Taak 2: Learning theory & Specific phobia Flashcards
2) Mark went on a camping trip alone. The first few nights, he feared all the noises in the forest. By night three, he was used to his surroundings and slept well. But on the fourth night, a loud crack in the distance revived his awareness again, and the whole night the slightest sound frightened him.
This is an example of:
A Dishabituation
Dishabituation: This occurs when a stimulus (UCS) is already habituated (decrease of UCR) but then by some other extraneous stimulus gets its original response back again.
B Disinhibition
Disinhibition: This looks the same as dishabituation but refers to a process that can happen after extinction. Disinhibition can also explain the return of fear.
C Sensitization
Sensitization: your heightened arousal response (UCR) increases.
A. Dishabituation
What is the renewal effect:
a. An extinguished response occurs again when there is exposure to the ucs alone
b. When a CR behavior returns if a change of context or environment occurs after extinction
c. The reemergence of conditioned responding to an extinguished conditioned stimulus with the passage of time since extinction
B
Mowrer (1947) proposed an etiological model based on conditioning models to examine the determinants of pathological fear and anxiety. To expose the mechanism which could explain how a phobia could develop or be “learned”. Which concept is primarily responsible for the development of phobias according to Mowrer’s etiological model?
A. Operant conditioning
B. Classical conditioning
C. Observational learning
B
Which concept is primarily responsible for reinforcing avoidant behavior, thus learning to express avoidant behavior in future situations where the stimulus for fear/anxiety is present?
A. Operant conditioning
B. Observational learning
C. Classical conditioning
A. Operant conditioning
What happens after exposure therapy?
A. The associated CS and UCS break
B. Habituation
C. The CS-UCS is no longer in the brain
D. A new association is learned and a new pathway is added
D. A new association is learned and a new pathway is added.
The rest of the awnsers are false.
What is a safety behaviour?
A. Not going to the party, and avoid the social confrontation.
B. Going with your best friend to a party, to make it more comfortable.
C. Switch every light on and off 3 times before you go to the party.
D. Saying to yourself ‘it is going to be okay’, before and during the party.
B is a safety behaviour
A is an avoidance behaviour
C is an internal behaviour (rituals)
D is an internal behaviour (calming oneself down)
What 3 kinds of behaviours are there when you experience anxiety? Give for each kind an example.
- Immense variety of subtle avoidance/escape behaviours to decrease or hold of catastrophe > Avoiding going to a party.
- Safety behaviours: staying in the anxiety provoking situation with help of subtle avoidance behaviours > bringing your husband to the party.
- Internal behaviours: Internal rituals (OCD), calming oneself down > Turning the lights off and on again for 7 times.
What parenting style can be a risk factor for anxiety disorders/specific phobias?
- Parental control and overprotection of anxious children.
- Parental meddling (bemoeienis) > this facilitates avoidant behaviours among anxious children, which is a factor for anxiety disorder/specific phobias.
What pathway fits the description? ‘Fear can be learned by observing other or via receiving threatening (fear-relevant) information.’
A. Classical pathway
B. Verbal information pathway
C. Vicarious pathway
D. Dual pathway
C. Vicarious pathway by Rachman. (One of the three pathways to fear: Classical conditioning, verbal information, vicarious/observational).
In Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia (BII), the fainting response (emotional fainting) is characterized as a vasovagal syncope
and has been described in the literature as a 2-phase, or biphasic/diphasic response to BII stimuli.
The initial phase involves an increase in heart rate and blood pressure as is typical of the fight-flight component of an anxiety response. What characterized the second phase?
The second phase is characterized by bradycardia (a sharp drop in heart rate) and hypotension (low blood pressure) leading to reduced cerebral blood flow and ultimately fainting.
What treatment for BII is discriped? “Combines a muscle tension technique with in vivo exposure. The tension technique utilizes repeated tense and release sequence of the skeletal muscles to counteract cardiovascular and autonomic changes implicated in BII-related symcope. Skeletal muscle tension promoted increased blood flow to the heart and brain, thereby preventing the fainting response.”
Applied Tension (AT)
What is the main difference between exposure in vivo and systematic desensitization?
Exposure in vivo is in real life, actually encountering the fear. With systematic desensitization, the anxious person imagines the fearfull situation/object and tries to worsen the image with each step.
What is not a right aspect of condition?
A. Conditioning can occur after 1 trial
B. The CR and URT are not necessarily the same
C. Conditioning can occure without an actual CS and UCS
D. The UCS needs to be biologically significant
D. The UCS need not to be biologically significant.
Fit the term to the sencence.
A. Habituation
B. Sensitization
C. Dishabituation
D. Disinhibition
- When a stimulus (UCS) is already habituated (decrease of UCR) but then by some other extraneous stimulus gets its original response back again.
- This would be the case if something unrelated, external happens that makes the dog phobia return again. For instance, change of jobs or a loved one that has died, something that is unrelated to the fear, can suddenly make the old fear return.
- The decrease of the natural response (UCR) to a stimulus (UCS).
- Increase of the natural response (UCR) to a stimulus (UCS).
A = 3
B = 4
C = 1
D = 2
Rachman had criticism about conditioning as an explanation of phobia’s, because of the ‘indirect pathways of fear’, explain this.
Rachman noted that fears can be acquired not only directly, but also through verbal information and vicarious learning (observing others). This observation implies that conditioning alone is not an adequate explanation of how phobias develop.
