Disorders - Explanations Of Phobias Flashcards
What was the study on behavioural explanation?
Watson and Raynor
What was the aim of Watson and Raynor’s study?
- to see if it is possible to induce a fear of a previously unfeared object, through classical conditioning.
- to see if the fear will be transmitted to other, similar objects
- to see what effect time will have on the fear response
- to see if it is possible to remove the fear response in the laboratory
What was the method of Watson and Raynor’s study?
A case study undertaken on one child: ‘Little Albert’, in controlled laboratory conditions.
Who were the participants in Watson and Raynor’s study?
Little Albert, a child of a wet nurse and so lived in a hospital environment. He showed no fearful reactions before the study but responded violently when a suspended steel bar was hit by a hammer when he was 8 months old.
What was the design of Watson and Raynor’s study?
A single-subject design. The behaviours measured were Alberts reactions to various stimuli before and after the conditioning.
What was the procedure of Watson and Raynor’s study?
When Albert was 11 months old the experiments started. Over 5 sessions Albert was presented things such as a rat or a dog or a rabbit and a suspended steel bar was struck when he touched the animal in order to condition a fear response. Later he was presented the objects by themselves to see if he still showed a fear response.
What were the conclusions of Watson and Raynor’s study?
Session 2 showed that it was possible to condition fear through classical conditioning as the conditioning of a fear response was evident.
Sessions 3 and 4 showed that transference of the fear had been made to similar objects
Session 5 showed that time had not removed the fear response
Albert was taken out of the hospital on the day of session 5 so the aim of finding new ways of removing a phobia in the laboratory was not tested.
What was the study on biological explanation?
Ohman
What was the aim of Ohman’s study?
To see if phobias of snakes could be more easily conditioned than phobias of faces or houses, indicating a biological preparedness to develop phobias of certain objects.
What was the method of Ohman’s study?
Laboratory experiment, with participants linked to a machine that would present pictures and deliver shocks after some of them. Their fear reaction was measured by skin conductance.
Who were the participants in Ohman’s study?
64 paid volunteers aged 20-30 years. 38 females and 26 males who were all psychology students from the university of Uppsala in Sweden.
What was the design of Ohman’s study?
An independent design with participants being in one of three conditions. Electric shocks were given after presentation of snakes, houses or faces.
What was the procedure of Ohman’s study?
Each participant was given a shock that they measured individually as definitely uncomfortable but not painful. Pictures were presented on coloured slides for 8 seconds and if a shock was going to be given it occurred immediately as the picture was shown. Participants were seated comfortably and told they would experience a number of shocks and see three different types of pictures: snakes, human faces and houses. The order of the pictures was randomised. Half of the participants received shocks after the snakes, a quarter received shocks after pictures of houses and a quarter received shocks after pictures of human faces.
What were the findings of Ohman’s study?
All participants had a similar measure of skin conductance prior to the unconditioned stimulus (shock) being shown.
Participants shocked after they were shown pictures of snakes had on average 0.062 conductance to the snakes and 0.048 conductance to the houses and faces. The high the conductance the more they were sweating, which is a physiological response to fear.
The control groups who were shocked after faces or houses showed only 0.037 conductance to their conditioned stimuli and 0.030 to the neutral stimuli that did not appear with shocks.
What were the conclusions of Ohman’s study?
Participants were more likely to show fear reactions to snakes than houses or faces, so this shows a biological preparedness to develop phobias to objects that may cause us danger, such as snakes.
