phobias pt1 Flashcards
Name and explain 3 behavioural phobia characteristics
-Panic, e.g. crying, running away (from the stimulus)
-Avoidance, effort to prevent contact with the stimulus>hard to go about everyday life
-Endurance, remaining with the stimulus and continuing to experience anxiety
Name and explain 3 emotional phobia characteristics
-Anxiety, unpleasant state of high arousal, difficult to experience positive emotion>prevents individual from relaxing
-Unreasonnable emotional response, disproportionate to threat proposed
-Fear, immediate response when we encounter stimulus
Name and explain 3 cognitive phobia characteristics
-Cognitive distortions, perception of stimulus is distorted e.g. seeing a spider as bigger than it is
-Selective attention, hard to look away from the phobic stimulus
-Irrational beliefs, beliefs that aren’t true e.g. if i cry, ppl think i’m weak
Summarise the behaviourist approach in 3 points
-We are born blank slates
-Behaviour is learnt from the enviornment
-Interested in behaviour that is observable
What is the difference between operant and classical conditioning?
Classical=learning through association
Operant=learning through consequence
Name and explain the 3 key features in operant conditioning
-Positive reinforcement=Rewarded when behaviour is performed, INCREASES likelihood behaviour will be repeated
-Negative reinforcement=Performing a behvaiour to AVOID something unpleasant, INCREASES likelihood behaviour will be repeated
-Punishment=Unpleasant CONSEQUENCE for behaviour, DECREASES likelihood behaviour will be repeated
What is the two-process model?
What does it include?
Behaviourist explanation of phobias
Acquisition of phobias (classical conditioning) and mainenance of phobias (operant conditioning)
What happens before, during, and after conditioning in acquisition?
-Before=unconditioned stimulus triggers an unconditioned response (US>UR)
-During=neutral stimulus becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus, producing an unconditioned response (US+NS>UR)
-After=neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus,producing a conditioned response (CS>CR)
How would an individual acquiring a phobia of dogs be explained through the acquisition of phobias?
US (bitten) > UR (fear)
US (drowning) + NS (dog) > UR (fear)
CS (dog) > CR (fear)
What is maintenance?
How is this done?
The phobic avoids stimulus>avoids anxiety they would’ve been experiencing=negative reinforcement!
E.g. phobic scared of dogs>avoid parks and other high prevelence places for dogs
What’s a strength of behavioural explanations of phobias?
PETC (counter)
P: research support, ‘little Albert experiment’
E: Watson and Rayner showed how a fear of rats could be conditioned into Albert through classical conditioning
Before= no response to white rat (NS)
During= whenever he played with rat, loud sound was made, bang (US)>fear response (UR)
After=Albert showed fear (CR) whenever contact was made with a rat (CS)
C: unethical, no consent + psychological harm
What is a weakness of behavioural explanations of phobias?
PET
P: doesn’t account for cognitive characteristics of phobias
E: two-process model only explains behavioural aspects of phobias e.g. avoidance
T: limited explanation, doesn’t explain the full experience of phobias
PET for aleternative explanation for phobias?
P: phobias are evolutionary, as opposed to being learnt
E: we may be pre-exposed to some phobias e.g. snakes or spiders (common phobias but traumatic events are uncommon), would’ve given our ancestors a survival advantage
T: more to phobias than conditioning
What’s an example of a common traumatic event?
Does this result in phobias?
Therefore, what’s a weakness of the two-process model? PET
Car crash
No
P: not all individuals who experience a traumatic event develop a phobia
E: car crashes are common, not many have a phobia of cars
T: this model can’t explain why only some traumatic events>phobias
PET on strength of the behaviourist explanation of phobias
P: translated into a successful treatment (real world application)
E: Flooding and systematic treatment
T: benefits the patient and economy
Where does the behavourist explanation lie on the 3 issues and debates?
Reductionist, reduces phobias to SR bonds
Determinism, controlled by our past experiences
Nuture, ignores nature (incomplete explanation
What is systematic desensitisation?
Treatment for phobias
Based on classical conditioning
What are the 3 steps involved in systematic desensitisation?
Briefly explain each
-Anxiety hierarchy, list out together of all situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety, arranged in order from most to least frightening
-Relaxation techniques, therapist teaches how to relax as deeply as possible e.g. meditation
-Exposure, if the patient can stay relaxed in the lower stages of the hierarchy, they can move up, treatment is successful once patient can stay relaxed in the highest
Give an example of an anxiety hierarchy for an arachnophobe (lowest to highest)
Hearing the psychologist talk and describe a spider
Viewing a picture of a spider
Watching a video of a spider crawling
Being in the same room as a spider
Holding a spider in their hand
Letting the spider crawl over them
Give a strength of systematic desensitation (weakness for flooding)
PET
P: High engagment levels
E: Treatment involvs pleasant aspects
e.g. relaxation techniques>patients=more likely to engage as it’s not daunting
T: low attrition (drop out) rates
What does flooding involve?
Example?
What is extinction?
Involves immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus
E.g. arachnophobic=large spider crawling on them until they relax
Without the avoidance option, the person quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless, through exhaustion of their fear response
What is a common misinterpretation of flooding?
Why?
What is important?
That flooding is unethical (don’t use for evaluation)
It is an unpleasant experience
That patients gain informed consent
What is a strength of flooding?
PET
P: It’s cost-effective and non-disruptive
E: Flooding can work as quickly as within an hour>little impact on peoples day-to-day life, no need to spend hours in therapy sessions
T: Medical professions prefer it as a treatment
What is a weakness of flooding?
PET
P: Cannot be used for every phobia
E: Fear of public speaking is caused by the thought a person will say something wrong, therapist cannot force patient to start public speaking with the ease of arachnophobe
T: not all phobias can be treated by flooding
