capafons Flashcards
aim
investigate effects of systematic desensitisation as a treatment programme to treat fear of flying
ppts
41 ppts recruited via media campaign set up by research team informed of personal intervention programmes free of charge aimed at treating fear of flying
TREATMENT GROUP- 8M and 12F
WAITING GROUP CONTROL- 9M and 12F mean age of 34 y/o
What are psychometrics?
Measure behaviour through the use of questionnaires which obtain qualitative data
Whjat’s information diagnostics general sobre fobia a volar?
IDG-FV- Data of patients’ life history and aspects of fear of flying
What’s escala de miedo a volar
EMV measures the degree of anxiety perceived in relaxation to different flight situations
What other tests were carried out?
Measured expectations of danger and anxiety,videotape of plane trip,heart rate measure
Procedure
All ppts interviewed completed IDG-FV, and individually watched a videotape of plane visit while psychophysical measurement rtp of 22.5, 1.8m from TV. Before viewing the habituation session ppt became acquainted with the application conditions ppts response measured for 3 minutes absence o phobic stimulus and watched a video. End video another apt (treatment for treatment group) & (assessment for cntrl group) interval between 1st and 2nd apprx 8 weeks
ppts two 1 hr sessions min 12 exp and 15 exp
after 8 weeks both groups came back to retake questionnaires and simuatlaed videos to test if fear declined
Results
Pre-treatment analysis- no signs of differences between 2 groups on all the variables and others were similar in their fear of flying
Post-treatment analysis difference between the control waiting list and treatment group. 2 self-report measures of relevance were fear during flight and avoidance behaviour and heart rate and muscle tension were measured during take off in simulation session
Intergroup analysis- control group
no reduction in fear level -mere passing time doesn’t lead to quantitative changes in any D measures. Heart rate before 1.07 and after 1.31
Intergroup analysis- treatment group
Significant changes= reduction in fear response eg
Heart rate before 1.04 and after 0.99
Generalisability PEEC
-Low eg sample size 41, 21 in treatment condition + self-selected which may be biased so the people who volunteered may have really wanted to cure their phobia of flying which makes them different to other people with fear of flying.Therefore the sample isn’t representative of all people with phobias of flying and findings not generalisble to larger target population. Can’t tell us anything about effectiveness of SD in treating phobias other than fear of flying
Reliability PEEC
High due to n.o0 of stadrardised procedures eg temp of room being 22.5 armchair at 1.8m from TV same psychometrics being used on each ppt. These allow the study to be easily replicated and tested for the consistency of the findings ensuring reliability and therefore increasing scientific reliability.
Applications PEEC
Shows SD as effective therapy in helping those with fear of flying. Applied to those with those phobia.However, individual differences are important and it should be noted this therapy doesn’t work for everyone 10% of treatment showed little treamtnet in their fear.
Validity PEEC
High internal validity as it uses the scientific method as it was an experiment using strict controls in lab conditions. This allows control of extraneous variables eg the use of a control group of people with fear of flying gives a baseline against compared to differences between treatment groups’ fear of flying. So they can see accurate differences therapy made.In addition quantitve measures eg heart rate and muscle tension allowed precise and accurate physiological measurements of fear and concurrent validity can be seen in that both physiological measures and self-report measures both show fear of flying group changed whereas control didn’t. However, use of self report eg interviews and IDG-FV allows only fixed responses can lower validity eg ppts may not have given true or accurate info + eco valid low by suing controlled conditions eg Ps were told to feel as involved as possible in the video test- still artificial phobic stimulus a real plane flight may have resulted in very different measures
