Evaluation of the Behavioural Explanation of OCD



Evaluation of the Behavioural Explanation of OCD

These are your pieces of evidence which you need to use in the structure of point, evidence, explain in your essays. Some top tips on how to make your point and explain are below. How well you have introduced and explained your point will be a major focus of this essay.

POINT: A positive (or strength) of, A negative (or weakness) of, On one hand, Support for this comes from, Real life application comes from, An advantage, A disadvantage

EVIDENCE: as shown below, the evidence is just the actual information which you want to include, something might lack ecological validity or it might just be points like those below

EXPLAIN: this shows that the theory / explanation can be used to explain x behaviour, this can be better explained by another theory e.g……, this had led to, this provides a more plausible explanation than…., this real life application of the explanation highlights its usefulness for patients with OCD / phobias, this empirical support for the explanation strengthens its plausibility

(+) Both the initial cause and maintenance of OCD can be explained by the two process theory proposed by Mowrer (1947) it has shown how avoidance conditioning is successful in the short-term as it reduces the anxiety and provides temporary relief, and how in the long-term this avoidance behaviour is responsible for the continuation of the OCD

(+) The avoidance conditioning theory has led to a successful behavioural treatment for OCD

(-) The behaviourist explanation is not very helpful in explaining how the obsessions arise in the first place

**COMPARISON** you can compare this explanation to the psychodynamic explanation of OCD which focuses mainly on childhood fixation.

**STUDY** don’t forget that the study by Rachman and Hodgson provides support for this explanation of OCD so can be used as A02

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