Have we ever wondered where our fear of dogs, elevators, or the dark comes from? Common fears of a particular situation or object that everyone can experience are called “Specific Phobia”. Although specific phobias may seem to appear out of nowhere, they actually occur as a result of a specific learning cycle. Today, we will discuss the scientific mechanism of this learning cycle through Mowrer’s Two-Factor model, which is one of the behaviorist perspectives.
The behaviorist approach holds that human behavior is largely learned through the relationships people establish with their environment. Fear is also one of these learned reactions. In other words, phobias are not innate, random fears; on the contrary, they are learned reactions that are shaped by certain experiences and reinforced over time. This perspective is actually very important for us to understand that fear is an understandable and changeable process.
Learning And Maintaining Phobias
Mowrer’s Two-Factor Conditioning Model gives us information about how Specific Phobias are acquired and how they are maintained. The first stage is the “Classical conditioning” stage. The focus is on how Specific Phobia is acquired.
The concept of classical conditioning was first explained by Pavlov’s experiments. When a neutral stimulus is paired with a strong emotional response (e.g., fear), it begins to produce the same response alone over time. This matching mechanism is exactly at the basis of phobias.
For example, let’s go through dog phobia. At first, the dog is a neutral stimulus for you, but as a result of a traumatic experience, you inevitably start to associate the dog with danger, that is, conditioning occurs. The fear felt in this experience begins to be felt by the dog itself. This is called classical conditioning. Classical conditioning normally loses its effect and fades over time as it is exposed to the stimulus. Normally, in this case, the fear felt towards the dog should have faded over time as it was exposed. Why do you think we are still afraid?
In fact, the critical point here is: did the person meet the dog again or not? If a person always stays away from dogs after this traumatic experience, they will not have the opportunity to test that fear is actually a “false alarm”, and therefore the mind always codes the dog as dangerous.
This is where the second stage of Mowrer’s Two-Factor Conditioning Model takes place. The second stage is the “Operant Conditioning” stage. Explains the continuity of specific phobia. The real power of phobias comes from avoidance behavior rather than the events that initiate fear.
Operant conditioning also refers to the shaping of behavior according to results. If a behavior relaxes us, then we are more likely to repeat it. This is exactly how “avoidance” behavior works in phobias. We also act of “avoidance” because of the fear of the dog we have acquired. Escaping relaxes us for a short time and sends the message “it’s good to run away” to our brain. But the short-term comfort of this feeling of escapism is actually a negative reinforcement. In other words, when we run away to avoid being exposed to this fear, the fear never goes away because we are not exposed; on the contrary, it is always reinforced and grows over time.
In addition, avoidance behavior may not only be in the form of physical distancing. For example, sometimes the person may carry an object of trust with him, may not enter the environment he fears without someone, or may keep himself mentally alert with thoughts of anxiety, such as “what if something happens”. While all these behaviors reduce anxiety in the short term, they also maintain fear in the long term. For this reason, in therapies (especially in schools such as systematic desensitization), it is aimed to overcome fear by gradually exposing the person to the stimulus. The goal of these therapeutic interventions is to break this cycle of avoidance in a controlled and safe environment.
Conclusion
In short, Mowrer’s model explains the phobia cycle in 2 stages. In the formation of fear, an event initiates the fear, and then the avoidance behavior feeds the fear and completes the cycle. This mechanism allows us to understand how phobias are formed and persist over the years. It also explains why phobias, although on the one hand they may seem absurd, are very realistic and powerful for the person. Remember that as we run away, we relearn and reinforce our fear. Therefore, phobias can become strong enough to limit people’s daily lives. However, remember that learned fear can also be extinguished. What matters is how we deal with fear rather than its presence. When confronted in a controlled manner rather than fleeing, this learned fear can lose its power over time.