Psychopathology - Phobias

Question 1

What are the three types of phobias?

Answer 1

Behavioural, emotional and cognitive

Question 2

What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 2

Panic - may include behaviours such as screaming, crying and/ or running away
Avoidance - individual may avoid the stimulus by going to a lot of effort to stop themselves coming into contact
Endurance - the individual may endure the stimulus but may still remain anxious e.g. flying

Question 3

What is the primary emotional characteristics of phobias?

Answer 3

Fear - the fear felt by the individual would be disproportionate to the danger posed

Question 4

What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Answer 4

Cognitive distortions - views held which aren’t true e.g. spiders are evil!
Selective attention - the sufferer will find it hard to concentrate on anything else when the stimulus’ present

Question 5

How are behavioural approaches of phobias explained?

Answer 5

They are explained in terms of learning

Question 6

Who came up with the two-process model and what does it state?

Answer 6

Mower 1960 - states that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning

Question 7

What is an example of when classical conditioning was used?

Answer 7

• Classical conditioning was used by Watson and Rayner in the ‘Little Albert’ study
• to give a young boy a fear of white rats by him associating the white rat with fear and an unpleasant sound
• association was made by Watson and Rayner making a loud, frightening noise while presenting the rat to him

Question 8

From the ‘Little Albert’ study, what did the noise (UCS) create?

Answer 8

The noise (being the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) created the unconditioned response of fear

Question 9

How was Albert affected during the ‘Little Albert’ study?

Answer 9

Albert associated the rat, or neutral stimulus (NS) with the UCS as they were encountered close together

Question 10

What did the rat end up becoming in the end of the ‘Little Albert’ study?

Answer 10

The rat became a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response and the conditioning then became generalised to other fluffy phenomena such as cotton balls

Question 11

What does operant conditioning explain?

Answer 11

Explains the maintenance of phobias through negative reinforcement which is avoiding something unpleasant

Question 12

What is an example of operant conditioning?

Answer 12

e.g. sleeping with the lights on if afraid of the dark

Question 13

Linking to operant conditioning, how does the object affect the fear felt?

Answer 13

• Avoiding feared object reduces the feared response
• which in turn reinforces the avoidance response
• leading to the phobias becoming resistant to extinction because the sufferer constantly makes reinforcing avoidant behaviour

Question 14

Strength 1 of two-process model

Answer 14

• the explanation has led to therapies to be developed based on counter - conditioning
• which research has suggested (Barlow 2002) are effective
• therefore, the approach is praised for having good explanatory power –> it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus

Question 15

Strength 2 of the two-process model (explaining maintenance)

Answer 15

Rather than just explaining phobias in terms of classical conditioning, two-process model goes beyond this and explains their maintenance

Question 16

Strength 3 of two-process model (research)

Answer 16

There is research to support theory

Question 17

1st example of strength 3 of two-process model - Mowrer’s example

Answer 17

Mowrer (1960) was able to produce a fear response in rats by sounding a buzzer through an association with electric shocks

Question 18

2nd example of strength 3 of two-process model (Bandura and Rosenthal)

Answer 18

• Bandura and Rosenthal (1966) conditioned participants to fear a buzzer through using a confederate to pretend to show a feared response to a buzzer
• was termed ‘vicarius classical conditioning’ as the participants acquired their fear through observing other’s fearful reactions

Question 19

Weakness 1 of two-process model (behavioural explanations)

Answer 19

• Psychologists, e.g. Bounton (2007) suggested behavioural explanations of phobias are incomplete
• as they don’t mention evolutionary factors which are likely to play an important role in phobias

Question 20

Example of weakness 1 (behavioural explanations) - two-process model

Answer 20

e.g. fear of heights or spiders may have been adaptive as to help us avoid dangerous situations/ creatures
- termed ‘biological preparedness’ - Seligman (1971) which is viewed as an innate predisposition to acquire certain fears

Question 21

2nd criticism of two-process model (safety signals hypothesis)

Answer 21

The safety signals hypothesis put forward by Rachman (1984)
- in this it is argued that avoidance behaviour is not motivated by anxiety reduction but the positive feeling of safety

Question 22

Example of criticism 2 of two-process model (safety signals hypothesis)

Answer 22

• Buck (2010) argues that this explains why an agoraphobic may leave their house with someone they know who makes them feel safe, but not alone
• therefore criticises the two-process model as it argues that avoidance is not motivated by anxiety reduction

Question 23

Criticism 3 of two-process model (trauma)

Answer 23

Phobias do not always follow trauma

Question 24

What is involved in the treatment systematic desensitisation?

