phobias

Question 1

phobia

Answer 1

anxiety disorder characterised by extreme and irrational fear towards a stimuli

Question 2

Characteristics of phobias

Answer 2

emotion: unreasonable fear, anxiety
behavioural: avoidance and panic
cognitive: irrational beliefs

Question 3

behaviourial approach

Answer 3

The two-process model explains how phobias are developed and maintained through behavioural conditioning.
The two-process model explains phobias as:
Acquired through classical conditioning, and
Maintained through operant conditioning.

Question 4

Behavioural treatment of phobias

Answer 4

Systematic desensitisation
flooding

Question 5

systematic desensitisation

Answer 5

This involves gradually increasing exposure to the feared stimuli until it no longer induces anxiety.

Question 6

Flooding

Answer 6

exposing the subject to the most extreme scenarios straight away

Question 7

Strength of behaviourist treatment of phobias (flooding)

Answer 7

An example of successful treatment of phobia using flooding is described in Wolpe (1969). A girl with a phobia of cars was driven around in a car for four hours until she calmed down and her phobia disappeared.

Question 8

Weaknesses of behaviourist treatment approaches of phobias:

Answer 8

Behavioural treatment works better with some phobias than others. For example, simple phobias such as of dogs or spiders are more amenable to behavioural treatments than social phobias. This suggests that not all phobias can be explained or treated in behaviourist terms.

Question 9

Weaknesses of behaviourist treatment approaches of phobias (flooding):

Answer 9

Behaviourist treatment of phobias – particularly flooding – may raise ethical concerns. For example, forcing a girl with a phobia of cars into one for four hours may be seen as cruel.

Question 10

depression

Answer 10

Depression is a mood disorder characterised by feelings of low mood, loss of motivation, and inability to feel pleasure.

Question 11

Characteristics of depression

Answer 11

emotion: worthlessness and lack of enthusiasim
behavioural: irregular sleep pattern
cognitive: delusion negative thoughts

Question 12

Cognitive explanations of depression

Answer 12

analyses depression in terms of irrational and undesirable thoughts and thought processes (rather than e.g. the behaviours that result from these thought processes).
2 cognitive explanations of depression: Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’ ABC model.

Question 13

Beck’s negative triad

Answer 13

depression is characterised by a negative triad of beliefs about the self, the world, and the future.
Schema are patterns of thought – shortcuts/generalisations/frameworks – that are learned from experience to help make sense of the world and categorise information.

Question 14

Ellis’ ABC model

Answer 14

depression results from irrational interpretation of negative events, rather than the negative events themselves. He explains this process using the ABC model of activating event, belief, and consequence.

Question 15

Strengths of cognitive explanations of depression:

Answer 15

Supporting evidence: Several studies support cognitive explanations of depression. For example, Koster et al (2005) conducted an experiment where participants were shown positive, negative, and neutral words on a screen and then got them to say where the words appeared on the screen. The depressed participants focused on the negative words more than the controls.

Question 16

Weaknesses of cognitive explanations of depression:

Answer 16

Biological explanation of depression: Wender et al (1986) found that adopted children with depression were 8 times more likely to have biological parents who also had depression. This suggests there is a strong genetic/biological component to depression (rather than simply a cognitive explanation), as the children inherited the depression even though they were raised in a completely different environment to their biological parents. In other words, the children can’t have learned the depressed thought patterns of their biological parents because they weren’t raised by them.

Question 17

Cognitive treatment of depression

Answer 17

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) seeks to treat depression by identifying these depressed thought patterns and replacing them with alternate ones.

Question 18

Strengths of cognitive treatment approaches for depression:

Answer 18

Supporting evidence: Many clinical studies have shown that CBT is effective in treating depression. For example, a meta-analysis by Beltman et al (2010) found that CBT significantly reduces depressive symptoms.

Question 19

Weaknesses of cognitive treatment approaches for depression:

Answer 19

Variations between patients: Embling (2002) found that CBT is an effective treatment for depression, but that it is more effective for some personality types than others. For example, individuals high in sociotrophy (i.e. people who strongly desire social acceptance) and with an external locus of control benefit less from CBT than those who are low in sociotrophy and have an internal locus of control. Embling’s study also found that CBT + antidepressant drug therapy is more effective than antidepressants alone.

Question 20

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Answer 20

an anxiety disorder characterised by continuous and repeated undesirable thoughts (obsessions) and uncontrollable behaviours and rituals in response to these thoughts (compulsions).

Question 21

Characteristics of OCD

Answer 21

emotion: high level of anxiety
behavioural: compulsion
cognitive: insight

Question 22

Biological approach to OCD

Answer 22

The genetic explanation of OCD
The neural explanation of OCD
Brain structures

Question 23

The genetic explanation of OCD

Answer 23

Genes are inherited biologically from parents. There is evidence that genes contribute to the development of OCD.
compared the rates of OCD between identical twins and between non-identical twins. The researchers found it was far more likely for both identical twins to have OCD than for both non-identical twins to have OCD. This supports a genetic role in OCD:

Question 24

The neural explanation of OCD

Answer 24

These abnormalities may be structural and/or neurochemical.

Question 25

Biological treatment of OCD

Answer 25

The most common biological treatment for OCD is drug therapy.
The most common drugs prescribed for OCD are selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) SSRIs are also known as antidepressants. SSRIs work by increasing serotonin levels, which often reduces obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours to a level that allows the patient to live a more normal life. The effectiveness of SSRIs fits with the neural explanation of OCD that OCD is caused (at least in part) by low serotonin.

Question 26

Strengths of biological treatment approaches to OCD:

Answer 26

Supporting evidence: Multiple studies (e.g. Pigott and Seay (1999) and Soomro et al (2008)) have found SSRIs to reduce OCD symptoms, which suggests that biological treatment approaches to OCD are effective. This efficacy also supports the neurochemical explanation of OCD that low serotonin causes OCD and is not simply correlated with it. However, some studies contradict these findings.

Question 27

Weaknesses of biological treatment approaches to OCD:

Answer 27

Other treatments: Cognitive-behavioural therapy has been shown to be highly effective at treating OCD. For example, Jonsson and Hougaard (2009) found CBT to be more effective than drug therapy in some studies.

Many other studies (e.g. O’Connor et al (1999) and O’Kearney et al (2006)) have found both CBT and drug treatment to be effective in reducing OCD symptoms, but CBT plus drug therapy appears to be the most effective treatment strategy.