Phobias Flashcards
What is a phobia?
Irrational fears of an object or situation
What are behavioural traits of phobias?
PANIC in the presence of the phobic stimulus (screaming, crying, running away)
AVOIDANCE - avoiding situations where one may encounter the phobic stimulus ; may make daily life hard
ENDURANCE - remaining in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continuing to experience high anxiety levels
What are some emotional traits of phobias?
ANXIETY - unpleasant state of high arousal, preventing sufferers from relaxing
FEAR - an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous
What are some cognitive traits of phobias?
SELECTIVE ATTENTION - sufferers will attend to the phobic stimulus, even if not a threat - difficult to divert attention elsewhere
IRRATIONAL BELIEFS - unreasonable beliefs in real to on to phobic stimulus
COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS - may perceive phobic stimulus as worse than what it actually is
How does the behavioural approach explain phobias?
States that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.
Describe how phobias are acquired
A neutral stimulus (e.g. a dog) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (being bitten by a dog), eliciting an unconditioned response of fear. Now the phobic stimulus is associated with a traumatic event and alone elicits a conditioned fear response.
Describe how phobias are maintained
Avoidance of a feared stimulus will result in lowered anxiety levels, which act as negative reinforcement, therefore increasing likelihood of behaviour being repeated. The continual avoidance maintains the phobia as they never encounter the phobic stimulus
What is generalising a phobia?
This means a phobia is generalised to an object/situation which shares similar characteristics e.g. cats -> tigers
Describe the Little Albert study
1) A baby Little Albert was first shown a white rat alone, and showed no fear response
2) Next the rat was paired with a loud banging noise, causing Albert to cry
3) After being paired repeatedly, seeing the rat alone would elicit a fear response
4) This fear was generalised to other white and fluffy things like Santas beard
What are strengths of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
+ Real world application
- understanding of how and why phobias are acquired helped develop treatments like systematic desensitisation and flooding
- therefore the approach is useful as it has helped reduction of phobias in society
+ Research support
- Watson & Raynor - Little Albert Study provides support for theory that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning
-Bandura & Rosenthal study found that participants who observed confédérants pretending to be electrocuted at a buzzer noise also elicited a fear response at the buzzer
- suggests it is credible as it has empirical evidence which supports its claims
What are some weaknesses of the behavioural explanation of phobias?
– Not all phobias are learnt
- some people with phobias have never been through a traumatic event
- not everyone exposed to conditioning develops phobias -> DiNardo et al found as many ppl with dog phobias than those without had traumatic experiences with dogs
- higher level explanations like cognitive approach (argues phobias result of irrational thinking) may be more appropriate than simplistic behaviourist
– Biological factors not considered
- biological preparedness = humans are programmed to associate potentially life threatening stimuli with fear (e.g. heights, snakes, etc.)
- suggests behavioural explanation is not enough to explain development of phobias
HOWEVER biological preparedness does not explain fears of harmless things
How does the behavioural approach treat phobias?
Involve counter-conditioning -> a fear response is replaced with a relaxation response
Describe the process of systematic desensitisation
1 Patient is taught deep relaxation techniques to relax their muscles
2 Therapist and patient construct a desensitisation hierarchy together, a series of imagined scenes, each causing more anxiety than the previous
3 Patient gradually works their way through the scenes whilst engaging in the relaxation techniques (in vitro or in vivo); only once the patient has completed one step can they move up
What are some strengths of systematic desensitisation?
+ Ethical form of treatment
-means it is appropriate for children and those with learning difficulties
- wide application to population, means treatment is worthwhile
+ Research support
- Lang & Lazovik provided SD treatment to half a group of people with a snake phobia
- all showed reduced symptoms compared with the control group which was still evident 6 months later
- shows SD is effective in treating phobias
What are weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?
— Not universal
- arguably cannot treat those with evolutionary based or cognitive phobias (e.g the dark, social) as they have not been conditioned
-means it is not an appropriate treatment for all phobias
-treats only symptoms and not the cause
— Practical issues
- it is a time consuming and expensive form of treatment
- leads many patients to drop out before their course is complete
- may not benefit all of those in the population
