Lecture 4- Behavioural Approaches Flashcards
What was behaviourism a reaction to?
The limitations of psychoanalysis approach and stagnation of introspective psychology
What were the limitations of the psychoanalysis approach?
Not falsifiable, data was case studies, not parsimonioius
What were the key themes of behavioural approach?
The study of observable behaviour and external events that maintain it. Learning through modifying behaviour due to experience
Why was behaviourism not accepted?
As it was not verifiable as there was no need to explore or change the psyche
What do environmental conditions do in behaviourism?
Affect the acquisition, modification and elimination of response patterns
What is radical behaviourism?
They shunned mental states and denied existence of such states
Who is a famous radical behaviourist?
Skinner
What does behavioural therapy involve?
Unlearning of undesirable behaviour and emotional responses and learning desirable cues
What does behavioural therapy say about maladaptive behaviour?
Maladaptive behaviour is from failure to learn adaptive responses and the learning of maladaptive responses
What is the assumption of behavioural therapy?
Abnormal behaviour are learned the same ways as normal behaviours and can be unlearnt
What is classical conditioning?
Process where the formerly neutral stimulus (becomes a CS) comes to elicit a biologically adaptive response by being paired with an UCS
What does the conditioned stimuli reliably predict?
The occurence of UCS can become conditiond
When can the conditioned response become reduced?
Conditioned response gradually extinguishes if the conditioned stimulus repeatedly paired without the unconditioned stimulus
What did Pavlov examine?
Investigation the way eating excited salivary, gastric and pancreatic secretion by creating fistulas in dogs
What did Pavlov notice?
Noticed psychic secretions drool produced by anything other than direct exposure to food and physiological and emotional responses can be conditioned
What is the process of classical conditioning?
UCS and NS are paired for a UCR
NS becomes the CS that elicits a response the same as the UCS
How can a fear of needles be reduced?
With the drug conditioned stimuli (paraphernalia) can become attention grabbing and produce physiological and psychological responses
What does conditioning say about fetishes?
Sexual deviations are the result of an accidential pairing of abnormal stimulus with sexual arousal or ejaculation (Jaspers, 1963)
Who looked at Little Albert?
Watson
What did Watson observe?
Wanted to see if he can induce a child to fear something he wouldn’t normally
What happened to Little Albert?
Fear of rats induced through associations of loud noises with a white rate
What is exposure therapy?
Patient is confronted with fear producing stimulus in a therapeutic manner
What is extinction in classical conditioning?
Repeated exposure to CS without UCS so the patient cannot avoid the CS
What is flooding?
Full strength confrontation so the patient has to confront their fear through the habituation principle and physical exhaustion resulting in diminished fear response
Why is repeated flooding needed?
Usually necessary to extinguish some fear response
What is a limitation of flooding?
Risk of dropout
Who looked at Little Peter?
Mary Cover Jones
What did Mary Cover Jones do?
Eliminated a 3 year olds fear of rabbits through direct conditioning with his favourite food
Who looked at systematic desensitisation?
Wolpe, 1958
What is systematic desensitisation?
- Clients are taught a enter a state of relaxation
- Patient and therapist collaborated in constructing an anxiety hierarchy of imagined scenes
- In therapy sessions the patients repeatedly imagines the scenes in the hierarchy under conditions of relaxation
What does systematic desensitisation do?
Extinguish the fear response to the stimulus and establish a relaxation response to the previously feared stimulus (counter-conditioning)
What are the highlights of exposure therapy?
No evidence that the size of treatment effects differed between single and multi-session
Single and multi-session associated with large pre-post treatment effect
Exposure therapy for phobias delievered in a single or multi-session format