Psychopathology Lessons 05 - 07 (Phobias)

Question 1

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

Answer 1

• Avoidance: avoiding the phobic object
• Endurance (freeze/faint): freezing is so the predator leaves them alone - thinks they’re ‘dead’
• Disruption of functioning: interfering with the ability to function socially or at work
• Panic: might show behavioural characteristics such as crying, screaming, vomiting, running away or freezing

Question 2

Emotional characteristics of phobias

Answer 2

• Fear: immediate feeling of persistent, excessive and unreasonable terror
• Panic and anxiety: a lot of worry
• Emotions (general): strong emotions, which are out of proportion to the actual danger

Question 3

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

Answer 3

• Irrational: think in an irrational manner, and resist rational arguments that counter the phobia
• Insight: will known that the fear is unreasonable but still find it difficult to not fear the object
• Cognitive distortions: a distorted perception of the stimulus (e.g. see snakes as aliens)
• Selective attention: unable to look away, all focus is on the phobic stimulus - everything else is ignored

Question 4

Percentage of people with phobias

Answer 4

2.6%

Question 5

Two manuals that help classify psychological disorders

Answer 5

DSM-V (Diagnostic Statistical Manual version 5)
ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases version 11)

Question 6

What is the two process model?

Answer 6

The phobia is learnt via classical conditioning or social learning.
The phobia is maintained by operant conditioning

Question 7

Classical conditioning

Answer 7

Involves building up an association between two different stimuli so that learning takes place
Experiment: Little Albert, 11 months old. Presented with a white rat (neutral stimulus with no initial reaction). Then presented with a loud banging noise from striking a steel bar with a hammer (unconditioned stimulus with an emotional response e.g. crying). Two stimuli repeatedly paired together - 3 times each week for 2 weeks. The person then has an emotional response to both stimuli. The rat (conditioned stimulus) is presented alone, and the person has an emotional response (conditioned response). An association has been established

Question 8

What does generalisation mean?

Answer 8

The tendency to transfer a response from one stimulus to another that is quite similar (white rat -> anything white and fluffy)

Question 9

What does recondition mean?

Answer 9

To eliminate the fear induced

Question 10

Evaluation of Classical Conditioning

Answer 10

(-) Little Albert study only conducted once, so the findings have not been repeated (not RELIABLE). Not able to be conducted again due to ethical concerns.
(+) King (1998) supports the idea; he reviewed case studies and found that children acquire phobias from traumatic experiences.
(-) Some people have traumatic experiences and do not develop phobias (e.g. car accident). Some people have phobias but have not had a negative experience before (e.g. snakes)
(-) Menzies criticises the behavioural model. Only 2% of people with hydrophobia have encountered a negative experience with water - 98% have not (how do they have the phobia if they did not learn to?). 50% of people with phobia of dogs never had a bad experience

Question 11

Social Learning Theory/Modelling

Answer 11

Based on observational thinking, where children observe and copy behaviours e.g. if we watch someone scream after a traumatic experience, we imitate the behaviour.
Minneka found that when one monkey in a cage showed a fear response to a snake, the other monkeys copied the response. The same can be applied to humans

Question 12

Operant conditioning

Answer 12

Helps to maintain the phobia
Negative reinforcement: avoid the phobic object in order to reduce the risk that they will feel fear
Positive reinforcement: by avoiding the phobic object and not feeling fear, this is rewarding and they feel relieved

Question 13

Evaluation of the two process model

(behaviour is learnt via classical conditioning or SLT, and maintained via operant conditioning)

Answer 13

(-) Ignores the other factors (e.g. biological or evolutionary factors). People might have a genetic vulnerability to develop phobias and the behavioural model does not take this into account
(-) Only successful in explaining how learning phobias occurs in animals and young children. Not strong in explaining how adults do (limited in explaining)
(+) Bandura supports the idea of SLT. A piece of research was conducted where a person acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded. Participants watched and later, showed the same response when hearing the buzzer. Social learning theory is an effective method
(+) Received praise as it involves two clear steps. Accurate way in explaining how phobias can be learnt overall

Question 14

Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 14

Developed by Wolpe (1958). SD uses classical conditioning to replace the irrational fears with calm and relaxed responses.
The hierarchy of fear: constructed by the therapist and the patient, situations involving the phobic object are ranked from least to most fearful
Relaxation techniques: patient are taught deep muscle relaxation techniques (e.g. deep breathing, progressive muscular relaxation (PMR) etc.). PMR - tense up muscles, hold, relax.
Gradual exposure: patient works their way up the fear hierarchy using the relaxation techniques at each stage. When they are no longer afraid, they move up to the next stage. Eventually the phobia is eliminated, takes many therapy sessions (weeks or months)

Question 15

Evaluation of Systematic Desensitisation

Answer 15

+ Jones (1924) used SD to eradicate Little Peter’s phobia. A white rabbit was presented to him at gradually closer distances and each time his anxiety levels lessened. Eventually he developed affection for the white rabbit
+ Klosko et al. (1990) assessed various therapies and found that 87% of patients were panic free after receiving SD, compared to 50% receiving medication, 36% receiving a placebo and 33% receiving no treatment at all
+ SD is less traumatic than other therapies, like flooding. Less ethical implications, less upsetting, less psychological harm
- Not always practical. Real life situations are difficult to arrange and control (phobia of sharks). Difficult to apply to real life situations
- Behavioural treatments address the symptoms, but not the underlying causes. In the future, the symptoms may return or symptom substitution will occur

Question 16

Flooding

Answer 16

Involves directly exposing the patient to the phobic object in an immediate situation. Patient is taught relaxation techniques. Immediate exposure stops phobic responses very quickly (no option for avoidance). May quickly learn that the object is harmless and therefore extinction occurs. They become so exhausted by their fear response that the phobic response diminishes. Overall, it is ethical as patients give informed consent. Flooding sessions last 2 - 3 hours

Question 17

Evaluation of Flooding

Answer 17

+ Cost effective when compared to other therapies that take months or years. Quicker, patients are free from symptoms as soon as possible, cheaper and cost effective
- Less effective for curing some types of phobia e.g. social phobia, which has more cognitive aspects that flooding cannot address very well
- Highly traumatic, patients might be unwilling to continue until the end. Time and money might be wasted, the phobia remains uncured, other alternatives might be better
+ Ost (1997) stated that flooding is an effective and rapid treatment that delivers immediate improvements. The results of flooding can be applied to every day life outside of the therapy situation