Contemporary Study: Capafons (1998) Flashcards
What were the aims of this contemporary study?
To test whether…
- …systematic desensitisation is effective as a therapeutic technique for treating a fear of flying.
- …this can be achieved through a simulation.
Who were used in the sample?
-
41 in total
- 20 in the treatment: 8 males and 12 females with a mean age of 29.65.
- 21 in the control group: 9 males and 12 females with a mean age of 34.05.
What was the participant design?
Matched pairs:
- age
- sex
Which sample method was used?
Volunteers through a media campaign advertising free treatment for aerophobia.
What type of method was used?
Lab
What was the IV?
Condition P’s were in, e.g. treatment/control group.
What were the 3 DVs?
- Diagnosis of fear with IDG-FV, e.g. “How afraid of flying would you say you are?”
- EMV measuring fear during flight, EPAV measuring catastrophic thoughts.
- Physiological measures.
What was the procedure of the study?
- Video made from a subjective perspective about a trip by plane: begins with traveller packing their things, ends with plane touching down at destination.
- P’s given relaxation session where they become acquainted with situations in the video they’re about to watch.
- 3 mins prior to vid, interview was completed where measurements taken on EPV, EPAV scale and heart rate, temp and muscle tension.
- After 8 weeks, treatment + control invtied back to retake questionnaire and simulated video test. Control watched vid but no therapy.
What were the results of this contemporary study?
- All variables decreased before and after treatment for the treatment group.
- There was a decrease of 12.3 in fear during flight after treatment for the treatment group compared to an increase of 9.8 for the control group.
- Catastrophic thoughts of the treatment group decreased by 5.3 whereas they increased by 0.09 for the control group.
Describe the conclusion of this experiment.
- Overall there was a successful decrease in fear of flying in the treatment group.
- There was no corresponding reduction in fear in the control group.
- This shows that a mere passing of time is not enough to reduce fear.
Was the study generalisable?
Yes✅:
- They balanced out the age and sex of the condition groups. This means that they can generalise the results to many different groups of people.
No❌:
- Volunteer sample which was small being 41. This means that as they all volunteered they may display similar characteristics and aerophobia, so cannot be generalised to people who don’t have aerophobia.
- Also small sample means any anomalies in behaviour, e.g. people being overly tense during physiological tests, means they’ll skew the results.
Was the study reliable?
Yes✅:
- Used standardised procedure, such as the distance away from the screen. This makes it easily replicable and increases the reliability.
- Uses quantitative data, e.g. heart rate. This makes easy ot measure and makes the results objective and so easier to test for consistency in comparisons.
Are there any applications?
P - Yes E - 18/20 ppts who received the treatment had a decrease in fear of flying E - Therefore showing that systematic desensitisation can be used to treat phobias
Evaluate the validity using 2 low points.
P - Low ecological E - Ppts were in an unnatural environment exposed to their phobia through watching a video of flying E - Therefore it may not reflect their real life display of their aerophobia P - Low E - Questionnaires involved self-report data E - Therefore ppts may show elements of social desirability
Evaluate the ethics using 2 high points.
P - Ethical E - Ppts were volunteers E - Gave their informed consent P - Ethical E - Ppts had more control over the stages in whcih they were exposed to the phobia E - Therefore SD is more ethical than flooding as it increases protection from harm
