behavioural approach

Question 1

types of phobias

Answer 1

behavioural, emotional, cognitive

Question 2

Characteristics of each type of phobia

Answer 2

B- panic and avoidance
E- anxiety (unpleasant state of arousal) & fear, emotional responses are unreasonable (disproportionate to danger posed by stimulus)
C- selective attention (If stimulus can be seen, you find it difficult to focus on anything else), irrational beliefs

Question 3

How do you acquire the phobia through classical conditioning

(classical- how we acquire it)

Answer 3

1) phobic stimulus is a neutral stimulus
2) unconditioned stimulus may be an experience which would naturally lead to the unconditioned response of fear
3) neutral stimulus is now paired with the unconditioned response of fear which leads to become the condition stimulus with a conditioned response of fear

Question 4

How do you acquire the phobia through operant conditioning

operant- how we maintain it

Answer 4

• Person moves away from phobic stimulus and anxiety decreases
• negative reinforcement occurs
• Continue to avoid phobic stimulus which reinforces the phobia (which is learnt through reinforcement)

Question 5

Behavioural approach to treating phobias

Answer 5

• classical- Trying to associate the object with relaxation

- operant- make a person stay with phobic stimulus and avoid running away to prevent the negative reinforcement

Question 6

what are the three processes involved in systematic desensitisation

Answer 6

1. anxiety hierarchy, constructed by patient and therapist, List of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety in order from least to most frightening
2. relaxation techniques such as meditation
3. exposing the phobic stimulus whilst practising the relaxation techniques as feelings of tension and anxiety arise

Question 7

what is flooding

Answer 7

exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus without a gradual buildup in a hierarchy, this involves immediate exposure to the frightening situation and the individual senses are flooded with thoughts, images and actual experience of the phobia
-Flooding stops for big responded very quickly

Question 8

extinction meaning in flooding for phobias

Answer 8

Patient quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless without the option for avoidance behaviour

Question 9

different types of phobias?

Answer 9

specific phobia (phobia of an object)

agoraphobia (fear of outside or public space)

social anxiety (social spectrum such as speaking formally)

Question 10

strength

Answer 10

It is acceptable to patient, those given the choice of systematic desensitisation or flooding tend to prefer systematic desensitisation, this is largely because it does not cause the same degree of trauma as flooding and this is reflected in the lower refusal rates of systematic desensitisation

Question 11

Strength

Answer 11

It is cost-effective, studies comparing flooding to cognitive therapies have found the flooding is highly effective and quicker than alternative

Question 12

Weakness

Answer 12

The treatment is traumatic for patients, with the use of flooding it does provide a traumatic experience (ethical issues)

Question 13

evaluation

Answer 13

• reductionist, explains it through CC and OC, phobias are usually more complex than this
• contradictory evidence, conditioning theories for phobias cannot explain why many people are not able to identify something in their life which led to a traumatic conditioning, or recall any contact with the feared objec