Phobias Flashcards
Define ‘phobia’.
An anxiety disorder which involves an extreme and irrational fear towards something that may cause panic attacks and avoidance.
What are the 5 different categories for phobias, give an example for each?
1) Animal
- Fear of spiders
2) Natural environment
- Fear of water
3) Blood/infection/injury
- Fear of blood
4) Situational
- Fear of public speaking
5) Other
- Fear of vomiting
Briefly summarise the diagnostic criteria for having a phobia.
- A persistent fear that is triggered by the presence of anticipation
- Exposure to fear provokes an anxiety response, e.g. panic attack
- The person recognises the fear is unreasonable
- The situation is avoided
- Affects the persons daily routine
- Individuals are under 18, fear lasting 6 months
In order, what are the 3 most common phobias?
1) Agoraphobia - open spaces
2) Social phobias
3) Animal phobias
When is a phobia most likely to develop?
In childhood.
How would classical conditioning explain the acquisition of a phobia?
- Through associating a negative experience with previously neutral stimulus
- That is then conditioned to become the phobia
- It is most likely to happen through one trial learning
Describe the scientific formula with the example of a dog attack for the acquisition of a phobia using 3 stages: before conditioning, during conditioning, and after conditioning.
1) Before Dog (NS) --> No response Attack/pain (UCS) --> Fear (UCR) 2) During Dog (NS) + Attack (UCS) --> Fear (UCR) 3) After Dog (CS) --> Fear (CR)
How would operant conditioning explain the maintenance of a phobia, give 2 examples?
1) Avoiding the phobia through negative reinforcement
- Avoiding a situation that would involve public speaking
2) Avoiding the phobia through positive reinforcement
- Avoiding a spider by running away and feeling better after being further away
What is the problem with operant conditioning and explaining phobias?
It offers no solution of how to extinguish the phobias.
How would social learning explain the acquisition of a phobia, give an example?
- Through observing and imitating our role model as many phobias are acquired in childhood
- Through vicarious learning when watching a parent run away from a spider and feel better afterwards
Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 supporting ‘evidence’ points.
P - Little Albert’s study supports
E - Little Albert was scared when shown a rat after associating the rat with a loud noise
E - Demonstrating that phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning
P - Cook and Mineka’s (1989) research supports
E - Found monkeys developed a snake phobia by observing another monkey’s fearful reaction to a video
E - Showing that phobias can be acquired through social learning
Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 rejecting ‘evidence’ points.
P - Dinardo’s (1988) research rejects
E - Found that 50% of dog phobics had unpleasant encounter whereas the other 50% who experienced unpleasant encounter didn’t develop phobia
E - Ignoring the cognitive factors showing that behaviourism as an explanation for phobias is not holistic enough
P - Freud’s research rejects
E - He suggested that phobias are repressed conflicts displaced onto socially acceptable objects
E - Which can explain having phobias of things that you’ve never encountered, which learning theories can’t
Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate a high and low ‘how’ points.
P - Watson and Rayner have high validity
E - They tested Albert’s response to the stimuli of a rabbit and rat before conditioning began and selected him due to being considered as unemotional
E - Therefore cause and effect of a fear of the rat can be established as he wasn’t previously scared of it
E - Therefore
P - Cook and Mineka lack generalisability
E - Uses monkeys as ppt
E - There are qualitative differences between the brains of animals and humans
Are there any applications?
P - Yes
E - Due to knowledge of how phobias are acquired, methods such as systematic desensitisation and flooding have been developed to help treat them
E - Using classical conditioning to remove them
Using the acronym ‘EACH’, evaluate 2 low ‘credibility’ points.
P - Reductionist
E - Only looks at situational factors when acquiring phobias
E - A bigger explanation is needed as it ignores dispositional factors
P - Deterministic
E - Theories say that a bad experience will give someone a phobia, meaning they have no control
E - Doesn’t account for individual differences and cognition of processing the bad experiences
