Psychopathology - Phobias L5-7 Flashcards
Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias
1) Avoidance - It can interfere with day to day life
2) Freeze/Faint - (Endurance)
3) Disruption of Functioning - Disrupt the way they act and behave socially
4) Panic - Individuals may panic when the phobic object is present
Emotional Characteristics of Phobias
1) Fear
2) Panic and Anxiety
Cognitive Characteristics of Phobias
1) Irrational - They have irrational thoughts such as a clown will kill or hurt them
2) Insight - They know that their behaviour is excessive but find it hard to overcome
3) Cognitive distortions - Views their phobia in a negative manner
4) Selective Attentions - They will put all their attention on the phobic stimuli
Two Process Model
Suggests that phobias are learnt through either social learning or classical conditioning.
The phobia is then maintained through operant conditioning
Classical Conditioning
Building up an association between two different stimuli
Little Albert Process of Classical Conditioning
- White rat
- Loud banging that provokes a negative reaction
- Then bring both of them together, the white rat would come with loud banging
- The white rat is the conditioned stimuli
Evaluation of Classical Conditioning
- A Negative of the study into classical conditioning is that the test was only carried out once. It therefore may not be replicable and therefore unreliable.
- A Negative of the theory of Classical Conditioning is that Di Nardo et al found that people involved in traumatic experiences such as car crashes do not develop phobias of the conditioned stimuli. This therefore contradicts Classical Conditioning
The two process model is made up of:
Classical Conditioning or Social Learning
AND
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning Theory
People pick up phobias from others. Minneka found that when a monkey showed fear towards snakes, other monkeys showed a fear response aswell.
Operant Conditioning
This is learning through the result of your own behaviour. There are two types of reinforcements that explain how a phobia can be maintained.
Positive Reinforcement - Behaviour leads to rewards
Negative Reinforcement - Behaviour leads to something unpleasant
Evaluation of the Two Process Model
- A negative of the two process model is that it ignores other factors that can cause phobias such as biological factors. This means it is unreliable and more information is required in order to provide an accurate reasoning for why a phobia exists
- A positive of the two process model is how clear it is. Phobias are learned through powerful classical conditioning or social support theory and then they are maintained through operant conditioning, either positive or negative reinforcement
Behavioural approaches to treating phobias
Systematic Desensitisation and Flooding
Behavioural approach in explaining phobias
The two process model, classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Processes in Systematic Desensitisation
1) Hierarchy of fear is constructed
2) Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscular relaxation where your gradually tense and relax models up the body. The theory of it being impossible to feel relaxed and fearful at the same time. Use of reciprocal inhibition
3) Gradual exposure. Eventually the patient is exposed to each of the steps in the Hierarchy of fear until each step has reached extinction and the patient no longer is fearful. It is a gradual process
Evaluation of Systematic Desensitisation
- A positive of this is that it is less traumatic to the patient whose phobia is being treated and it therefore limits the amount of psychological harm that the patient will experience.
- A negative of SD is that the process is more time-consuming meaning that this method of treatment may not be suitable when trying to cure a patients phobia quickly
