Psychopathology - Phobias Flashcards
Behavioural characteristic
How a person acts
Emotional characteristics
How a person feels
Cognitive characteristics
How a person thinks
Definition of a phobia
An anxiety disorder characterised by excessive fear triggered by an object, place or situation
Types of phobia
Specific - phobia of an object or situation
Social anxiety - phobia of a social situation
Agoraphobia - fear of being outside/in a public place
Behavioural characteristics of phobias
Panic
Avoidance
Endurance
Emotional characteristics of phobias
Fear
Anxiety
Cognitive characteristics of phobias
Selective attention
Irrational beliefs
Cognitive distortion
Phobic
The person with the phobia
Phobic stimulus
The situation or object which causes a phobic response
Panic in phobias
A range of behaviours including crying and screaming which show fear
Avoidance in phobias
Making a conscious effort not to come into contact with the phobic stimulus
Endurance in phobias
Remaining in the presence of a phobic stimulus when it is unavoidable, but experiencing high anxiety while doing so
Fear in phobias
A feeling of terror or being afraid
Anxiety
An unpleasant state of high arousal
Selective attention in phobias
Being unable to stop thinking about or focusing on the phobic stimulus
Irrational beliefs in phobias
Believing incorrect things about the phobic stimulus
Cognitive distortions in phobias
Having a changed perception of the phobic stimulus
Two process model
Phobias are learned through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
Who proposed the two process model
Mower (1960)
Classical conditioning process on phobias
An unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response (fear).
The unconditioned stimulus is associated with a neutral stimulus and produces the unconditioned response.
The neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus or phobic stimulus and produces the conditioned response of fear.
Operant conditioning on phobias
Avoidance of a phobic stimulus lessens anxiety which makes phobias worse through negative reinforcement.
Study supporting Two Process Model
Watson and Rayner (Little Albert)
Watson and Rayner (Little Albert) study
Used 9 month old Little Albert and conditioned him to be afraid of white fluffy objects by making a loud noise each time he went near a white rat.
Generalisation
The fear response is produced by objects similar to the phobic stimulus. (Generalised to other stimuli)
Biological preparedness
Idea that even if the 2 process model is correct, humans are genetically programmed to develop phobias of life threatening stimuli from our evolutionary past (eg. Spiders rather than toasters)
Behavioural treatments for phobias
Systematic desensitisation
Flooding
How does systematic desensitisation work?
Counter conditioning and reciprocal inhibition
CRAG
Counter conditioning
Learning a new positive association to the phobic stimulus
Reciprocal inhibition
The idea that conflicting emotions cannot co-exist so relaxation techniques are used to ensure the patient feels no anxiety when facing the phobic stimulus
Who proposed the behavioural treatment of phobias
Wolpe (1958)
Process of systematic desensitisation
Relaxation techniques
Anxiety hierarchy
Desensitisation
Relaxation techniques
Patient learns how to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus, like deep breathing and muscle relaxation
Anxiety hierarchy
A list is developed of least to most frightening exposures for the patient (eg. Seeing a picture, then a video, then close up, then touching the stimulus itself)
Gradual Exposure
Following the anxiety hierarchy and gradually exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus while reinforcing the relaxation techniques. Only moving to the next exposure when fully relaxed.
Flooding
Extreme
Extended
Exposure
Leading to…
Extinction and
Exhaustion
How flooding works
One long session where the patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus, causing extinction and exhaustion
Extinction in flooding
Negative association is forgotten as avoidance of the stimulus is prevented
Exhaustion in flooding
The patient runs out of energy due to their fear response. It reaches a peak and then the patient becomes tired.
Strengths of the behavioural explanation of phobias
Real world application (Gilroy et al)
Phobias often follow a traumatic event (Sue et al)
Weaknesses of behavioural explanations of phobias
Not all phobias follow traumatic experiences (Di Nardo)
Biologically preparedness theory (Seligman)
Strengths of flooding
More effective (Choy et al)
Less time consuming (Wolpe)
Strengths of systematic desensitisation
Effective (Gilroy)
Less stressful
Diverse patients
Weaknesses of flooding
Less effective
More stressful
Weaknesses of systematic desensitisation
More disruptive to lives (up to 100 sessions)
Weaknesses of the cognitive treatments of depression
Less effective in strong depression
Alternative treatments (drug therapies)
Gilroy et al (2003)
P- 42 patients who had SD to treat arachnophobia over 3 45 min sessions.
F- after 3 and 33 months they were less fearful
C-shows the effectiveness of SD as a treatment
Sue et al (1994)
Found that people with specific phobias could remember a specific event that triggered their fear
Di Nardo (1988)
P- 14 phobics were interviewed about an activating event causing their phobias
F- 100% of phobics believed any future encounter with their phobic stimulus would cause fear and physical harm to them
C- Exaggerated fear of physical harm is a key factor in phobias and is the reason phobics show avoidance
Seligman (1970)
Proposed biological preparedness theory
Choy et al (2007)
Compared phobia treatments and found flooding more effective
