phobias Flashcards
phobia
anxiety disorder characterised by extreme and irrational fear towards a stimuli
Characteristics of phobias
emotion: unreasonable fear, anxiety
behavioural: avoidance and panic
cognitive: irrational beliefs
behaviourial approach
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.
Behavioural treatment of phobias
Systematic desensitisation
flooding
systematic desensitisation
This involves gradually increasing exposure to the feared stimuli until it no longer induces anxiety.
Flooding
exposing the subject to the most extreme scenarios straight away
Strength of behaviourist treatment of phobias (flooding)
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.
Weaknesses of behaviourist treatment approaches of phobias:
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.
Weaknesses of behaviourist treatment approaches of phobias (flooding):
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.
depression
Depression is a mood disorder characterised by feelings of low mood, loss of motivation, and inability to feel pleasure.
Characteristics of depression
emotion: worthlessness and lack of enthusiasim
behavioural: irregular sleep pattern
cognitive: delusion negative thoughts
Cognitive explanations of depression
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.
Beck’s negative triad
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.
Ellis’ ABC model
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.
Strengths of cognitive explanations of depression:
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.
Weaknesses of cognitive explanations of depression:
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.
Cognitive treatment of depression
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) seeks to treat depression by identifying these depressed thought patterns and replacing them with alternate ones.
Strengths of cognitive treatment approaches for depression:
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.
Weaknesses of cognitive treatment approaches for depression:
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.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
an anxiety disorder characterised by continuous and repeated undesirable thoughts (obsessions) and uncontrollable behaviours and rituals in response to these thoughts (compulsions).
Characteristics of OCD
emotion: high level of anxiety
behavioural: compulsion
cognitive: insight
Biological approach to OCD
The genetic explanation of OCD
The neural explanation of OCD
Brain structures
The genetic explanation of OCD
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:
The neural explanation of OCD
These abnormalities may be structural and/or neurochemical.
Biological treatment of OCD
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.
Strengths of biological treatment approaches to OCD:
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.
Weaknesses of biological treatment approaches to OCD:
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.