Key Questions (Edexcel A-Level Psychology): Revision Notes
Fear of Flying
Overview
Fear of flying, known as aerophobia, represents a pressing concern in contemporary society. This phobia affects approximately one in six individuals and extends beyond simple discomfort with air travel. The condition often co-exists with related phobias including acrophobia (fear of heights) and claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces).
Aerophobia rarely exists in isolation. Many individuals experience multiple related phobias simultaneously, with acrophobia and claustrophobia being the most common co-occurring conditions. This interconnection suggests that the fear may stem from broader anxiety patterns rather than air travel alone.
When asked to explain their fear, individuals commonly cite concerns about crashing. However, research reveals additional factors including fear of losing control, experiencing panic attacks, and increasingly, fear of hijacking. The unavoidable nature of air travel in modern professional and personal life makes this phobia particularly problematic, creating economic, social, and emotional consequences for those affected.
The social and economic impact
Aerophobia receives considerable attention compared to other phobias because air travel has become essential in modern society. Business professionals often need to fly regularly for work-related commitments. The fear can prevent individuals from pursuing career opportunities, taking holidays abroad, or visiting family and friends in distant locations. These restrictions create substantial economic, social, and emotional impacts, raising an important question: should airlines and airports provide treatment programmes for passengers experiencing fear of flying?
Airline Treatment Programmes
Several airlines have recognized the prevalence and impact of aerophobia by developing specialized treatment programmes:
- EasyJet operates a 'Fearless Flyer course'
- Virgin Atlantic offers a 'Flying Without Fear course'
- Manchester Airport introduced a psychologist in 2011 who provided free therapy sessions in the Terminal One departures lounge
These initiatives demonstrate institutional recognition of the problem's significance and its impact on passengers and the aviation industry.
Post-9/11 behavioral changes
The 11 September 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York produced measurable changes in travel behavior. Passenger miles on major US airlines fell between 12% and 20%, whilst road use increased substantially. Professor Gerd Gigerenzer, a psychologist specialising in risk behavior, estimated that an additional 1595 Americans died in car accidents in the year following the attacks.
The Cost of Fear-Based Decision Making
This behavioral shift is widely attributed to passengers choosing to drive rather than fly, representing a change induced by fear of flying. Gigerenzer ascribed these extra road deaths to poor understanding of risk and danger—statistically, traveling long distances by car poses greater danger than traveling by plane.
This example demonstrates how phobias can produce irrational decision-making with serious real-world consequences, including preventable deaths.
Explaining fear of flying using learning theories
Classical conditioning
The prevailing view suggests that we acquire phobic responses in the same manner as Pavlov's dogs learned to salivate at different stimuli. Through classical conditioning, we learn to associate a neutral stimulus with a fear response.
Worked Example: Turbulence and Classical Conditioning
Consider how someone might develop aerophobia through classical conditioning:
Before the traumatic experience:
- Flying = Neutral Stimulus (NS) - no fear response
- Fear = Unconditioned Response (UCR) - natural response to danger
The traumatic event:
- Person experiences severe turbulence during a flight
- Turbulence creates stress and anxiety
- Flying becomes associated with the anxiety
After the traumatic experience:
- Flying = Conditioned Stimulus (CS) - now triggers fear
- Anxiety = Conditioned Response (CR) - learned fear response
This process demonstrates how a previously neutral activity (flying) can become associated with fear through a single negative experience, establishing a learned phobic response.
Operant conditioning
Fear of flying can also develop through operant conditioning by repeatedly reinforcing avoidance of mildly fearful situations. Consider a man with a relatively minor fear of flying whose wife agrees to drive or take the ferry instead of flying. The person's fear has been reinforced through this accommodation and may develop into a more severe phobia.
Worked Example: Negative Reinforcement Maintaining Phobias
The fear cycle operates through negative reinforcement:
Step 1: Person confronts the feared situation (being asked to fly)
- Anxiety levels increase
- Person feels uncomfortable and distressed
Step 2: Person avoids the feared situation (chooses to drive instead)
- Anxiety immediately decreases
- Person experiences relief
Step 3: Avoidance behavior is reinforced
- The removal of anxiety (an unpleasant state) strengthens the avoidance behavior
- Next time, the person is more likely to avoid flying again
Result: The phobia persists because individuals with aerophobia avoid flying, which lessens or removes their anxiety, creating a self-perpetuating cycle.
