Phobias Flashcards
What are the cognitive, behavioural and emotional traits of phobias?
Behavioural - Panic, avoidance and endurance.
Emotional - Anxiety, fear and their emotional response is unreasonable
Cognitive - Selective attention to the phobic stimulus, Irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions.
The behavioural approach to explaining phobias : What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning through association. How it works is : 1- UCS triggers a fear response (the UCR being the fear) e.g. being bitten creates anxiety. 2- NS is associated with the UCS e.g. being bitten by a dog ( the dog did not previously create fear). 3- NS becomes a CS producing fear ( which is now the CR). The dog becomes a CS causing a CR of anxiety following the bite.
The behavioural approach to explaining phobias : What is operant conditioning?
Operant conditioning is learning through consequence. There are three types of consequences : negative and positive reinforcement and punishment.
Name one strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (AO3) ?
P - One strength of the two-process model is its real world application.
E - The idea that phobias are maintained by avoidance is important in explaining why people with phobias benefit from exposure therapies. Once avoidance behaviour is prevented it ceases to be reinforced by the reduction of anxiety. Avoidance behaviour therefore declines.
E - This shows the value of the two-process approach because it identifies a means of treating phobias.
Name one limitation of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (AO3)?
P - One limitation is evolutionary fears.
E - Although the two-process model can explain how someone develops and maintains a phobia there is the fact of preparedness. This is the tendency to develop phobias for things that presented a danger in our evolutionary fears e.g. snakes and heights. This is supported by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.
E - This means that the two-process model does not explain some important properties of phobias.
Name another strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (AO3)?
P - Another strength is evidence linking phobias to bad experiences.
E - De Jongh et al found that 73% of dental phobics had experienced a trauma, evidence of link between bad experiences and phobias.
E - This confirms that the association between stimulus and an unconditioned response does lead to a phobia.
The behavioural approach to treating phobias : What is systematic desensitisation?
The therapy aims to gradually reduce anxiety through counterconditioning:
Phobia is learned so that the phobic stimulus produces fear. CS is paired with relaxation and this becomes the new CR.
The client and the therapist create a anxiety hierarchy in order from least to most frightening. Then relaxation is practiced at each level of the hierarchy.
The behavioural approach to treating phobias : What is flooding ?
It is a form of therapy that performs immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus. It involves learning through extinction of the fear since they learn that the CS is harmless.
Name one strength of SD (AO3) ?
P - One strength of SD is evidence of effectiveness.
E - Gilroy et al followed up 42 people who had SD for a spider phobia. From this he found that this group were less fearful than the control group.
E - This means that SD is likely to be helpful for people with phobias.
Name another strength of SD (AO3) ?
P - Another strength is SD’s usefulness for people with learning disabilities.
E - Main alternatives for SD are unsuitable for people with learning disabilities, e.g. cognitive therapies require a high level of rational thought and flooding is distressing. SD, on the other hand does not require this level of understanding or engagement.
E - This means that SD is often the most appropriate treatment for some people.
Name one strength of flooding (AO3) ?
P - One strength of flooding is that it is cost-effective.
E - Flooding can work in as little as one session where as therapies could take up to over 10 sessions which in the long run will be very costly.
E - This means that more people can be treated at the same cost by flooding than by SD or other therapies.
Name one limitation of flooding (AO3) ?
P - One limitation of flooding is that it is traumatic.
E - Schumacher et al found that both participants and therapists rated flooding as more stressful than SD. Thus there are ethical concerns about knowingly causing stress, and the traumatic nature of flooding also leads to higher attrition rates than for SD.
E - This suggests that, therapists may avoid using this treatment.
