Phobias Flashcards
What is a phobia?
An intense fear of a person, place or thing
Behavioural characteristics of a phobia
Avoidance
Endurance
Panic
Cognitive characteristics of a phobia
selective attention,
cognitive distortions
irrational beliefs
Emotional characteristics of a phobia
Anxiety
Fear
Unreasonable response
What is the two process model to explain phobias?
Classical conditioning induces a phobia and operant conditioning maintains a phobia
How does classical conditioning induce a phobia?
Pairing a neutral stimulus (white rat) with an unconditioned stimulus (loud noise) that after enough pairings creates a conditioned response of fear
A study to support classical conditioning induces phobias
Little Albert white rat study. Pairing loud noise with white rat to induce fear into little albert
How does operant conditioning maintain a phobia?
Through negatively reinforcing the phobia. Avoiding the stimulus and removing anxiety acts as a reward so negatively reinforces behaviour
How does social learning theory explain phobias?
Through vicarious reinforcement, watching someone else react negatively with a stimulus
Strengths of the behaviourist explanation for phobias?
Research to support it (Little Albert)
Can create treatments
Weakness of the behaviourist explanation for phobias?
Prevalence - not all phobias follow a negative experience
The two process model doesn’t account for cognitive processes
What is the treatment for phobias?
Systematic desensitisation
Flooding
What does systematic desensitisation work off of?
Reciprocal inhibition, you cannot be relaxed and stressed at the same time
What does systematic desensitisation include
Fear Hierarchy
Pairing Relaxation techniques with fear hierarchy
Rating fear on a scale of 1-100
Moving up stages once anxiety is low
