Psychopathology- Phobias Flashcards
treatment, explanaitons and characteristics of phobias
what is a cognitive symptom of phobias ?
irrational belief about feared stimulus
What is a emotional Symptom of phobaias
Persistent fear over stimuli
What is a Behavioural symptom of Phobias
Avoidance
what are the three types of phobias
social phobia, agoraphobia, specific phobia
what is a social phobia
social phobia is a fear of being in social situations
what is agoraphobia
fear of not being able to get out of a situation
what is a specific phobia
A fear of a stimulus
how do we explain the acquisition of phobias
through classical conditioning
what, in classical conditioning terms, is the feared stimulus
conditioned stimulus
How is behaviours learnt through classical conditioning
Association
How are phobias maintained
Through operant conditioning
How is negative reinforcement applicated on to Phobias
Avoidance of the stimulus ,also avoids the negative stimulus.
Who studied Little albert.
Watson and Raynor
Details of the Little albert case study
11 month old child, 1920, aim was too see if people can acquire phobias through classical conditioning, showed him a rat, and he had no reaction to the white rat - was a neutral stimulus, when he went to reach for it, they banged metals, and repeated it 3 times, he cried when seeing the rat, he had learned to associate the rat with loud noises
What is the support from Barlow and Durand for the behaviourist approach?
1995, investigated people with phobias of cars, and they were tyring to find out why people had a phobia of cars. Conducted interviews, 50% had a traumatic event.
Limitations of the behaviourist Approach to phobias
Not all phobias are caused by traumatic experiences,
1992, Davey, only 7% of people could recall having at traumatic experience with spiders.
Genetics may have caused phobias
What does flooding involve….
The patients being exposed to their worst fear and remains with it until their anxiety has worn off
Support for flooding
2011, Kaplan and Tolin, flooding whether flooding removed fear for long term or short term, Followed up 4yr later, 65% of patients still showed no symptoms which shows flooding is effective.
Limitations of flooding
Flooding doesn’t always extinguish the fear.
Flooding could be considered unethical as it is distressing for the patients
Systematic desensitisation
the therapist and patients create a fear hierarchy and classify which is the most frightening, and then they are taught coping strategies. The patient is then introduced a stage at a time.
Strengths of systematic desensitization
more chances to extinguish association.
received study support, ost 1989, how effective systematic desensitization is, 4 years after, 90% improved or has completely recovered.
Less distressing for the patient
