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Operant and Classical Conditioning

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Submitted By DIMBUKA
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Anxiety disorders are the most common of all mental health problems, affecting approximately one in 10 people, both children and adults (CMHA, 2010). Various factors have been implicated in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders including biological (e.g., genetics, psychophysiology, temperament), personality (e.g., anxiety sensitivity or fear of arousal-related sensations), interpersonal (e.g., attachment), cognitive (e.g., information processing), preparedness, and behavioural (learning). Research indicates that environmental factors, such as learning, contribute more to the etiology and maintenance of anxiety than do genes (Eley, 2001).

The principles of operant conditioning have taught us to recognize how certain coping techniques can reward, and therefore continue anxiety disorders. Two similar coping strategies for dealing with anxiety symptoms are called avoidance and escape. For more information about coping strategies, please review this section. As the name implies, avoidance refers to behaviors that attempt to prevent exposure to a fear-provoking stimulus. Escape means to quickly exit a fear-provoking situation. These coping strategies are considered maladaptive because they ultimately serve to maintain the disorder and decrease functioning. Operant conditioning enables us to understand the powerful impact of these two coping strategies. Both coping strategies are highly reinforcing because they remove or diminish the unpleasant symptoms. Unfortunately, they do nothing to prevent the symptoms from re-occurring again and again in the future. In 1947, O. Hobart Mowrer proposed his two-factor theory of avoidance learning to explain the development and maintenance of phobias. Mowrer's two-factor theory combined the learning principles of classical and operant conditioning. Based upon the principles of classical

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