Psychopathology - Phobias Flashcards
1
Q
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias (action)?
A
- avoidance
- endurance
- disruption of functioning
- panic
-
2
Q
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias (feelings)?
A
- fear
- panic/anxiety
-
3
Q
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias (thinking)?
A
- irrational
- insight
- cognitive distortions
- selective attention
-
4
Q
What is the behavioural approach to explaining phobias?
A
- the two process model
- classical conditioning/social learning
- operant conditioning
5
Q
What is classical conditioning?
A
- where a phobia is learnt through association (Little Albert Study)
- a white rat (neutral stimulus) was presented to Little Albert on its own
- a loud banging noise (unconditioned stimulus) was then presented to him on its own which caused an emotional response
- when the two stimuli were paired together multiple times, an association had been established
- then when the white rat (conditioned stimulus) was presented to him alone, this triggered an emotional response (conditioned response) from Little Albert
- ** this fear was then generalised to all white and fluffy objects/animals **
6
Q
What are the strengths of classical conditioning?
A
- supporting studies
- King (1998) supports the ideas proposed by classical conditioning
- he reviewed many case studies and found that children often acquire phobias by encountering traumatic experiences with their phobic object
- e.g. getting bitten by a dog leads to a phobia of dogs
7
Q
What are the weaknesses of classical conditioning?
A
- not reliable
- the Little Albert (1920) study was only conducted once and the findings have not been repeated
- so it could be questioned whether the same results would be gained if the study was to be repeated (not possible as this study breaks ethical guidelines)
- vague explanation
- some people may have traumatic experiences (car accident) but do not develop phobias (of cars/driving)
- classical conditioning does not explain how all phobias develop
- opposing research
- Menzies criticises this model as he studied individuals with hydrophobia and found that only 2% of his sample had a negative experience with water
- so 98% of them never had a negative experience involving water (did not develop their phobia via classical conditioning)
- other findings = 50% of people who have a dog phobia have never had a bad experience involving a dog
8
Q
What is social learning?
A
- where an individual learns a phobia through other people
- based on an observational learning where young children may observe their parents’ reaction to something and they copy this behaviour
- ** Minneka found that when one monkey showed a fear response to snakes, the other monkeys in the cage copied this response **
9
Q
What is operant conditioning?
A
- explains how phobias can be maintained through reinforcement
- negative reinforcement = avoiding their phobic object
- positive reinforcement = avoidance of the phobic object continues as the individual does not feel fear (they find this rewarding)
10
Q
What are the strengths of the two process model?
A
- research support
- Bandura supports the idea of social learning theory
- in the study, ppts watched the reaction of a person who acted as if they were in pain when a buzzer sounded
- the ppts then copied this reaction and showed the same response
- shows how social learning seems to be an effective method of learning to become fearful of an object
- two process model consists of two clear steps
- the phobia is learnt through classical conditioning/social learning
- it is then maintained by operant conditioning (either positive/negative reinforcement)
11
Q
What are the weaknesses of the two process model?
A
- the model is quite limited
- this behavioural model only focuses on learning/the environment but does not take into account the biological/evolutionary factors
- some may even have more of a genetic vulnerability to develop phobias than others
- only applies to animals/young children
- the social learning theory is not very strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias
- so the behavioural model is quite limited as it does not explain how everyone develops phobias
- the social learning theory is not very strong in explaining how adults can learn to have phobias
12
Q
What are the behavioural approaches to treating phobias?
A
- systematic desensitisation
- flooding
13
Q
What is systematic desensitisation (SD)?
A
- behavioural therapy developed by Wolpe (1958) to diminish phobias
- counter conditioning method where the phobic object is associated with calm/relaxed responses
- hierarchy of fear
- ranking situations involving phobic object (least to most fearful)
- relaxation techniques
- PMR (progressive muscular relaxation)
- deep muscle relaxation techniques
- gradual exposure
- patient works their way through the hierarchy of fear
14
Q
What are the strengths of SD?
A
- research support
- Jones (1924) eradicated Little Peter’s phobia by gradually bringing the white rabbit closer to him
- he eventually developed affection for it and this extended to all white fluffy objects
- Klosko (1990) found that 87% of patients were panic free after SD
- medication = 50%, placebo = 36%, no treatment = 33%
- less traumatic
- compared to other behavioural therapies (flooding), SD causes much less psychological harm
- so it has less ethical implications/is less upsetting for patient to endure
15
Q
What are the weaknesses of SD?
A
- not practical
- it is not the most appropriate therapy for real life phobic situations
- it is difficult to arrange and control these kinds of situations
- this questions the effectiveness of the therapy
- may not be effective in the long term
- this therapy only acknowledges the symptoms of phobias
- critics believe that even after SD underlying causes of the phobia will remain/symptom substitution may occur
