Psychopathology - Phobias Flashcards
What are the three types of phobias?
Behavioural, emotional and cognitive
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
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
What is the primary emotional characteristics of phobias?
Fear - the fear felt by the individual would be disproportionate to the danger posed
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
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
How are behavioural approaches of phobias explained?
They are explained in terms of learning
Who came up with the two-process model and what does it state?
Mower 1960 - states that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
What is an example of when classical conditioning was used?
- 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
From the ‘Little Albert’ study, what did the noise (UCS) create?
The noise (being the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) created the unconditioned response of fear
How was Albert affected during the ‘Little Albert’ study?
Albert associated the rat, or neutral stimulus (NS) with the UCS as they were encountered close together
What did the rat end up becoming in the end of the ‘Little Albert’ study?
The rat became a conditioned stimulus producing a conditioned response and the conditioning then became generalised to other fluffy phenomena such as cotton balls
What does operant conditioning explain?
Explains the maintenance of phobias through negative reinforcement which is avoiding something unpleasant
What is an example of operant conditioning?
e.g. sleeping with the lights on if afraid of the dark
Linking to operant conditioning, how does the object affect the fear felt?
- 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
Strength 1 of two-process model
- 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
Strength 2 of the two-process model (explaining maintenance)
Rather than just explaining phobias in terms of classical conditioning, two-process model goes beyond this and explains their maintenance
Strength 3 of two-process model (research)
There is research to support theory
1st example of strength 3 of two-process model - Mowrer’s example
Mowrer (1960) was able to produce a fear response in rats by sounding a buzzer through an association with electric shocks
2nd example of strength 3 of two-process model (Bandura and Rosenthal)
- 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
Weakness 1 of two-process model (behavioural explanations)
- 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
Example of weakness 1 (behavioural explanations) - two-process model
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
2nd criticism of two-process model (safety signals hypothesis)
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
Example of criticism 2 of two-process model (safety signals hypothesis)
- 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
Criticism 3 of two-process model (trauma)
Phobias do not always follow trauma
What is involved in the treatment systematic desensitisation?
- 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
What might therapists use instead of visualising fearful situations? Give an example
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
What is systematic desensitisation based on?
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
What is one weakness of SD (imagining fearful situations)?
- 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
What is another weakness of sytsematic desensitisation? (Covert desensitisation)
- 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
What is one strength of systematic desensitisation? (treatment in phobias)
Can be effective in the treatment of phobias
Example of first strength (treatment of phobias) - SD
Barlow found that success rates were between 60 and 90% for spider phobics and injection phobics
What is another strength of systematic desensitisation? (wide variety of patients)
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
What is a further strength of systematic desensitisation? (Significant ethical issues)
Systematic desensitisation does not have as significant ethical issues as other behavioural therapies notably aversion therapy and flooding
What does the treatment flooding involve? Give an example
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
What is the aim of flooding?
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
How long do flooding sessions last?
Flooding sessions last longer than SD as one session may last between 2-3 hours
What does the flooding process work through?
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
What is a strength of the treatment flooding?
- 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
What is one weakness of flooding? (Informed consent)
Fully informed consent is required as the therapy is traumatic and the patient must be fully aware of what the therapy entails
Other than consent being needed, what is another weakness of flooding? (Linking to wasting what?)
Despite giving consent patients are often unwilling to complete the treatment and this wastes time and money
What is another weakness of flooding? (Health conditions)
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
What are both SD and flooding criticised on?
- 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