Social learning theory
Direct experience of fear is not necessary for developing a fear of flying. Observational learning or social learning theory can also explain the development of aerophobia. Individuals may witness news reports of plane crashes on television, triggering feelings of anxiety. Through this vicarious experience, the fear becomes reinforced.
People may also observe a parent's reactions or witness another person's response when turbulence occurs during a flight. This observation may prove sufficient to induce a fear response to flying, demonstrating how phobias can develop through watching others' fearful reactions rather than direct personal experience.
Treating fear of flying via the learning theories approach
Treatment methods for aerophobia draw upon classical conditioning principles, substituting fear with relaxation. This approach relies on a fundamental principle of human emotion.
Reciprocal Inhibition Principle
Two contrasting emotions cannot co-exist simultaneously. In other words, you cannot feel relaxed and scared at the same time.
This principle forms the foundation of all learning theory-based treatments for aerophobia. By inducing relaxation, therapists can effectively eliminate the fear response.
Relaxation techniques
Individuals with fear of flying may learn several calming techniques including deep breathing and progressive muscle relaxation. Progressive muscle relaxation involves systematically tensing and then relaxing major muscle groups, working through them one at a time until the client achieves total muscle relaxation. This technique progresses sequentially through the body, hence its name.
Systematic desensitisation
Systematic desensitisation represents another technique for treating fear of flying. The client works with a therapist to create a hierarchy of issues, beginning with the least feared situation (such as looking at a photograph of a plane) and progressing to the most fearful situation (such as actual take-off and landing). The therapist then works through this hierarchy with the client, employing the relaxation techniques mentioned above.
Research by Capafóns et al. (1998) demonstrated that systematic desensitisation provides an effective treatment for fear of flying, offering empirical support for this therapeutic approach.
Success rates and evaluation
Airlines operating fear of flying courses claim success rates ranging from 92% to 98%, utilizing learning techniques described above alongside cognitive approach strategies that challenge negative thought processes associated with flying.
Critical Evaluation of Treatment Programmes
However, these courses face several criticisms:
- They are expensive and difficult to access outside large cities
- The courses are largely sponsored by airlines themselves, raising concern that they may lack rigorous evaluation
- This commercial interest introduces potential bias in reported effectiveness
These limitations suggest the need for independent evaluation of treatment programme effectiveness.
Virtual reality exposure therapy
Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE) provides an alternative treatment option. This method employs virtual reality technologies to treat phobias and anxiety disorders. Instead of exposure to actual aeroplanes, clients experience computer-generated three-dimensional virtual aeroplanes.
Research Study: Rothbaum et al. (2000) - Virtual Reality vs. Traditional Therapy
Study Design: Participants with aerophobia received four sessions of anxiety management training, followed by one of three conditions:
- Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRE)
- Standard therapy (involving an actual aeroplane)
- Control group (no additional treatment)
Measurement: A post-treatment flight immediately after treatment measured:
- Participants' willingness to fly
- Anxiety levels during the flight
Results: The findings revealed no differences between VRE and standard therapy effectiveness.
Six-month follow-up:
- 93% of VRE participants had successfully flown
- 93% of standard therapy participants had successfully flown
Conclusion: These findings suggest that VRE therapy and traditional therapy for fear of flying demonstrate equal effectiveness, offering a potentially more accessible and cost-effective treatment option.
Key Points to Remember:
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One in six people experience fear of flying, making it a common phobia with substantial economic and social consequences
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Classical conditioning explains how neutral stimuli (like flying) become associated with fear responses through negative experiences such as turbulence - following the pathway: NS → UCR becomes CS → CR
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Operant conditioning maintains phobias through negative reinforcement - avoidance reduces anxiety, strengthening the avoidance behavior and creating a self-perpetuating cycle
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Social learning theory demonstrates that direct experience is unnecessary; fear can develop through observing others' reactions or media reports (vicarious learning)
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Treatment approaches based on reciprocal inhibition (relaxation and fear cannot coexist) show 92-98% success rates, with virtual reality exposure therapy proving equally effective as traditional methods