A Biological Explanation of Phobias (DP IB Psychology)

What is Biological Preparedness?

• Biological Preparedness (BP), proposed by Seligman (1971) is an evolutionary explanation of how phobias are formed

• BP explains phobias as being the result of adaptations designed to promote survival and fitnessin humans

• BP assumes that people who have a genetic predisposition to fear aversive, toxic or otherwise harmful stimuli are better prepared to survive than those who do not i.e. they give themselves a better chance of avoiding illness or death by avoiding the aversive stimuli

• Seligman suggested that a biological preparedness can give a human being an evolutionary advantage over others which translates as more opportunities to procreate and hence continue this genetic predisposition via natural selection

Why is a fear of snakes (ophidiophobia) an example of biological preparedness?

Biological Preparedness as an explanation for phobias

• Phobias tend to be regarded in popular culture as wholly irrational fears based on cognitive distortions

• There are some phobias, however, that (on the face of it) are not irrational but are instead rooted in real and potential danger to human health and mortality

• A fear of buttons may seem irrational but fear of snakes, spiders, heights and darkness can be explained via the potential dangers that these stimuli have or had in human evolutionary history, for example:

  • Snakes can be deadly, as can spiders

  • Falling from a height can harm of kill a human being

  • Darkness brings with it hidden dangers e.g. predators 

• 21st century human beings should not really fear heights or darkness as there are easy ways of avoiding both of these phobic stimuli (safety barriers on high buildings or cliffs; lights, lamps and torches to illuminate the darkness) and, depending on where someone lives, most spiders and snakes are harmless

• The fact that a huge number of people do fear snakes, spiders, heights and the dark may be explained using BP as the determining factor i.e. that they have inherited a predisposition to fear potentially harmful creatures or situations

• Fear and avoidance of snakes, darkness, heights etc. would have proved very useful to primaeval peoples: the fear of these stimuli may have meant the difference between life and death

Evaluation of Biological Preparedness as an explanation of phobias

Strengths

• BP provides a valid explanation for why some phobias develop i.e. the link to evolutionary theory with its emphasis on survival of the fittest

• Seligman’s theory has given rise to raft of supporting research and hypotheses which investigate a biological basis for phobias (McNally & Reiss, 1982)

Weaknesses

• BP does not explain how phobias for non-threatening stimuli e.g. dolls, cotton wool, buttons develop so it has limited generalisability

• BP has its basis in evolutionary psychology so it cannot explain the existence of phobias which centre on modern technology e.g. cyberphobia (an extreme fear of technology); nomophobia (fear of being without a mobile phone)

Which studies investigate a biological explanation of phobias?

• Ohman et al. (1975) - phobia of snakes may be evidence of Biological Preparedness

• Ahs et al. (2018) - Biological Preparedness does not explain the origin of specific phobias