Psychopathology - Key Studies Flashcards
Who created the two process model of phobias (1947)?
Mowrer
What were the two types of conditioning in Mowrer’s two process model of phobias?
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning
When was Watson and Raynor’s study on classical conditioning done?
1920
What was the name of the infant in Watson and Raynor’s 1920 study on phobias?
“Little Albert”
How old was little Albert?
11 months old
Originally, what behaviour did little Albert show to the White rat?
No fear, he played happily with the rat
What did Watson use to scare little Albert?
A loud clanging noise
What did Watson do to condition little Albert into being scared of the White rat?
Everytime the White rat appeared, the loud clanging noise was made
What changes were seen in little Albert’s behaviour towards the rat?
He started to show fear, crying and crawling away from the sight of the White rat
How did watson’s experiment show stimulus generalisation?
Little Albert showed some fear of other small furry animals such as rabbits
What are some ethical issues with Watson and Raynor’s 1920 study?
Watson intended to de condition little Albert, but his mother left before it was possible
It is now thought that little Albert was not as easy to condition as thought, and Watson “topped up” the conditioning by using the clanging noise
What evidence for classical conditioning of phobias is seen in patient surveys?
50% of people with a driving phobia recall a traumatic driving incident (Durand 1995)
50% of people with a phobia of dogs recall a traumatic experience with dogs (DiNardo et al 1988)
What animal did Mower use in his 1960 study on operant conditioning in phobias?
Rats
What was the procedure of Mower’s 1960 study?
Rats were classically conditioned to fear the sound of a buzzer as it was associated with an electric shock
They were then placed in a cage with a barrier they could jump to avoid the electric shock, if the buzzer sounded
The rats started jumping the barrier whenever they heard the buzzer, suggesting this jumping behaviour had been negatively reinforced by the reduction of fear
Which study provided evidence for observational learning of fear?
Bandura and Rosenthal (1966)
What was the procedure of Bandura and Rosenthal’s 1966 study on observational learning of fear?
Participants watched another person (confederate) ‘receive’ electric shocks when a buzzer sounded, after a few times the participant started to show emotional signs of fear at the buzzer, despite never being shocked themselves.
Which study suggested animals may be biologically predisposed to certain phobias?
Cook and Mineka (1989)
What is important background knowledge required for Cook and Mineka’s study?
Monkeys in the wild generally show strong fear to snakes, but lab reared monkeys do not, which suggests that monkeys are NOT innately afraid of snakes
What did Cook and Mineka want to find out in their study?
Whether monkeys learned to be afraid of snakes (a potential threat) quicker than rabbits
What was the method of Cook and Mineka’s study?
None of the monkeys had seen snakes or rabbits before
The monkeys were shown a picture of a snake and a video of mother acting fearfully, then it was measured how long it took for the baby monkeys to show fear of the snake
This was then repeated for the pairing of the rabbit and the mothers fear.
What were the results of Cook and Mineka’s study?
The monkeys quickly feared the snake, but did not fear the monkey, suggesting baby monkeys were BIOLOGICALLY PREPARED to learn to be afraid of snakes
Who created systematic desensitisation?
Wolpe (1958)
What did Marie Jahoda do?
She identified 6 factors to define the ideal mental health in 1958
Which study looked at the effects of systematic desensitisation in those with fear of spiders?
Gilroy (2000)
How many patients were there in Gilroy’s (2000) study?
45 patients
What were the three treatment groups in Gilroy’s (2000) study?
Computer aided vicarious exposure
Therapists delivered live exposure
Relaxation placebo
How many therapy sessions did each group receive in Gilroy’s (2000) study?
Three 45-minute sessions
How were phobic symptoms measured in Gilroy’s (2000) study?
Through questionnaires and a behavioural test of how close participants could get to a spider
What were the results of Gilroy’s (2000) study?
The computer aided exposure was an effective treatment and comparable to live exposure treatment
Both exposure treatments were better than the placebo
33 months later, 42/45 patients were followed up, and the improvements after exposure were maintained almost 3 years later
When were patients’ fear levels measured in Gilroy’s (2000) study?
Before treatments, after treatments and 3 months later
What study looked at the effect of systematic desensitisation on technophobia?
Bronson and Thorpe
How many patients were there in Bronson and Thorpe’s study 1?
8 (6 female 2 male)
What was the conclusion of Bronson and Thorpe’s first study?
