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A-LEVEL Psychology -Year 12 > Phobias > Flashcards

Phobias Flashcards

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1
Q

Define ‘Phobia’

A
  • An irrational fear of an object or situation
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2
Q

What are all phobias characterised by?

A
  • Excessive fear & anxiety
  • Triggered by an object, place or situation
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3
Q

What are the cateogories of phobia and related anxiety disorder in the DSM?

A
  • Specific phobia
  • Social anxiety (Social phobia)
  • Agoraphobia
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4
Q

What is a specific phobia?

A
  • Phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part or a situation.

Such as flying or having an injection

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5
Q

What is social anxiety (social phobia)?

A
  • Phobia of a social situation.

such as a public speaking or using a public toilet

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6
Q

What is agoraphobia?

A
  • Phobia of being outside or in a public place.
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7
Q

What are the 3 behavioural characterisitics of phobias?

A
  • Panic
  • Avoidance
  • Endurance
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8
Q

What is meant by the behavioural reaction ‘panic’?

A
  • A person with a phobia may panic in response to the prescence of the phobic stimulus
  • Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away

Children may react slightly differently, e.g. clinging or having a tantrum.

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9
Q

What is meant by the behavioural response ‘avoidance’?

A
  • Unless the person is making a conscious effort to face their fear they tend to go a lot of effort to preventing coming into contact with a phobic stimulus
  • This can make it hard to go about daily life
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10
Q

What is meant by the behavioural response ‘endurance’?

A
  • Occurs when the person chooses to remain in the prescence of the phobic stimulus.

e.g. a person with arachnophobia might choose to remain in a room with a spider on the ceiling and keep a wary eye on it rather than leaving.

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11
Q

What are the 3 emotional characterisitcs of phobias?

A
  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Emotional response is unreasonable
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12
Q

What is anxiety?

A
  • Phobias are classed as anxiety disorders
  • Have an unpleasant state of high arousal
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13
Q

What is fear?

A
  • The immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobic stimulus
  • Usually more intense but experience for shorter periods than anxiety.
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14
Q

What is the emotional response being unreasonable?

A
  • The anxiety or fear is much greater than is ‘normal’ and will disproportionate to any threat posed.

e.g. a person with arachnophobia will have a strong emotional response to a tiny spider. Whereas most people would respond in a less anxious way even to a poisinous spider

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15
Q

What is the cognitive element of phobias concerned with?

A
  • Concerned with the ways in which people process information.
  • People with phobias process information about phobic stimuli differently from other objects or situations.
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16
Q

What are the cognitive characterisitcs of phobias?

A
  • Selective attention- to the source of the phobia; often when the person is near the phobia, they cannot focus on anything else
  • Usually keeping your attention on something dangerous gives you a higher chance of survival, this is not so, when the fear is irrational, such as with a phobia
  • Cognitive distortions- The person’s perception of the phobia can often be distorted,

Someone who has a phobia of spiders can see the spider as aggressive and angry looking and may even feel that the spider is running toward them as if to attack

17
Q

How does the behavioural approach explain phobias?

A
  • It is focused on explaining the behaviours created by the phobia & does not explain the cognitive or emotional features of phobias
18
Q

What is the two process model by Mowrer?

A
  • Explanation for the onset & persistence of disorders that create anxiety, this includes phobias
  • Had two stages
  • Stage 1: Classical conditioning (learning by association)
  • Stage 2: Operant conditioning (maintained by reinforcement)

Created by Mowrer

19
Q

What is the acquisition of phobias by classical conditioning?

A
  • Phobic objects are at first a neutral stimulus (NS) and do not produce a phobic response
  • However, if it is then presented with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), that produces an unconditioned response (UCR) then, the NS will become associated with the UCS & then the fear (phobia), will occur whenever the NS is there
  • This means the NS becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) and the UCR becomes the conditioned response (CR)

e.g. trapped in a lift- panic attack= association between that lift & anixety= classical conditioning

20
Q

How are phobias maintained by operant conditioning?

A
  • If person avoids the phobic object/situation then anxiety is greatly reduced, which is rewarding for the sufferer
  • Operant conditioning happens when behaviour is reinforced; by avoiding something unpleasant & being rewarded through not experiencing anxiety, we are reinforcing the avoidant behaviour
21
Q

Give one strength for the two process model.

A
  • Real worl applicatin in exposure therapies (such as systematic desensitisation)
  • Distinctive element of the two process model is the idea that phobias are maintained by avoidance of the phobic stimulus
  • Important in explaining why people w phobias benefit from being exposed to the phobic stimulus
22
Q

Give an example of an acquisition of a phobia.

