⭐️ phobias - explanation & treatment✅ Flashcards
what are the behavioural characteristics of a phobia?
- panic = crying or running away from the phobic stimulus
- avoidance = efforts to avoid contact with the stimulus can make it hard to deal with everyday life
what are the emotional characteristics of a phobia?
- anxiety & fear = fear is the immediate feeling when. encountering the phobic stimulus. fear leads to anxiety
- unreasonable responses = response is widely disproportionate to the threat posed e.g an arachnophobic will scream and cry as a tiny spider
what are the cognitive characteristics of a phobia?
- selective attention to the phobic stimulus = phobic finds it hard to look away from their phobic stimulus
- irrational beliefs = harsh thoughts that can make a situation 10x worse
explanation- behavioural approach:
what model was introduced by mowrer to explain phobias?
what did he argue?
the two- process model
phobias are learnt through classical conditioning g and maintain through operant conditioning
explanation- behavioural approach:
what is the process of classical conditioning summed up with an example?
- UCS (being bitten) → UCR (fear)
- UCS+NS (dog + being bitten) → UCR (fear)
- CS (dog) → CR (fear)
so every time they see a dog there fell scared
explanation- behavioural approach:
what did Watson and Raynor do?
explain briefly what happened?
- what did Little Albert also start doing?
the little Albert study
UCS (loud noise) → UCR (fear)
NS (rat he was made to play with) → no response
UCS + NS (loud noise and rat) → UCR (fear)
CS (rat) → CR (fear)
- he started generalising and being fearful to other stimuli such as white furry objects like a fur coat
explanation- behavioural approach:
when does operant conditioning take place?
what is negative reinforcement?
what happens when a phobic avoids they phobia in public?
when behaviour is punished or reinforced
when an individual produces behaviour that avoids something unpleasant
they escape the anxiety they would have felt but this negatively reinforce avoidance behaviour and the phobia is maintained
AO3 - behaviourist explanation:
✅ 2 strengths
✅ the two process model has good explanatory power- went beyond Watson and raynor’s basic idea and has led to important kinds of therapy. if a patient cant avoid their stimulus then the phobic behaviour decreases
✅ scientific and its key principals can be measured in an objective way. eg. the phobia developed by Little Albert was clear for all to see and measure, variables could be manipulated and controlled to ensure that his phobia development was as a result of a neutral stimulus being associated with an unconditioned response. This is positive because it has resulted in a large amount of empirical support for behavioural therapies.
AO3 - behaviourist explanation:
❌ 2 weaknesses
❌ too reductionist - not all bad experiences and fears lead to phobias suggesting conditioning alone cannot fully explain phobias. they may develop where vulnerability exists. (DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL) too simplistic as it ignores the role of other factors such as our childhood experiences, everyday stressors and the role of biology
❌The behavioural approach/two-process model of phobias can be criticised for being deterministic. For example, the Two-Process model suggests that when an individual experiences a traumatic event and uses this event to draw an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response they will go on and develop a phobia. This is a weakness because this theory of phobias suggests that we are programmed by our environmental experiences and ignores individual free will (for example,
treatment for phobias:
what are the two types of treatment used for treating phobias?
1- systematic desensitisation
2- flooding
treatment for phobias:
what is systematic desensitisation?
what happens?
what is reciprocal inhibition?
aims to gradually rescued anxiety through counterconditioning. a phobia is learnt so the CS produces a CR (fear)
instead, the CS is paired with relaxation so it becomes the new CR
it isn’t possible to feel anxiety and relaxed at the same times, one feeling always outweighs the other
treatment for phobias:
(SD)
what is the formation of the anxiety heirachy?
give an example
how is relaxation implemented into this heirachy?
patent and therapist make a list of fearful stimuli arranged from most to least frightening
an arachnophobic may put down a picture of a tiny spider as least frightening but holding a taruancula at the top most scary
the patient is taught relaxation techniques at each part of the list such as deep breathing. at each state they are exposed to the stimulus in a relaxed state.
AO3 - SD:
✅ 3 strengths
✅ its suitable for a diverse range of patients. alternatives such as flooding aren’t well suited to some patients such as those with learning difficulties, it can be really hard to understand whats going and may be very overwhelming for them
✅ tends to be acceptable to patients and they prefer it too flooding. it isn’t of the same degree of trauma and it includes parts that are acctually pleasant such as relaxation and talking to a therapist.
✅ more economical and practical, low attrition rates (number of patients dropping out) means its worth the money and effort
AO3 - SD:
❌ 2 weaknesses
❌ Systematic desensitization is a slow process, taking on average 6-8 sessions. Although, research suggests that the longer the technique takes the more effective it is.
❌ SD is not effect in treating all phobias such as evolutionary phobias. Patients with phobias which have not developed through a personal experience (classical conditioning) for example, a fear of heights, are not effectively treated using systematic desensitisation. Some psychologists believe that certain phobias, like heights, have an evolutionary survival benefit and are a result of evolution not of personal experience
treatment for phobias:
(flooding)
what is flooding?
immediate exposure to phobic stimulus, no gradual build up.
eg. an arachnophobic may have a large spider crawl over their hand straight away until they start to feel relaxed around a spider
