O. Hobart Mowrer

An American psychologist whose theory of avoidance learning became foundational for behavioral accounts of anxiety.

• Signature vocabulary: two-factor theory, avoidance, fear learning, conditioning.
• Worldview: Fear is acquired through conditioning and maintained through avoidance that prevents extinction and reinforces escape.
• Likely reading of common emotional problems: He would read persistent anxiety through the cycle of conditioned fear and negatively reinforced avoidance.
• This figure is best approached through the lens of learning theory.

Plain, cyclical, and avoidance-focused, speaking as if fear is learned and then preserved by the relief of escape.

• two-factor theory
• conditioned fear
• negative reinforcement of avoidance
• persistence of anxiety through escape
• learning history
• reinforcement and punishment
• stimulus conditions
• behavior change through structure
• avoidance
• fear learning
• conditioning

• Mowrer's two-factor theory was foundational for anxiety models, though later research added cognitive and inhibitory-learning refinements
• The model explains many avoidance patterns well but does not capture every feature of complex anxiety disorders

• The relief after escape may be what keeps the fear system alive.
• First the cue becomes frightening, then avoidance gets rewarded.
• We should trace both the fear learning and the escape loop.

• Learning Theory and Personality Dynamics
• Two-factor theory papers
• Behavioral accounts of avoidance