Systematic desensitisation can significantly reduce anxiety of technology (technophobia)
What was the conclusion of Bronson and Thorpe’s second study?
Even one session of systematic desensitisation can have a massive impact on reducing technophobia
How many weeks of systematic desensitisation did participants receive in Bronson and Thorpe’s (2006) study? (Study 1)
10 weeks
What evidence is there for the effectiveness of flooding?
Wolpe (1960) conducted a case study of a girl with a fear of driving who was driven around for 4 hours until she overcame her fear
Teasdale (1977) reviewed evidence for flooding to find it was mixed, for flooding to work it must last a long time (at least 30 minutes for snake phobias)
Barlow (2002) found that if a patient is willing to undergo flooding it is just as effective as systematic desensitisation
Who created the ABC model of depression?
Albert Ellis
Who created the cognitive approach to depression?
Aaron Beck
Which study provides evidence for memory biases in depression?
Clark and Teasdale (1985)
What was the procedure of Clark and Teasdale’s 1985 study?
They tested depressed patients for their memories of events that had happened in their lives, in the morning and in the evening
What were the results of Clark and Teasdale’s study?
Those who experienced worse depression in the morning gave more negative memories in the morning and vice versa.
What was the conclusion of Clark and Teasdale’s study?
Depressed mood causes biases in memory towards recalling negative events which then worsen depression - supports the view that emotions are linked to the way we think
Which longitudinal study looked at whether negative thinking caused depression or vice versa?
Lewisohn (2001)
What was the method of lewisohn’s study?
Lewisohn measured negative attitudes in adolescents, none of which were depressed. He then followed up the sample a year later and assessed if they were suffering from depression and whether they had experienced any unpleasant life events.
What were the results of Lewisohn’s study?
Those who experienced negative life events AND had negative attitudes were mist likely to be suffering from depression
What was the conclusion of Lewisohn’s (2001) study?
Negative thoughts are a cause if depression
Which study looked at the effectiveness of CBT and antidepressants in women with post natal depression?
Appleby (1997)
How many women were in Appleby’s 1997 study?
87 women from Manchester
What were the three categories the 87 women were randomly allocated to in Appleby’s 1997 study?
Antidepressants (SSRI)
CBT
Drug Placebo
How long was each treatment given for in Appleby’s 1997 study?
12 weeks
How was the effectiveness of treatment measured in Appleby’s study?
Self report, and observation of depression symptoms
The study was double blind, as patients did no know if they received SSRI or placebo, and blind as observers did not know if patients received CBT, SSRIs or placebo
What were the results of Appleby’s 1997 study?
CBT was just as effective at reducing symptoms of depression as SSRIs, and both were more effective than the placebo
What evaluation points could be made about Appleby’s study?
:) - a well designed study using patients in a typical NHS set up
:( a no follow up to see if patients relapsed after treatment
What study looked at the long term effectiveness of CBT compared to medication?
Hollon et al (2005)
How many participants were there in Hollon et al’s study?
104
What was monitored in Hollon et al’s study?
Rates of relapse over 12 months
What was relapse defined as in Hollon et al’s study?
Depression symptoms for 2 weeks
What were the results of Hollon et al’s study?
Those treated with CBT had lower rates of relapse than those treated with SSRIs
What did polak et al (2012) look at?
A case study of a 65 year old man who suffered brain damage to the basal ganglia during a heart attack and showed compulsive whistling from age 42
What is deep brain stimulation?
Inserting electrodes into the basal ganglia to to alter the communication between the basal ganglia and the orbito frontal cortex
Who found that the concordance rate of OCD for identical twins was higher than the concordance rate for non identical twins?
Nestadt (2010)
What did Soomro et al (2008) study?
A review of 17 studies comparing SSRIs to a placebo in the treatment of OCD
What were the results of Soomro’s review?
70% of patients show a significant reduction in OCD symptoms
What is a problem with Soomro’s study?
Drug companies don’t publish results where drugs were not effective
Who looked at the effect of dopamine lowering medication on OCD?
Koran et al (2000)
What was the method of Koran et al’s (2000) study?
10 patients with OCD, mean score on ybocs of 29
Continue to take fluoxetine, also started to take olanzapone increasing dose to 10mg
What were the results of Koran et al’s (2000) study?
Ybocs score decreased to 24
Variety of reductions, up to 68% reduction in symptoms
Improvement maintained over 6 months
Put on considerable weight
