says we learn through observation and therefore would acquire a phobia of an object/situation as we see someone else doing the same.

Supporting Research into the Behavioural approach as an explanation for phobic disorders was carried out by Watson and Rayner (1920) who worked with 11 month old ‘Little Albert’ who at the beginning  showed no fear response to a series of white fluffy objects. Every time Albert reached for one of the white fluffy objects they would make a very loud noise to startle him. Over time Albert began to cry when faced with white fluffy objects and had a fear response towards them that was not there before. This would support the behavioural approach as an explanation for phobic disorders as it shows that a phobia of a completely neutral object can in fact be learnt.

One positive of the Behavioural approach is that it can account for cultural differences and therefore is more culturally sound than other approaches, such as the psychodynamic approach, as each society has its own culturally specific role models which influence which phobias might be acquired.

Another Psychological explanation for phobic disorders is the Cognitive approach. This says that phobias develop as the consequence of irrational thinking. Beck et al (1985) proposed that phobias occur because people become afraid of situations where fears may occur. He also said that people tend to overestimate their fear, increasing the likelihood of it developing to a phobia.

If Phobic Disorders was a cognitive process it should be treatable through a cognitive behavioural therapy, in the case of Phobias, Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT).The National Institute of Clinical Excellence claimed that REBT should be the first line of defence for treating phobic disorders and Ellis claimed it had a 90% success rate. This supports the cognitive approach as an explanation for phobic disorders as it is very treatable through a cognitive process suggesting that this is the basis for it forming in the first place.

A study was conducted by Gournay (1989) conducted a study to support the cognitive approach and found that phobics were more likely than normal people to overestimate risks meaning they are generally more fearful and resulting in them developing phobias a lot easier. This supports the cognitive approach as an explanation for phobic disorders as it shows that those who have an irrational thought meaning they are more fearful are the people who then develop a phobia, not those who do not have irrational thoughts.

One Criticism of the cognitive approach is that it is deterministic as it states that if you have dysfunctional thoughts you WILL become a phobic which is a very narrow view and forgets about us having the free will to choose.