Psychopathology - Explaining And Treating Phobias - Behavioural Flashcards
What key concepts do behaviourists have ?
Behaviour is learned from interacting with the environment - from experience
Mowers two process model
Phobias are learned through classical conditioning - association
Behaviour is maintained through operant conditioning - consequences / reinforcement
Acquisition of phobias
Classical conditioning
- Phobic object begins as a NS and causes a NR - no response (a bee)
- UCS (fear of sting) causes an UCR - automatic and don’t need to be learned
- Association formed between NS and UCS when they’re paired
- Bee becomes CS and produces CR (fear)
Phobias can also be what ?
Generalised so a conditioned fear response is also experienced in the presence of stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus
Maintenance of phobia
Operant conditioning
- person w phobia is aware and will abide phobic object and situations that put them in contact
- avoidance leads to reduction in anxiety which is a pleasant sensation - Reinforcement strengthens the phobia and makes them more likely to avoid phobic object in future
Strength of the approach - Albie
Watson and Rayner little Albert
- introduced him to a rat and he showed no response
Then they paired the rat with hitting a metal pole behind his head - loud noise scared him
Phobic response was formed and rat produced a fear response - demonstrates the acquisition of phobias through association.
Albert also showed generalisation as he showed fear towards other similar things - fluffy blankets, furry dogs
Weakness of the approach - Evolution
P- phobias could be hereditary due to evolutionary responses
Humans don’t display often phobic responses to day to day objects causing the most pain ie knives and cars but rather snakes and spiders = more common
Theses are dangers evolutionary ancestors faced - those with natural, instinctual fear response would’ve been more likely to survive - suggests phobias are hereditary
Strength of the approach - real life application
P- the theory has been effective in creating therapies - the theories of acquisition and maintenance have been practically applied to counter-conditioning therapies, systematic desensitisation and flooding
Treatments = effective suggesting behaviourist principles they’re based on are valid
What do behaviourist therapies assume and attempt to do ?
Assume phobias are learnt through association and attempt to replace fear association with relaxation
What is the idea of reciprocal inhibition ?
Fear and relaxation are antagonistic emotions, you can’t feel both simultaneously. If therapist helps client hold the phobic object with no fear - they’ve succeeded
First treatment - SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
- Teach client relaxation techniques ie breathing
- client makes an anxiety hierarchy - list of feared situations with the object from least to most feared
- Client is exposed to each level of the anxiety hierarchy, client must RELAX at each stage and therapist moves only once completely relaxed
- When client can hold phobic object w no fear - association is extinct - ew relaxation is formed
Flooding as an approach to treating phobias
- attempts to counter condition a phobia using full exposure to max level oh phobic stimulus
- immediate exposure = panic response , therapist must stop client escaping situation
- Fear response = energy loss, eventually client calms in the presence of phobic object
What happens if flooding is ended prematurely ?
They clients anxiety will reduce due to the removal of the phobic object and the phobia will instead be reinforced
Weakness of the treatment of phobias - limits
P- effectiveness of treatment may be limited to the controlled environment of the therapists office and may not translate in real life
A person may successfully conquer fear of birds in presence of a tame one in therapy but upon encountering untamed, wild ones - phobia resurfaces
- treatment is limited - decreases it’s usefulness
Weakness of the treatment - phobia specific
SD and flooding are better at treating object specific phobias than they are at social phobias
It is easier to construct and advance an anxiety hierarchy for object related phobias or undergo complete and intense exposure to snaked in a controlled setting but its hard to stimulate social situations and interactions with unfamiliar people or settings in an office
Strength with a HOWEVER
Control - age problems
- Client controls the SD making it a more pleasurable experience for them which limits anxiety - slower process results in more sessions
- Due to the high stress of flooding - it is not suitable for older people, people w heart conditions or children
Also the phobia can be reinforced if flooding fails and client is released before anxiety subsides
