phobias Flashcards
(57 cards)
what are phobias
irrational intense fears
type of anxiety disorder
what is the DSM-IV TR diagnostic criteria for specific phobia ?
- 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
what does acquisition mean ?
process of getting or developing something
maintenance definition
process of preserving a condition or situation or the state of being persevered
how can phobias be by explained by classical conditioning ?
- 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
how can obtaining a phobia via classical conditioning be applied to social phobias ?
- 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
how does Watson and Rainer support the fact classical conditioning of
phobias is true ?
- 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
how does Barlow and Durand support the classical conditioning of phobias ?
- found for driving phobia patients recall a traumatic incident that triggered the phobia supporting classical conditioning
- similar for choking phobias
what was the opposing research from Dinardo et al who criticized classical conditioning of phobias theory ?
- 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
what did Ost find about classical conditioning phobias (opposing research )
- people with phobias of snakes flying and heights frequently cannot remember a previous traumatic experience
what is criticism of classical conditioning phobias theory ?
- 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
how does operant conditioning explain phobias - negative reinforcement - EXAMPLE
-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
how does operant conditioning explain phobias through negative reinforcement
- 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
give an example of how a phobia can be acquired via punishment
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
how can operant conditioning explain phobias - punishment
- undesired stimulus is given causing and unconditioned response - causing the person to fear that phobic stimulus
how does operant conditioning explain maintenance of phobias ?
- behavior that is punished isn’t repeated
- behavior that’s rewarded is done again
how does operant conditioning explain phobias - positive reinforcement EXAMPLE
- 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
operant conditioning explaining phobias - positive reinforcement
- 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
how does the social learning theory explain phobias ? ACQUISTION
- Observer watches a role model show fear in a certain situation, or when faced with a certain object the person who is watching can learn to imitate their behaviour and also develop phobia
how does the social learning theory explain phobias - MAINTENENCE
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 causing them to develop the phobia as the mother is a role model
what supporting evidence to operant conditioning explaining phobias is there ? (Mowrer)
conditioned a rat 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
what supporting evidence does Bandura have to show social learning theory explains phobias ?
- showed that children learnt to imitate behavior that they watched particularly if the role model was similar
- bobo doll
what supporting research showing that the social learning theory explains phobias does Cook and Mineka show ?
- 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 of Irrelevant toys such as toy flowers
what supporting research showing that the social learning theory explains phobias does Selgiman show ?
- shows we are biologically predisposed to fear of some objects that may have presented as a threat to our ancestors
