phobias Flashcards
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
- 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
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 cussing 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 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
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
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
how do Kay and Morrison compliment the social learning theory supporting phobias ?
- 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
How does Jeffery Gray compliment the social learning theory for explaining phobias (reinforcement sensitivity theory )
- 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
how can classical conditioning phobias be applied ? (evaluate qs)
- to social phobias - RESEARCH IN2
THIS
how good is the evidence provided for classical conditioning phobias (evaluate qs)
- 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
how can operant conditioning be applied to phobias ? +irl (evaluate qs)
- tells us how we can try to reverse and avoid phobias by stopping reinforcement to peoples phobic responded
what is a comparison or limitation of operant conditioning phobias (evaluate qs)
- evidence mainly uses animals - brain structures are different
what are the 2 treatments for getting rid of phobias ?
- flooding
-systematic desensitization
what principles is flooding based on ?
classical conditioning
based on exposure and the process of extinction
what is extinction ?
a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus no longer producing the conditioned response
how does flooding work ?
someone is immediately exposed to their phobia very close up
give an example of flooding
having a large spider crawl on someone who has a spider phobia
what can flooding achieve ?
- 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
-
how long does flooding take ?
only one session but longer than systematic desensitization in terms of session length
give strengths of flooding ?
- quick
- cost effective
give weaknesses of flooding ?
- 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
what principles is systematic desensitization based on ?
getting a client to gradually associate their fear with a feeling of relaxation, classical conditioning
what is a social anxiety disorder phobia ?
when someone feels others are judging them, so they avoid social situations and become very withdrawn
what is agoraphobia ?
fear of open spaces, or going outside someones own home
explain why systematic desensetisation is based of classical conditioning ?
- phobic stimulus was originally a NS before it became a CS triggering a conditioned fear response
- by reversing mechanisms of classical conditioning it is possible for the conditioned phobic stimulus to revert to a NS
how does systematic desensitiation work ?
gradually exposing the phobic person to the phobic stimulus so unlearning happens
what are the 3 stages of systematic desensetisation ?
- anxiety hierarchy
- relaxation
- exposure
what is the anxiety hierarchy ?
- patient and therapist construct an anxiety hierarchy which is a list of situations which involve the phobic stimulus from least to most frightening
what happens during relaxation (SD) ?
- breathing exercises
- visualisation
- drug therapy
what do breathing exercises help to do (SD) ?
- calm the patient physiologically by slowing down and controlling their breath
what does visualisation help to do (SD) ?
- involves patient mentally placing themselves in a calming environment
what is drug therapy ?
- a biological treatment, helps to calm patient
what happens during exposure (SD) ?
- whilst relaxed patient is exposed to phobic stimulus starting at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy
- patient gradually moves up hierarchy stage by stage, checking for signs of panic and slowing down if necessary
what is the overall aim for systematic desensetisation ?
patients get to the top of the hierarchy whilst remaining relaxed and in control
what are the strengths for systematic desensetisation ?
- evidence : Gilroy et al
- ethical : at clients own pace
what experiment did Gilroy et al do ?
- studied 42 patients who had SD treatment for spider phobia
- Over 3, 45 min sessions she found they were less fearful and more in charge of the phobia compared to the control group who did not undergo SD therapy = supports effectiveness
give limitations of systematic desensetisation ?
- doesn’t treat the cause of the phobia, only the behaviour it results in which could result in the return of the phobia - limited usefulness
- some patients may be unable to apply their phobia to everyday life without guidance, reducing external validity
