Phobias

Question 1

Define phobias

Answer 1

• excessive fear and anxiety
• triggered by an object, place or situation
• extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger from the phobia stimulus

Question 2

Categories of phobias and related anxiety disorder according to the DSM-5

Answer 2

Specific phobia - phobia of an object, e.g. an animal or body part or a situation

Social anxiety - phobia of a social situation e.g. public speaking or public toilets

Agoraphobia- phobia of being outside or in a public space

Question 3

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

Answer 3

Panic:
Behaviours in response to the stimulus: crying, screaming or running away

Avoidance:
Prevent coming into contact with the phobic stimulus, hard to go about everyday life

Endurance:
Alternative to avoidance- person chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus

Question 4

Emotional characteristics of phobias

Answer 4

Anxiety:
Phobias involve an emotional response of anxiety, unpleasant state of high arousal - prevents them from relaxing / having positive emotion

Fear:
Immediate and extremely unpleasant response to the phobic stimulus- more intense but shorter duration than anxiety

Emotional response is unreasonable:
Disproportionate to any threat the phobia poses

Question 5

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

Answer 5

Selective attention:
Person sees the phobic stimulus, find it hard to look away - not useful when the fear is irrational (e.g. cant focus on anything but the phobic stimulus)

Irrational beliefs:
Unfounded beliefs in relation to the phobic stimulus (cant be easily explained)

Cognitive distortions:
Perception of person with phobia may be inaccurate + unrealistic

Question 6

How does the behavioural approach explain phobias (classical conditioning)

Answer 6

Acquisition by classical conditioning:
- learning to associate something we initially have no fear (NS) with something that triggers a fear response (UNS)
- e.g. little Albert - UCS = noise, UNR = fear, NS = rat, CS = rat, CR fear

Question 7

How does the behavioural approach explain phobias (operant conditioning)

Answer 7

Maintenance by operant conditioning:
- takes place when the behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished.
- reinforcement (positive + negative) increases the frequency of the phobia
- with negative reinforcement = the individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant
- when we avoid a phobic stimulus we escape the fear - the reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour

Question 8

Evaluation of the behavioural approach to explaining behaviour

Answer 8

Strength - Real world applications:
Used in exposure therapies - identifies a means of treating phobias
Once the avoidance beh. Is prevented it cant be reinforced by avoidance of the fear so declines

Limitation - Cognitive aspects of phobias:
Ignores the cognitive aspects - not just the behaviour of avoidance BUT also the irrational thoughts. Explains the behaviour but not the phobic cognitions

Strength - Phobias and traumatic experiences:
The association between stimulus (dentistry) and an unconditioned response (pain) does lead to the development of phobias. (Little Albert another example)
COUNTERPOINT: not all frightening experiences leads to phobias e.g. snakes

Question 9

The behavioural approach to treating phobias: systematic desensitisation (outline)

Answer 9

• gradually reduce anxiety through classical conditioning;
  if a person can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus = will be cured
• a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned (paired with relaxation not anxiety);
  Learning the new response = counter conditioning

Question 10

3 processes involved in systematic desensitisation

Answer 10

1. The anxiety hierarchy: made by client + therapist - list of situations related to the phobia that provoke anxiety (order from least to most)
2. Relaxation: therapist teaches client to relax as deeply as possible - cant be scared and relaxed at the same time = reciprocal inhibition (e.g. breathing, mental imagery, meditation or drugs e.g. Valium)
3. Exposure: client is exposed to the stimulus while in relaxed state - takes place across several sessions. When client can stay relaxed in lower levels they can move up.

Question 11

Flooding (how it works & ethical safeguards)

Answer 11

• immediate exposure to a phobic stimulus
• stops phobic behaviour quickly; don’t have the option of avoidance, learn phobia is harmless.
• process = extinction, when the CS is encountered with UCS = CS no longer produces the CS (fear)

Ethical safeguards:
- unethical; important that client gives informed consent + prepared before the session (3 hrs long)
- client offered either flooding or S.D

Question 12

Evaluation of S.D

Answer 12

Strength- evidence of effectiveness:
Lisa Gilroy; 42 people who had a fear of spiders, at 3 and 33 months the SD group were less fearful than a control group (without exposure)

Strength- people with learning difficulties:
Most appropriate treatment for people with learning difficulties; they struggle with cognitive therapies (require rational thought) and are too stressed by flooding.

Question 13

Evaluation of flooding

Answer 13

Strength- cost effective:
Can work in as little as 1 session unlike 10 sessions in SD to achieve the same outcome.
More people can be treated at the same cost in flooding.

Limitation- traumatic:
Provokes tremendous anxiety; means that attrition rates (dropouts) are much higher than for SD.