Phobias Flashcards
What are phobias
A type of anxiety disorder characterised by extreme irrational fears
- the anxiety levels experienced are out of proportion to any actual risk
- about 10% will suffer from a phobia at some point, with females twice the inidence rate as males
- phobias can be long lasting
Behavioural symptoms of phobias (actions)
- avoidant/anxiety responses-high anxiety responses produced with confrontation of feared object. Efforts are made to avoid the feared object
- disruption of functioning-anxiety and avoidance responses are extreme so they severely interfere with the ability to conduct everyday working and social functioning
Emotional symptoms of phobias (feeling)
- persistant excessive fear-phobias produce high levels of anxiety due to the presence of aniticipation of feared objects
- fear from exposure to phobic stimulus-phobias produce an immediate fear response (panic attacks, feeling overwhelmed)
Cognitive symptoms of phobias (thoughts)
- irrational nature of a person’s thinking-phobics are resistant to rational arguments
- recognition of exaggerated anxiety-generally phobics are consciously aware that the anxiety they experience in relation to their feared object is overstated
Explain different types of phobias
- simple (specific) phobias-sufferers have fear of specific things
- social phobias-being anxious in social situations. Feeling judged and not adequate
- agoraphobia phobias-fear of leaving safe space. Panic experienced then anxiety
Different types of social phobias
- performance phobias-playing at a concert
- interaction phobias-anxious about meeting others
- generalised phobias-where other people are present
Behavioural explanation to phobias
- the acqusition of phobias-seen through classical conditioning-traumatic experience
- the maintenance of phobias-seen through operant conditioning-avoiding feared object acts as a negative reinforcer
Little Albert (1920) problems
- no right to consent-protection from psychological harm
- findings can’t be generalised-low ecological validity
- no objective measurement of the fear repsonse-dependent variable not operationalised
King et al (1998)
- reported that case studies showed that children acquire strong phobias through a traumatic experience
- support for classical conditioning
Bagby (1922)
- reported on a case study of a women who had a phobia of running water as her feet one got stuck in some rocks near a waterfall
- she increasingly became panic stricken
- the neutral stimulus of the sound of running water became associated with the fear
Short evaluation of behavioural explanation
-the behaviourist viewpoint is weakened because not everyone that experiences a traumatic event goes on to develop a phobia
Two simple ways of treating phobias
- drug therapy-however cost effective, has side effects, symptoms
- cognitive behavioural therapy-targets that maladaptive thought processes, expensive
Behavioural treatment for phobias
- if phobias are acquired and maintained through learning then it should be possible to replace maladaptive behaviours with adaptive behaviours relearned/reconditioned through behaviourist principles
- other treatments include systematic desensitisation and flooding
Defintion of systematic desensitisation
- developed by Wolpe (1958)
- based on classical conditioning-replacing fear responses with feelings of calm so creating new adaptive associations
Procedure of systematic desensitisation
- relaxation techniques are learned to replace anxiety through progressive hierachy of exposures to the object that causes anxiety
- step by step approach to replacing anxiety with positive and calming methods (in-vivo desensitisation)
- the hierachy is constructed on the clients fear scale-least to most feared type of exposure. Usually by imagining or seeing pictures (covert desensitisation) and building towards actual contact
Research support for systematic desensitisation
Jones (1924) eradicated Little Peter’s rabbit phobia. Rabbit presented closer each time until anxiety levels calmed. Peter given food rewards too. Positive associations generalised to other animals and objects
Definition of flooding
-a behavioural therapy used to remove phobias by immersing them immediately in a situation that confronts the most feared object
Procedure of flooding
- top of the fear hierachy
- the patient’s anxiety levels cannot remain high indefinitely and that exhaustion (stimulus satiation) will occur when they can’t raise anxiety any longer
- they are prevented from carrying out their usual avoidance strategy
- eventually the body will begin to calm down and the person will realise no harm has occurred
Research support for flooding
Wolpe (1960) used flooding to remove a girl’s phobia of being in cars. The girl was forced into a car and driven around for 4 hours until her hysteria subsided, demonstrating the effectiveness of the treatment
Evaluation of methods to treating phobias
- systematic desensitisation is mainly suitable for patients who are able to learn and use relaxation techniques and those who can create a fear hierachy
- there is no guarantee that when confronting the real fear it will work
- behavioural treatments work best on simple phobias but less effective on social phobias and agoraphoiba-behaviourist principles may not fully explain phobias
- ethical issues-both treatmens have concerns over psyhcological harm and informed consent-children may not understand what is happening
- flooding not suuitable for those in poor physical health due to extreme anxiety levels being stressful on body e.g. heart attacks
