Outline and Evaluate the Behavioural Model of Abnormality

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Outline and evaluate the behavioural model of abnormality. (12 marks) The behavioural model assumes that all behaviours are learnt. It proposes that there are three ways in which this learning can take place, these are classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning. The first method, classical conditioning is when a person learns to associate a stimulus with a response. The earliest example of this is with Pavlov’s dogs. In this example the dogs learnt to associate the bell with the presentation of food which led to the conditioned response of salivation. This occurred after several pairings of the food and bell during conditioning. In terms of abnormality classical conditioning could be used to explain how anorexics learn to associate eating with becoming overweight which leads to fear and so they stop eating to reduce their anxiety. The second way learning can take place is through operant conditioning. The basic principle here is that if a behaviour is positively reinforced, for example, by praise it will increase the likelihood of such behaviour occurring again. Again using anorexia nervosa as an example when the individual initially loses weight they may gain attention from others around them. The final way in which the behavioural model proposes people may learn maladaptive behaviours is through modelling. This is called the social learning theory and involves individuals observing their role models behaving in certain ways and imitating their behaviour. Certain factors such as how well the person identifies with the role model, and if the role model is observed to be rewarded for the behaviour it determine how likely the individual is to display the observed behaviours. One strength of this behavioural view is there is supporting research. For example, one study (Becker) looked at the eating habits and attitudes

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