Summary Of The Movie 'What About Bob'

In the movie, “What About Bob”, the character Bob Wiley displays many different psychological symptoms and disorders. He displays symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and agoraphobia, predominately. Bob is a middle-aged man that has been in therapy for many, many years. The opening scene of the movie shows the audience many of Bob's disorders, as well as symptoms. It appears as though Bob’s current therapist is attempting to get away from Bob, by pushing him on to his colleague, Dr. Marvin. The movie then goes on to describe Bob’s journey with his new therapist, Dr. Marvin.

Bob Wiley displays many different characteristics and symptoms of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Obsessions are “persistent thoughts, ideas, impulses, or images that seem to invade the person’s consciences”, while compulsions are “repetitive and rigid behaviors or mental acts that people feel they must perform in order to prevent or reduce anxiety” (Comer, 2015). Bob is very concerned and worried about germs. He uses a kleenex whenever he needs to open a door. He informs Dr. Marvin, that “I worry about diseases so i have trouble touching things”.

Bob’s Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can be explained through the behavioral perspective. Many behavioralists are very concentrated on explaining the

individual’s compulsion, rather than their obsessions. They believe that individuals begin their compulsions randomly, without any purpose. For example, “In a fearful situation, they happen just coincidentally to wash their hands, say or dress a certain way. When the threat lifts, they link the improvement to that particular action” (Comer, 2015). An individual will eventually associate their action to bringing them luck, or maybe even changing the outcome of a certain situation, therefore they will continue to preform these certain actions, or compulsions many times throughout their day, or when they are in certain situations.
This model explains OCD the best because “Compulsions are learnt responses which are ways of reducing the anxiety brought on by the obsession” (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Introduction, Explanations and Treatments, 2010). Compulsions are direct behaviors that the individual demonstrates. Typically, if the compulsions or behavior reduces anxiety, it becomes reinforced. It has been found that “people who develop OCD make by chance associations between behaviors and reinforces. This leads them to repeat the behaviors” (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Introduction, Explanations and Treatments, 2010).
The treatment for OCD that would be best effective would be a behavioral treatment, such as exposure and response prevention, also known as exposure and ritual prevention.

In this treatment, “clients are repeatedly exposed to objects or situations that produce anxiety, obsessive fears, and compulsive behaviors, but they are told to resist performing the behaviors they feel so bound to preform” (Comer, 2015). Individuals going through this treatment will often find it extremely difficult to resist the urge to preform these compulsions, or behaviors, therefor the therapist will often be the first to set this example. This treatment can be conducted in an individual, or group

format.
Bob also has many issues with leaving his apartment. This is called agoraphobia. This can be defined as the “fear of being in public places or situations where escape might be difficult or help unavailable, should they experience panic or become incapacitated” (Comer, 2015). Bob has to talk himself into leaving his apartment. He paces around his apartment and tells himself, He is very panicked at even the thought of stepping outside.
Bob’s phobia can best be explained again, by the behavioral perspective. Many behavioralists propose “classical conditioning as a common way of acquiring phobic reactions” (Comer, 2015). Classical conditioning can be defined as “learning a new behavior via the process of association. In simple terms two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal” (McLeod, 2008). There must have been an event that Bob experienced in his past to make him fear leaving his apartment, using classical conditioning and association.
An example of this can be seen in Ivan Pavlov’s Little Albert experiment about phobias. (McLeod, 2008). He showed that classical conditioning can be applied to humans. Albert, a 9 month old child was shown a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and other various masks. He showed no fear of these objects. A researcher would then strike a hammer against a steel bad behind his head when he was exposed to these objects. This would cause him to be startled, afraid and to cry. Albert was exposed to this same event every week for a total of 7 weeks. By the end of the experiment, Albert was conditioned to associate the objects with the loud noise of the hammer hitting the steel bar. When Albert was exposed to just he objects, he would begin to show signs of fear and cry, even if the hammer was not hit against the steel bad. He would attempt to crawl away from the objects when he was exposed to them. Albert began to show signs of a phobia. It was also found that “Albert developed phobias of objects which shared characteristics with the rat; including the family dog, a fur coat, some cotton wool and a Father Christmas mask. This process is know as generalization” (McLeod, 2008).
This model explains Bob’s phobia the best because there is must evidence to support the behavioral perspective, as seen above. Many behavioralist believe that “people with phobias first learn to fear certain objects, situations, or events through conditioning” (Comer, 2015). Another way that the behavioral perspective is appropriate for explaining Bob’s phobia is by the process of modeling. Modeling can be described as observation and imitation (Comer, 2015). An individual may observe that others in their lives are afraid of certain events or objects, and these individuals will start to be afraid of these same event and objects. It is very possible that Bob could have seen one of his family members or friends be fearful of leaving his or her house, and he began to develop this same phobia.
The treatment that would be the best for Bob’s phobia would consist of behavioral treatments, such as a variety of exposure approaches. A therapist will help their client to leave their homes, and venture father from it, gradually. The therapist might also use systematic exposure methods, such as exposure therapy, to help the individual leave their home and enter their outside surroundings. Exposure therapy will use “support groups and home-based self-help programs-to motivate clients to work hard at their treatment" (Comer, 2015). A support group will allow individuals to expose themselves to the outside world, in a group setting.