A

Watson & Rayner
Wanted to study the development of phobias
Conducted a lab experiment where they created a 9mo old baby called little Albert

23
Q

What was the procedure for the Little Albert Study?

A
  • At the start of the study, Albert showed no unusual anxiety or worries about different objects
  • Albert tried to play with a white rat when presented with it at the beginning
  • However W&R wanted to give Albert a phobia & so whenever the white rat was presented to Albert, they made a loud, scary noise by banging an iron bar close to Albert’s ear
  • The noise (UCS), created a fear response
  • When the rat (NS) & the UCS were put together, they became associated & both then created the fear response
    Albert started to display fear when he saw the rat (NS)
    The rat then became the CS that produces the CR & the phobia had started
24
Q

What else did Watson & Rayner show?

A
  • That the conditioned stimulus could be generalised to similar objects when they showed Albert other fluffy objects such as father christmas beard made from cotton wool & a fur coat
  • Albert showed distress at all of these
  • His phobia had become generalised
25
Q

Give one disadvantage of the little Albert study

A
  • Would not be able to take place today due to ethical guidelines & the psychological harm he was put under
26
Q

What are the strengths of behavioural explanations of phobias?

A

Real world application
- Two process model has real world application - it explains using two distinctive elements how phobias are both created & maintained

  • Watson & Rayners Little Albert study supports the two process model as they showed how a frightening experience can be conditioned
27
Q

What are the weaknesses of behavioural explanations of phobias?

A

Cognitive aspects of phobias
- Two process model does not account for the cognitive processes associated w phobias
- Behavioural explanations focus on cause of of behaviours
- However cognitive components play a significant part in why someone has a phobia
- Not all phobias appear following a bad experience

28
Q

What is the main behavioural treatment to overcome phobias?

A

Systematic Desensitisation
- Designed to slowly reduce the anxiety caused by the phobia using classical conditioning
- If patient can learn new response to the phobic stimulus, as well as learn to relax in presence of the phobia, then they will be cured

AND
Flooding
- A behavioural therapy in which a person w a phobia is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered bythat stimulus.
- Takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions

29
Q

Give the strengths and weaknesses of flooding.

A

Strengths
- Highly cost-effective
- Clinical effectiveness means how effective a therapy is at tackling symptoms
- Flooding can work in as little as one session as opposed to say 10 sessions for SD to achieve the same result.
- This makes flooding more cost effective

Weaknesses
- Its a highly unpleasant experience
- Confronting one’s phobic stimulus in an extreme form provokes tremendous anxiety
- It raises ethical issues for psychologists of knowingly causing stress to their clients- this is not a serious issue provided they get informed consent

30
Q

What are the three processes in systematic desnsitisation?

A
  • Anxiety Hierarchy
  • Relaxation
  • Exposure
31
Q

What is anxiety hierarchy?

A
  • Patient & Therapist work together to construct an anxiety hierarchy,
  • List of situations that involve the phobic stimulus from least to most frightening
32
Q

What is relaxation?

A
  • I is impossible to be afraid & relaxed at the same time & so the therapist teaches patient relaxation techniques
  • This could be in form of breathing exercises or using imagining techniques, where patient imagines themselves in relaxing environment
  • Could also include medication if needed to help the patient relax, such as Valium
33
Q

What is exposure?

A
  • Whilst in relaxed state patient is exposed to phobic stimulus starting at bottom of the hierarchy
  • This is likely to take several sessions between patient & the therapist
    Once the patient is comfortable and relaxed in the lower levels of the hierarchy, then they move up the scale
  • The aim of treatment is to allow patient to be successful & move up to the top of the hierarchy, whilst remaining relaxed
34
Q

What are the strengths of systematic desensitisation?

A
  • Systematic desensitisation is a fast treatment & requires less effort than most other psychotherapies
  • SD doesn’t require a huge cognitive load and means the patients are less likely to become confused
  • Has huge practical uses: Certain airlines use systematic desensitisation courses to help fearful flyers overcome their phobia
35
Q

What are the weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?

A
  • Systematic desensitisation doesn’t treat the cause of the phobia, only the behaviour it causes - This may leave patient vulnerable to other phobias developing as real reason behind fear has yet to be uncovered (Psychodynamic theory)
  • They cannot apply what they have learned to actual everyday situations

A-LEVEL Psychology -Year 12 (37 decks)

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