Phobias

Question 1

What is the definition of a phobia?

Answer 1

Excessive fear + anxiety, triggered by an object, place, situation

Question 2

What is a specific phobia?

Answer 2

Having a phobia of a specific object (spider, snakes)

Question 3

What is social anxiety?

Answer 3

Marked by the fear of social situations (judge, embarrassment)

Question 4

What is agoraphobia?

Answer 4

Irrational + extreme fear of being in places that are difficult to escape (crowded places)

Question 5

What are the 3 behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 5

Panic
Avoidance
Endurance

Question 6

What is the panic response in the presence of a phobic stimulus?

Answer 6

Crying
Screaming
Running away
Freezing
Clinging
Stomping feet

Question 7

What is the avoidance response in the presence of a phobic stimulus?

Answer 7

Prevent coming into contact with the fear
- Hard to go about daily life

Question 8

What is the endurance response in the presence of a phobic stimulus?

Answer 8

Chooses to remain in the presence of phobic stimulus

Question 9

What are the 3 emotional characteristics of phobias?

Answer 9

Anxiety
Fear
Unreasonable emotional fear

Question 10

What is anxiety?

Answer 10

Phobias involve emotional response of anxiety (unpleasant state of high arousal)
- Prevents person relaxing + difficulty experiencing positive emotion

Question 11

What is fear?

Answer 11

Immediate + extremely unpleasant response when encountering phobic stimulus

Question 12

What is an unreasonable emotional response?

Answer 12

Anxiety/ fear greater than ‘normal’ + disproportionate to any threat posed

Question 13

What are the 3 cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Answer 13

Selective attention to phobic stimulus
Irrational beliefs
Cognitive distortions

Question 14

What is selective attention to the phobic stimulus?

Answer 14

If see stimulus, hard to look away causing a loss of concentration on other things

Question 15

What are irrational beliefs?

Answer 15

Person may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to stimulus

Question 16

What are cognitive distortions?

Answer 16

Perceptions of a person with phobia has that may be inaccurate + unrealistic

Question 17

What is the Two-Process Model (Mowrer, 1947)?

Answer 17

Phobias can be explained in 2 stages:
1. Acquisition
2. Maintenance

Question 18

What is acquisition in the Two-Process Model?

Answer 18

Look at how phobias are acquired/ what caused onset
- Classical conditioning

UCS->UCR
UCS+NS->UCR
CS->CR

Question 19

What is maintenance in the Two-Process Model?

Answer 19

Why a person continues to have a phobia, rather than extinction
- Operant conditioning (learning through consequence of behaviour)
- N reinforcement= escape stimulus for less anxiety

Question 20

What supports the idea of the Two-Process Model?

Answer 20

Supporting evidence:
P= Little Albert
E= Hammer + white rat caused conditioned response of fear
E= Phobias aquired through association of UCS + NS

P= DiGallo
E= 20% people in car crash stay at home rather than making car journeys
E= Maintenance supports as now staying home

Question 21

What opposes the idea of the Two-Process Model?

Answer 21

Opposing evidence:
P= Ignores biological preparedness
E= Anything causing danger embedded in genetics
E= Doesn’t acknowledge role of evolution towards dangerous objects

Deterministic:
P= Deterministic
E= Suggests phobias environmentally determined + traumatic event with CC pairing causes phobia development
E= Ignores influence of conscious decision making

Question 22

What is systematic desensitisation (Joseph Wolpe, 1958)?

Answer 22

Exposure treatment based on principles of CC

Question 23

What is the aim of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 23

Extinguish undesirable behaviour + substitute fear with relaxation response (RECIPRICAL INHIBITION)

• If you learn fear, it can be unlearned

Question 24

What are the 4 stages of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 24

1. Functional analysis
2. Relaxation training
3. Develop anxiety hierarchy
4. Gradual exposure

Question 25

What is a functional analysis in systematic desensitisation?

Answer 25

Nature of anxiety + triggers discussed between client + therapist

Question 26

What is relaxation training in systematic desensitisation?

Answer 26

Patient trained to relax using various techniques
- Focus on breathing
- ‘Here and now’
- Muscle relaxation

Question 27

What is developing an anxiety hierarchy in systematic desensitisation?

Answer 27

Patient + therapist agree on target aim for therapy
- Form list of fears/ anxieties + begin with least feared to most fearful situation

Question 28

What is gradual exposure in systematic desensitisation?

Answer 28

Object is slowly + gradually introduced according to hierarchy
- ‘in vivo’= exposed to real object
- ‘in vitro’= through imaginary exposure of object

Question 29

What are the strengths of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 29

P= Capafons et al. (1998)
E= Treated 20 aerophobia suffers with SD
E= All but 2 patients recieving treatment recorded lower levels of anxiety showing it works

P= McGrath et al. (1990)
E= Treated noise phobia using SD + 75% responded well
E= Valid as high success rate for people being treated

Question 30

What are the weaknesses of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 30

P= Ohman et al. (1975)
E= Less effective at treating phobias with underlying survival components
E= Down to genetics being passed on so harder to treat

P= Not useful for people with mental health conditions
E= Need to learn to relax which may be hard
E= Results won’t be as effective