Phobais Flashcards
Classical conditioning and phobias
Can create a phobia of an object or a a situation if you associate the object with a fearful or unpleasant experience
Classical conditioning and phobias
Supporting studies
Watson and rayner
Little Albert gained a phobia of rats and the generalised to anything white and fluffy
Classical conditioning and phobias
Dollinger et al 1984
Childhood lighting survivors
Compared w control
Asked to rate fear of thunder tornadoes and lightning
Children struck had a high self rated fear
Classical conditioning and phobias
Di Nardo 1988
56% reported conditioning experience for a phobia of dogs
Classical conditioning and phobias
Weaknesses
Is a partial explanation , not complete for how phobias are acquired
People who have no experience with phobia
Operant conditioning and phobias
Person suffering from a phobia avoids what they are scared of
Negative reinforcement, avoidant behaviour becomes more likely
Operant conditioning and phobias
Skinner
Rat began to press the buzzer to remove the shocks
Social learning theory and phobias
Learning through observation and imitation of role models
Social learning theory and phobias
Mineka and cook 1989
Rhesus monkeys
Adult experienced anxiety and fear over toy snakes and crocodiles
Children Vance scared when presented with toys
Social learning theory and phobias
Mineka and zinberg 2006
Boy had emetophobia after seeing his grandad throwing up as he died
Social learning theory and phobias
Dubai et al 2008
Toddler 15-20 months
Rubber spiders and snakes
Some mothers showed fear
Their children showed fear and generalised to other rubber toys e.g rubber mushroom
Systematic desensitisation
Based on classical conditioning
Remove fear response and substitute it with relaxation to the conditional stimulus using counter conditioning
Sessions last 4-12 weeks depending in serverity
Systematic desensitisation
Exposure therapy two ways
In vitro - imagine exposure to phobic stimulus
In vivo - clients exposed to phobia stimulus ( more successful not practical)
Systematic desensitisation
First three stages
- Deep muscle relaxation techniques and breathing excersises, creates reciprocal inhibition ( one response inhibited because it is incompatible with the other) fear involves tension which can’t work w relaxation
- Functional analysis - questioning to determine key triggers
3.fear hierarchy - start at least anxiety provoking to most, move up in stages, provides structure
Systematic desensitisation
Fourth stage
Work up hierarchy practising relaxation as you go.
When they feel comfortable move up to next stage, if client becomes upset can move back down and regain relaxed state
Repeat until it fails to evoke any anxiety at all, indication successful therapy
Systematic desensitisation
Application
Wolpe 1964
18 year old w severe hand washing compulsion, fear involved contaminating others w urine
After urinating would spend 45 mins cleaning genitalia, 2 h washing hands, 4 h showering
Placed him in relaxation and asked him to imagine low anxiety e.g. unknown man touching trough containing one drop of urine
As anxiety dissipated increased imaginary conc of urine
Real bottle of urine moved nearer to him
Follow up 4 years later complete remission of compulsive behaviour
Systematic desensitisation
Capafons 1998
41 aerophobia sufferers
Treated 20 w SD
Over 12-15 week period
2 w SD didn’t report signs of improvement
Wasn’t 100% effective
Systematic desensitisation
Weaknesses
Relies on clients ability to imagine a fearful situation , some people can’t create a vivid image
Slow process
Risk of dependence on therapist
Treats symptoms not the cause if the phobia
Systematic desensitisation
Strengths
Can be applie in images so no practical disadvantages
Structure allows for controlled steps to overcome which means less likely abandonment of therapy
Exposure therapy
Method used to treat simple phobia
Based on classical conditioning and biological theory of body’s stress response of fight or flight
In vivo process
Phobia sufferer confronts it
Exposure therapy
Alarm stage
When faced w threat body goes to alarm stage which is the stress response
Body can only remain for a shoot period
Phobia sufferer no longer panicked and have a sense of calm
Conditioned stimulus goes back to being a neutral stimulus
Exposure therapy
Wolpe 1970
Girl scared cars, drover her round for 4 hours
Was hysterical to start but calmed down when realised not in danger
After she started to enjoy
Exposure therapy
Weakness
Unethical as leads to distress
Wolpe 1969 client hospitalised as a result of anxiety
Common adverse effects makes SD and flooding better
Doesn’t treat root cause lead to spontaneous recovery, phobia never truly solved
Implosion therapy
Variation of exposure therapy
In vitro
Can be used to treat more compact phobias like social
Implosion therapy
Keane et al 1989
24 Vietnam war veterans PTSD panick attacks, numbing, social avoidance
Received 14- 16 sessions of flooding therapy
Retested PTSD 6months later
Compared to control had fewer flashbacks, less anxiety and depression
Numbing and social avoidance didn’t change
Can reduce phobia but doesn’t fully treat and treat cause
Implosion therapy
Barrett 1969
Implosion therapy for treatment of phobia of snakes
Asked snake phobic to close her eyes and imagine
Associated snakes w closing eyes and got insomnia
Implosion therapy
Weakness
More ethical and less distressing than exposure however can still be too much
Danger spontaneous recovery when extinguished phobia can return
Replaces it with no response
Implosion therapy and exposure
Strength
Takes much less time and money
