Phobias Flashcards
Behavioural Characteristics of phobias
Panic- may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus- crying, screaming, running away
Children- freezing, clinging, tantrums
Avoidance- make effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus. make it hard to go about daily life
Endurance- sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continue to experience high anxiety. may be unavoidable
Emotional Characteristics of Phobias
Anxiety- involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear
unpleasant state of high arousal
prevents the sufferer from relaxing, makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion
anxiety can be long term
Cognitive Characterises of Phobias
Selective attention to the phobic stimulus- keeping our attention on something dangerous is a good thing as it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to threats, not useful when the fear is irrational
Irrational Beliefs- i.e social phobias increase the pressure on the sufferer to perform well in social situations
Cognitive distortions- perceptions may be distorted
Two-process model
Classical Conditioning
Watson and Rayner (1920)
created a phobia in a 9 month old baby
called ‘little Albert’
showed no signs of unusual anxiety when shown a rat- was playing with it
they made a loud, frightening noise when they presented the rat
this made him become associated fear with rats over time
conditioned to general objects
showed distress when in the presence of a white rabbit, fur coat and Santa’s beard
Two-process model
Operant Conditioning
whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have suffered if we remained there
this reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained
two-process model AO3
Good explanatory power
explained how phobias could be maintained over time and this had important implications for therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus
once a patient is prevented from practising their avoidance behaviour, the behaviour ceases to be reinforced and so it declines
two-process model AO3
Alt explanation for avoidance behaviour
at least some avoidance behaviour appears to be motivated more by positive feelings of safety
problem for the model when suggests that avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction
two-process model AO3
incomplete explanation for phobias
Bounton (2003)- evolutionary factors
probably have an important role in phobias but the two factor theory doesn’t mention this i.e we easily acquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past
Seligman (1987) called this biological preparedness
rate to develop fears of cars/guns which are more dangerous to most of us today
suggests because they’ve only existed recently so we are not biologically prepared to learn fear responses towards them
Systematic Desensitisation
behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning
anxiety hierarchy- list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged in order from least to most frightening
relaxation- therapist teaches patient to relax as deeply as possible i.e breathing exercises
exposure- exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state
takes place over several sessions starting at the bottom
when they can stay relaxed they move up the hierarchy
Flooding
stops phobic responses quickly
quickly learns that its harmless
extinction- CS is encountered without the UCS
some patients may achieve relaxation I the presence of the phobic stimulus because they become exhausted by their own fear response
unpleasant experience so its important that patients give fully informed consent to this traumatic procedure and that they’re fully prepared before the flooding session
normally given a choice of systematic desensitisation or flooding
SD AO3
Effectiveness
Gilroy et al (2003)- followed up 42 patients who had been treated for spider phobia in three 45-minute sessions
measured including spider questionnaire and by assessing response to spider
control group was treated by relaxation without exposure
at both 3 and 33 months after treatment, the SD group were less fearful than control
shows affects are long-lasting
SD AO3
Acceptable to patients
patients prefer it as it doesn’t cause the same degree of trauma as flooding
SD includes learning relaxing procedures which is pleasant
reflected in low refusal rate and low attrition rates
SD AO3
suitable for a diverse range of patients
flooding and cognitive therapies are not suited to all patients
i.e patients who have learning difficulties may not understand how flooding or cognitive therapies work
Flooding AO3
cost-effective
highly effective and quicker than alts
patients free of their symptoms as quick as possible and makes treatment cheaper
Flooding AO3
less effective for some types of phobias
i.e social phobias
has cognitive aspects
doesn’t simply have anxiety but thinks unpleasant thoughts
may benefit more from cognitive therapies as it tackles irrational thinking