Answer 24

• Involves the client and the therapist designing a list or hierarchy of frightening/stressful events or objects
• The client is then taught deep muscle relaxation
• therapist helps the client to work their way up the hierarchy while maintaining deep muscle relaxation

Question 25

What might therapists use instead of visualising fearful situations? Give an example

Answer 25

Rather than visualising fearful situations, therapists might use real life example
For e.g. for a spider phobic, using pictures of spiders up to handling real spiders

Question 26

What is systematic desensitisation based on?

Answer 26

It is based on classical conditioning but uses counter-conditioning to treat phobias
- it is based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition which suggests one emotion prevents the other therefore it is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time

Question 27

What is one weakness of SD (imagining fearful situations)?

Answer 27

• It relies on the client’s ability to be able to imagine the fearful situations
• some people cannot create a vivid image and thus SD is not effective

Question 28

What is another weakness of sytsematic desensitisation? (Covert desensitisation)

Answer 28

• If the treatment has been carried out using imaginary scenarios (covert desensitisation)
• then there is no guarantee that it will work using actual objects which is termed in Vivo treatment

Question 29

What is one strength of systematic desensitisation? (treatment in phobias)

Answer 29

Can be effective in the treatment of phobias

Question 30

Example of first strength (treatment of phobias) - SD

Answer 30

Barlow found that success rates were between 60 and 90% for spider phobics and injection phobics

Question 31

What is another strength of systematic desensitisation? (wide variety of patients)

Answer 31

It is suitable for a wide variety of patients including those with learning difficulties, unlike flooding
- it is more appropriate than other therapies because those with learning difficulties often find it hard to understand and don’t have the ability to reflect which is required in cognitive therapies

Question 32

What is a further strength of systematic desensitisation? (Significant ethical issues)

Answer 32

Systematic desensitisation does not have as significant ethical issues as other behavioural therapies notably aversion therapy and flooding

Question 33

What does the treatment flooding involve? Give an example

Answer 33

Involves directly exposing phobic patients to their most feared scenarios and preventing avoidance until they are calm

e.g. an arachnophobia might have a large spider crawl on them for an extended period of time

Question 34

What is the aim of flooding?

Answer 34

Flooding aims to elicit extreme anxiety which is so intense it cannot be maintained

• as the initial anxiety that the patient feels subsides the patient learns that the stimulus does not cause anxiety

Question 35

How long do flooding sessions last?

Answer 35

Flooding sessions last longer than SD as one session may last between 2-3 hours

Question 36

What does the flooding process work through?

Answer 36

The process works through extinction

• with the client learning that the phobic stimulus is harmless as they don’t have the option of avoidance behaviour

Question 37

What is a strength of the treatment flooding?

Answer 37

• Psychological research (Ost 1997) has shown that flooding is cost effective
• as it delivers rapid and immediate improvements especially if the patient is encouraged to continue exposure outside of sessions

Question 38

What is one weakness of flooding? (Informed consent)

Answer 38

Fully informed consent is required as the therapy is traumatic and the patient must be fully aware of what the therapy entails

Question 39

Other than consent being needed, what is another weakness of flooding? (Linking to wasting what?)

Answer 39

Despite giving consent patients are often unwilling to complete the treatment and this wastes time and money

Question 40

What is another weakness of flooding? (Health conditions)

Answer 40

It is also not appropriate for use with patients not in good physical health, as it can be extremely stressful it can incur risks of heart attacks

Question 41

What are both SD and flooding criticised on?

Answer 41

• Both SD and flooding are criticised in terms of symptom substitution - as they only address the symptoms of the disorder rather than any deeper underlying causes