phobias Flashcards
what are the behavioral characteristics of phobias?
panic- they will panic in the presence of the stimulus
avoidance- when faced with the stimulus they evade the object and situation.
endurance- the person will freeze and be unable to move in the presence of the stimulus
what are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
fear- persistent and unreasonable worry and distress might be felt in the presence of the stimulus
Anxiety- when encountering their phobia they will terror and be uncertain about the future
cognitive characteristics of phobias?
irrational beliefs-their thoughts about their phobias do not make rational sense
selective attention-when a person encounters the phobia they will become fixated on it due to their irrational belief
How do Behaviorists believe we develop phobias? and what model do they use to support this.
All phobias are learnt rather then inherited.
the two process model, phobia is learnt through classical conditioning and maintained though operant conditioning.
What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning is learning through association, a stimulus produces he same response as another stimulus due to them being associated with each other
How does classical conditioning work? (example of a study)
An example of classical conditioning is the little Albert experiment, the unconditioned stimulus was the loud sound which led to fear/stress as an unconditioned response. The white rat was a neutral stimulus but due to repetitive association as the process of banging the steel rod behind his head when the rat was near.
After a while the rat became a conditioned stimulus with a conditioned response of fear.
what is operant conditioning ?
Operant conditioning is learning through positive and negative reinforcement which can maintain phobias through the consequences of your actions.
How does operant conditioning work ?
When you do a certain behavior it either has a good or bad impact on you, if it is positive it reinforces the behavior (reinforcement) or a negative consequence which is a punishment. This consequence is positive or negative depending on whether something was taken away or added tp your life. An example of all this would be if you went to the dentist and got rid of a painful cavity which would be negative reinforcement.
What are two treatments for phobias?
systematic desensitisation and flooding
what is systematic desensitisation?
Systematic desensitiation is a behavioral therapy developed by Wolpe in 1958, it attempts to replace fear with a relaxed response and due to reciprocal inhibition this gets rid of the fear as two opposite emotions cant occur at the same time.
This is called counter conditioning
There are 3 steps in this process
A fear hierarchy is created with less scary situations near the bottom and directly confronting the phobia near the top.
They are taught deep muscle relaxation techniques.
Then there are gradually exposed to the phobia while working up the hierarchy, as they are comfortable. Eventually through repeated exposure to the phobia with relaxation the phobia is eliminated.
What is flooding treatment?
Flooding is directly exposing the phobic patient to their phobia while having learnt relaxation techniques beforehand. There is no build up but they are immediately exposed a frightening situation. Flooding eliminates phobias quickly as it stops avoidance of the phobia. Flooding is ethical as although it can cause psychological harm the patients give fully informed consent first.
flooding evaluation
It is an effective treatment of phobias however it can be a highly traumatic experience leading many people exercising their right to withdraw wasting the preparations for flooding. Flooding is a faster treatment then systematic desensitization, but it is unsuitable system.
evaluation of systematic desensitization
Sd was used to cure phobias for almost a century, and 87% of patients are phobia free after SD compared to 50% with medication.
Some critics believe it only targets the symptoms of the underlying cause and symptom substitution will occur with other abnormal behaviors replacing the past behaviors.
Evaluation of two process behaviorist phobia model
+) The model doesn’t blame the patient saying their thoughts are wrong but that they are just incorrect responses that can be changed. This doesn’t label them as mentally ill which can reduce self esteem in the long term.
+) King 1988 found that children often develop phobias after having a traumatic experience with that object supporting the idea phobias are learnt through classical conditioning.
-)Many people do not develop phobias after traumatic experiences and the opposite is true that people develop phobias without having had a traumatic experience. This goes against the classical conditioning explanation for how phobias are learnt.
example 50% of people with dog phobias have never had a bad experience with a dog according to one study.
-) doesn’t take into account any biological factors such as your genetics.
