Psychopathology : Phobias Flashcards
What is phobia?
A phobia is an anxiety disorder where a person experiences an excessive/irrational response towards a specific object or situation; The extent of the fear is completely out of all proportion to the actual stimulus.
What are the three types of phobias?
Specific phobias, social phobia and Agoraphobia
What is a specifc phobia?
The fear of specific objects or situations
- Example : spiders|snakes|the dark
What is a social phobia?
Anxiety relating to social situations
* Example : Public speakking/talking to a group of people|using a public toilet
What is Agoraphobia?
A fear of being in situations where escape might be difficult or that help wouldn’t be available if things go wrong
What are the three characteristics of a phobia?
Beahvioural, emotional coginitive
What are the behavioural characteristics of a phobia?
Panic, avoidance and Freeze
What are the emotional characteristics of a phobia?
Excessive and unreasonable :
* Fear
* Anxiety
* Panic
What are the coginitive characteristics of a phobia?
To do with thoughts
* Selective attention to the stimulus
* Irrationality of thoughts and resistance to reason
* Recognition that fear is excessive
* Cognitive disortions
How does behaviourism explain phobias?
Orvval Morwer (1947)
* Phobias are learnt and and maintained through operant and classical conditioning
* Proposed the two process model
How are phobias learned using classical conditioning?
Phobias are acquired through an association
* Classical conditioning
* NS is associated with an US
* produces a CS and CR
Stimulus generalisation
What research supports phobias being learned by association?
Watson and Raynor(1920) - Little Albert
* Conditioned little Albert to be afraid of the white rat
How are phobias maintained?
Operant conditioning
* Avoidance of/ escape from stimulus
* Rewarding→Negative reinforcement
Behaviour that is rewarded is repeated/learned
What is a strength of the behavioural explanation for phobias?
Strength: Application to therapy
A strength of the behavioural explanation is its application to therapy.
- The behaviourist ideas have been used to develop treatments, including systematic desensitisation and flooding.
- Systematic desensitisation helps people to unlearn their fears, using the principles of classical conditioning, while flooding prevents people from avoiding their phobias and stops the negative reinforcement from taking place.
Consequently, these therapies have been successfully used to treat people with phobias, providing further support for the effectiveness of the behaviourist explanation.
What is a strength of the behavioural explanation for phobias?
Strength : Research support for classical condtioning
* Watson & Rayner (1920) demonstrated the process of classical conditioning in the formation of a phobia in Little Albert, who was conditioned to fear white rats.
→However, since this was a case study, it is difficult to generalise the findings to other children or even adults due to the unique nature of the investigation.