Fear is an emotion that allows us to adapt and guide our behavior to achieve survival as a species. However, there are also many fears that lack a rational basis, they cause us and limit our lives.
Based on learning theories, Mowrer’s two-factor theory explains to us that, in reality, this anxiety can be a learned response, which tends to be maintained and even increase over time.
What does this theory consist of?
Orval Hobart Mowrer He was an eminent American psychologist and researcher with a behavioral orientation. In 1939 he formulated his explanatory model of anxiety and phobias. Through this, he tries to clarify why the feeling of anxiety caused by a phobic stimulus remains over time, even when the link between it and the unconditioned stimulus that generated it has already disappeared.
According to his theory, phobias and fears appear and are maintained through a conditioning process that consists of two phases:
- In the first of them appears the initial fear.
- In the second there is a behavioral response in the form of avoidance which causes said fear to be reinforced, since the aversive circumstance or object is not avoided but rather what it was associated with.
The two factors or phases of Mowrer’s theory
This bifactor theory maintains that phobias and their persistence over time are due to two types of conditioning that occur sequentially:
- Classical conditioning: a neutral stimulus (for example, going to work) is associated with another that itself generates negative feelings of anxiety and discomfort (the fact of suffering bullying work by their colleagues). In such a way that the neutral stimulus ends up generating the same response as the aversive stimulus. A conditioned response occurs.
Consequently, through this process, the person, who in principle would flee alone from the aversive situation of the bullyingyou will end up avoiding the place where this occurs (the work center).
- Instrumental conditioning: This second phase explains why anxiety remains over time, through avoidance behavior. If the person changed jobs, he could subside the feeling of anxiety. However, a phenomenon of non-extinction of the conditioned response occurs. Thus, the person learns to avoid exposure to the conditioned stimulus, in such a way that, in the example at hand, any workplace makes them relive the anxiety situation and the person can avoid or reject one job after another.
With this behavior fear is reinforced. In reality, what is avoided is what has been related to the discomfort, which warns that the aversive stimulus may be nearby, and not the discomfort itself.
And the fact is that, if the person is not exposed to being in the workplace, they cannot verify whether bullying occurs or not.
Thus, the acquisition of fear occurs in the classical conditioning phase and is maintained due to instrumental or operant conditioning.
Applications of Mowrer’s two-factor theory
Going back to what we said at the beginning, this model highlights the irrational basis of many of our fears and how they can affect us in our daily lives.
Mowrer’s theory offers an explanation for the development of certain , such as , and .
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