Phobias Flashcards
What is a phobia
- This is an anxiety disorder involving a persistent fear of an object, place or situation disproportionate to the threat or danger proposed by the object of fear
- The person who has the phobia will go to great lengths to avoid the objects of the fear, and experience great distress if it is encountered
Characteristics of Phobias
- Emotional (how they feel when they encounter the phobia)
- Behavioural (how they behave when they encounter the phobia)
- Cognitive (how they think when they encounter their phobia)
Emotional characteristics of phobias
- Anxiety: feelings of worry around presence of phobic stimuli
- Unpleasant state: of high arousal
- Fear: feelings of terror, which is immediate and extremely unpleasant upon encountering the phobic stimuli
Behavioural characteristics of OCD
- Panic: crying, screaming, running away or freezing
- Avoidance: effort to keep away from the phobic stimulus, making it hard to go about daily life
- Endurance: in unavoidable situations, continuous and extreme anxiety
Cognitive characteristics of OCD
- Irrational through processes
- Person knows their fear is excessive
Systematic desensitisation (what is it?)
This is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning. Essentially a new response to the phobia is learned (phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation instead of anxiety)
What are the 3 steps involved in systematic desensitisation
1) The anxiety hierarchy: This is a list of situations related to the phobic stimuli that provoke anxiety arranged in an order of least to most frightening
2) Relaxation: The therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible. This might involve breathing exercises or mental imagery techniques. Relaxation may also be achieved through the use of drugs
3) Exposure: Finally the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state. This takes place across a number of sessions, starting at the bottom of the hierarchy. When the patient is relaxed at a level, they move up. Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high on the anxiety hierarchy
Flooding (what is it?)
Flooding involves the immediate exposure to a very frightening situation
How does flooding work
- Flooding stops phobic responses quickly
- In classical conditioning terms, this process is called extinction. A learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus. The result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response
Gilroy et al (2003)- support for systematic desensitisation
- He followed up 42 patients who had been treated for spider phobia in three 45 minute sessions of systematic desensitisation
- A control group was treated by relaxation without exposure
- Spider phobia was assessed on several measures including a questionnaire and assessing response to spider
- At both 3 months and and 33 months after the treatment using systemic desensitisation group, they were less fearful than the control group
- This is a strength as it shows that systematic desensitisation is helpful in reducing anxiety in spider phobia and that the effects are long-lasting
Evaluation of systematic desensitisation
- It is suitable for a range of patients: other therapies may be unsuitable for people with learning difficulties as they may not understand what is happening during things like flooding or cognitive therapies that require the individuals to reflect on what they are thinking
Evaluation of flooding
- It is cost effective: Studies have found that flooding is highly effective and quicker than alternatives. This means that patients are free of their symptoms as soon as possible and that makes the treatment cheaper
- It is less effective for more complex phobias: An example is social phobias that have a cognitive aspect as there is not only an anxiety response but unpleasant thoughts of the situation as well
- Treatment is traumatic for patients: The issue is not that it is unethical, but the patients are unwilling to see it through to the end. This ends up making the treatment a waste of time and money for preparation
