P: There is empirical research support to show how classical conditioning leads to the development of phobias.

E: For instance, Watson and Rayner (1920) used classical conditioning to create a phobia in an infant called Little Albert. Albert developed a phobia of a white rat when he learned to associate the rat with a loud noise.

E: Therefore, this supports the idea that classical conditioning is involved in acquiring phobias as it demonstrates that a phobia can be learned through association.

P: The behaviourist explanation has provided useful application in the form of flooding and systematic desensitisation.

E: Systematic desensitisation helps people to unlearn their phobias and Flooding prevents people from avoiding them, stopping negative reinforcement from taking place.

E: These therapies have been successfully used to treat people with phobias, providing additional support to the behaviourist explanation

P: The behaviourist explanation has been criticised for being reductionist and overly simplistic.

E: The behaviourist explanation ignores the role of cognitive processes such as thinking in the formation of phobias. Cognitive psychologists would suggest that phobias may develop as a result of irrational thinking, not just learning.

E: Therefore, the behaviourist explanation may not fully explain the formation of phobias, and it could be argued that cognitive behavioural therapy has been more successful than the behaviourist treatments

P: The research support conducted by Watson and Rayner contained an unrepresentative sample

E: As Little Albert is only one person, he does not reflect the whole population and the findings of the study may not be applicable to how other people in society learn phobias

E: Therefore, the research support is ungeneralisable