Phobias Flashcards
What is a phobia
An irrational fear of an object or situation where you commonly experience excessive fear or anxiety by the stimuli. The extent of that fear is out of proportion to any real danger the stimuli possesses
What are the 3 categories of phobia that the DSM-5 recognizes
Specific phobias (object or situation
Social anxiety (social situations)
Agoraphobia (being outside)
Behavioral characteristics of phobias
Panic-crying screaming running
Avoidance-trying not to come into contact with stimuli make everyday life tricky if the stimuli is common
Emotional characteristics of phobias
Fear
Anxiety
Unreasonable responses - disproportionate reactions
Cognitive characteristics of phobias
Selective attention - hard to look away from stimulus and concentrate on anything else
Irrational beliefs - about other people’s thoughts or the amount of harm the stimulus can cause them
Classical conditioning is learning through ______
Association
Classical conditioning _______ behavior
Establishes
Operant conditioning is learning through _______
Consequences
Operant conditioning ________ behavior
Maintains
What is the 2 process model
Mowrer
Argues that phobias are learned through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning (negative reinforcement)
Acquisition through classical conditioning
- The UCS triggers a fear response UCR
Being bitten by a dog making you scared
2.The NS becomes associated with the UCS
The dog is the neutral stimulus
3.The NS becomes a CS producing a fear response CR
Seeing a dog now creates fear
Little Albert case study proves that
Fear can be generalized to other stimuli. Other stimuli with similar characteristics to the CS can still create a fear response CR
How does operant conditioning reinforce phobias
By avoiding the fear and anxiety that the phobia would cause, you reinforce your avoidant behavior
Neg reinforcement
Behavioral explanations for phobias pos
Real world application
Develops therapies for people suffering with phobias by preventing avoidance
Educate
Treat / manage
Improve quality of life
Usefull
Behavioral explanations for phobias pos
Research support
Jongh et Al
73% of people with fear of dental treatment had a traumatic past experience and in the control group with no phobia 21% had a traumatic incident
Behavioral explanations for phobias counter
Not all phobias follow bad experiences
27% of Jongh et als participants did not have traumatic experiences meaning the link between trauma and phobia is not as strong a suggested
What are the two types of behavioral treatments for phobias
Systematic desensitisation and flooding
What does systematic desensatisation do
Gradually reduces anxiety using counter conditioning by replacing the CR of fear with a different CR, the feeling of relaxation
This is called reciprocal inhibition which is where it’s not possible to feel both fearful and relaxed at the same time so one must be ignored
How does systematic desensatisation deal with anxiety
The patient and doctor will create an anxiety hierarchy from least to most anxiety inducing stimuli and the patient uses deep breathing or meditation to help overcome each of their challenges. This happens over several sessions and is successfully when the person is able to stay calm in the highest fear scenario
What is the flooding method
When the patient is immediately exposed to the stimuli without a gradual build up of stimuli. This leads to the extinction of the fear response due to the participant being unable to carry out their avoidance behavior and exhaust their fear response
Systematic desensitisation pos
Research support
Gilroy et al
42 patients with treated arachnophobia where assessed with questionnaire and exposure. 3 years later the systematic desensatisation where less fearful than the control group
Systematic desensitisation pos
Suitable for most people
Eg.people with learning disabilities may find flooding much more traumatic than others
what are the stages of sysematic desensatisation
1-relaxation training
2-hierachy of fears
3-gradual exposure
Systematic d and flooding neg
It doesnt be generalised to all phobias as it was found to actually increase the amount of fear in social phobias
