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a level psychology > phobias > Flashcards

phobias Flashcards

1
Q

what are phobias

A

irrational intense fears
type of anxiety disorder

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2
Q

what is the DSM-IV TR diagnostic criteria for specific phobia ?

A
  • marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation
  • exposure to the phobic stimulus provoked an immediate anxiety response, e.g panic attack
  • person recognizes that the fear is excessive or unreasonable
  • phobic situation is avoided or endured with intense anxiety
  • interferes with the persons normal routine
  • in individuals under 18, duration is at least 6 months
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3
Q

what does acquisition mean ?

A

process of getting or developing something

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4
Q

maintenance definition

A

process of preserving a condition or situation or the state of being persevered

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5
Q

how can phobias be by explained by classical conditioning ?

A
  • they learn to associate the neutral stimulus with the response of fear
  • neutral stimulus originally doesn’t elicit fear
  • unconditioned stimulus - naturally triggers a fear response
  • throughs association the neutral stimulus becomes a cs producing the cr of fear
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6
Q

how can obtaining a phobia via classical conditioning be applied to social phobias ?

A
  • someone who has paresis (not being able to urinate in front of others) once and suffers the resulting anxiety may become conditioned to avoid the situation of being in a public toilet
  • if other people notice and laugh this phobia becomes intensified because being laughed at is an ucs
  • if paired with public toilets the toilets will produce the same anxiety response that the laughing did
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7
Q

how does Watson and Rainer support the fact classical conditioning of
phobias is true ?

A
  • produced unconditioned response of fear
  • loud noise produced causing albert to jump back in fear (ucs)
  • loud noise paired with rat (ns) whenever it got close to little albert
  • albert associated the loud noises and feeling of fear with the rag and other furry white things - cs caused cr of fear
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8
Q

how does Barlow and Durand support the classical conditioning of phobias ?

A
  • found for driving phobia patients recall a traumatic incident that triggered the phobia supporting classical conditioning
  • similar for choking phobias
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9
Q

what was the opposing research from Dinardo et al who criticized classical conditioning of phobias theory ?

A
  • found that 50% of dog phobics had a previous unpleasant encounter but about 50% of non dog phobics had also had an unpleasant experience but didn’t develop a phobia
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10
Q

what did Ost find about classical conditioning phobias (opposing research )

A
  • people with phobias of snakes flying and heights frequently cannot remember a previous traumatic experience
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11
Q

what is criticism of classical conditioning phobias theory ?

A
  • it cannot account for how people
    develop phobias of things they have never had an encounter with
  • not all phobics have had a bad experience and some non phobics have had a bad experience but didn’t develop a phobia
  • due to individuals perception and interpretation of encounter - INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES NOT ACCOUNTED FOR
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12
Q

how does operant conditioning explain phobias - negative reinforcement - EXAMPLE

A

-Ben lives alone and fears spiders
-When he sees one he has no one to turn to and has to deal with them
- his phobia reduces
- when he gets a flatmate who isn’t afraid of spiders he get them to deal with them which relieves ben
- his phobia is intensified again

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13
Q

how does operant conditioning explain phobias through negative reinforcement

A
  • by removing the undesired phobic stimulus the phobic response is encouraged and not being forced to change so the phobia remains
  • if we forced the person to encounter the phobic stimulus the phobic response would weaken as they have to encounter their phobia
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14
Q

give an example of how a phobia can be acquired via punishment

A

someone is bitten by a dog

person experiences pain

person stays away from dog - taught not to go near dogs or they’ll receive and undesired stimulus again

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15
Q

how can operant conditioning explain phobias - punishment

A
  • undesired stimulus is given causing and unconditioned response - causing the person to fear that phobic stimulus
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16
Q

how does operant conditioning explain maintenance of phobias ?

