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The Application of Learning Theory to the Treatment of Traffic Phobia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2018

Tom Kraft  and
Ihsan Al-Issa
Tom Kraft
Affiliation:
St. Clement's Hospital, London, E.3
Ihsan Al-Issa
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, College of Education, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Irak
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Extract

Common observation indicates that phobic patients tend to avoid the stimuli which are related to their phobia. This characteristic has suggested the analysis of traffic phobia in terms of avoidance learning theory. According to this theory, stimuli which have been associated with a noxious event (accidents in the case of traffic phobia) may acquire aversive properties (fear arousal) and responses which appear in an attempt to avoid these stimuli (accident situation) are reinforced by fear reduction (Skinner and Estes, 1941; Wynne and Solomon, 1955; Keehn, 1961). If the analysis of traffic phobia in terms of avoidance learning is correct, however, accidents would be expected to be a major source of such phobic reactions. The present study gives a clear illustration of a traffic phobia acquired through conditioning in accident situations and its satisfactory treatment by application of learning theory.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 111 , Issue 472 , March 1965 , pp. 277 - 279
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1965 

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