A
  • behavior that is punished isn’t repeated
  • behavior that’s rewarded is done again
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17
Q

how does operant conditioning explain phobias - positive reinforcement EXAMPLE

A
  • robert is walking in the park with his parents
  • a dog barks at him and as he fears dogs he runs to his parents arms who tell him that he will be okay
  • by rewarding him with a hug and words of support it is encouraging robert to maintain his fear of dogs and teaching him that his behavior doesn’t need to change
18
Q

operant conditioning explaining phobias - positive reinforcement

A
  • if people who show phobic responses to a certain stimulus, get rewarded, it will reinforce that they’re phobic behavior is okay because they get rewarded for it / they will never learn to change their behavior
19
Q

how does the social learning theory explain phobias ? ACQUISTION

A
  • a role model shows fear in a certain situation, or when faced with a certain object the person who is watching can learn to also have that phobia
20
Q

how does the social learning theory explain phobias - MAINTENENCE

A

if someone else is modeling a phobia it shows how a phobia is maintained e.g a mother has a social phobia their child picks up cussing them to develop the phobia as the mother is a role model

21
Q

what supporting evidence to operant conditioning explaining phobias is there ? (Mowrer)

A

conditioned a rag to develop an avoidance response to a shock

rat was placed in a cage where shocks were delivered

rat could escape shock by jumping over a barrier

escape behavior was negatively reinforcing so avoidance response was learned

22
Q

what supporting evidence does Bandura have to show social learning theory explains phobias ?

A
  • showed that children learnt to imitate behavior that they watched particularly if the role model was similar
  • bobo doll
23
Q

what supporting research showing that the social learning theory explains phobias does Cook and Mineka show ?

A
  • infant rhesus monkeys who watched adult monkeys displaying fear of fear relevant stimuli such as toy snakes acquired fear
    of those toys but not fear
    irrelevant toys such as toy
    flowers
24
Q

what supporting research showing that the social learning theory explains phobias does Selgiman show ?

A
  • shows we are biologically predisposed to fear of some objects that may have presented as a threat to our ancestors
25
Q

how do Kay and Morrison compliment the social learning theory supporting phobias ?

A
  • it explains individual differences
  • suggests why there are gender differences
  • men are less likely to display less visible fears than women and so sons are less likely to acquire phobias than daughters
26
Q

How does Jeffery Gray compliment the social learning theory for explaining phobias (reinforcement sensitivity theory )

A
  • suggests that some individual differences in personality can be explained by how sensitive individuals are to learning by reinforcement
  • some of us may acquire avoidance behavior more easily then others
27
Q

how can classical conditioning phobias be applied ? (evaluate qs)

A
  • to social phobias - RESEARCH IN2
    THIS
28
Q

how good is the evidence provided for classical conditioning phobias (evaluate qs)

A
  • Watson and Rayner controlled environment
  • Little Albert taken from nursery at university very young - showed little fear, cried very little before
  • however only 1person which makes it less reliable as it’s hard to see consistent data trends
29
Q

how can operant conditioning be applied to phobias ? +irl (evaluate qs)

A
  • tells us how we can try to reverse and avoid phobias by stopping reinforcement to peoples phobic responded
30
Q

what is a comparison or limitation of operant conditioning phobias (evaluate qs)

A
  • evidence mainly uses animals - brain structures are different
31
Q

what are the 2 treatments for getting rid of phobias ?

A
  • flooding
    -systematic desensitization
32
Q

what principles is flooding based on ?

A

classical conditioning
based on exposure and the process of extinction

33
Q

what is extinction ?

A

a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus no longer producing the conditioned response

34
Q

how does flooding work ?

A

someone is immediately exposed to their phobia very close up

35
Q

give an example of flooding

A

having a large spider crawl on someone who has a spider phobia

36
Q

what can flooding achieve ?

A
  • stops phobic responses very quickly without option of avoidance as the client learns phobic stimulus is harmless
  • client may achieve relaxation as they are exhausted of their own fear response

-

37
Q

how long does flooding take ?

A

only one session but longer than systematic desensitization in terms of session length

38
Q

give strengths of flooding ?

A
  • quick
  • cost effective
39
Q

give weaknesses of flooding ?

A
  • can’t treat all phobias
    only works best with physical phobias that can be seen and physically presented, won’t work with non physical phobias, e.g death
  • not always appropriate
    phobias which are developed by things like childhood trauma should be treated in other therapies
  • ethically questionable
    clients will be psychologically harmed during the process but do give consent and benefits of overcoming phobia outweigh harm
40
Q

what principles is systematic desensitization based on ?

A

getting a client to gradually associate their fear with a feeling of relaxation

a level psychology (11 decks)

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