The behavioural approach to treating phobias

Question 1

Define reciprocal inhibition

Answer 1

‘To stop the other’ when two emotions can’t be experienced at the same time

Question 2

What system is the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response?

Answer 2

Sympathetic nervous system causes this

Question 3

What are the main 5 characteristics of having a panic attack during fight/flight/freeze/fawn response?

Answer 3

-increased heart rate
-adrenaline increases
-more blood pumping to muscles
-breathing rate increases
-sweating

Question 4

What system calms the body back to homeostasis after a panic attack?

Answer 4

The parasympathetic nervous system

Question 5

What is reciprocal inhibition regarding the two systems in the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response?

Answer 5

Whilst the sympathetic nervous system is on, the parasympathetic one is off, and then after the person has experienced the panic attack, they reverse.

Question 6

How is classical conditioning used in treating phobias?

Answer 6

Associating the attribute of calmness with the phobic stimulus.

Question 7

What are the two main ways phobias are treated within the behaviouristic approach?

Answer 7

Systematic desensitisation
Flooding

Question 8

Who composed systematic desensitisation and when?

Answer 8

Wolpe, a behavioural clinical psychologist, in 1958

Question 9

What is systematic desensitisation based off?

Answer 9

Classical conditioning

Question 10

What does systematic desensitisation suggest and strive to do with patients?

Answer 10

Suggests you cant feel anxious and relaxed at the same time (reciprocal inhibition)
Helps a phobic feel relaxed in the presence of the stimulus, they learn to stay relaxed.

Question 11

What is the two step by step process of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 11

1st teaching patient relaxation methods
2nd creating an anxiety hierarchy of increasingly frightening situations

Question 12

What are the three types of relaxation method?

Answer 12

Breathing techniques,
Meditation
Mindfulness

Question 13

What happens within the second step, creating an anxiety hierarchy of situations, in systematic desensitisation?

Answer 13

At the bottom is something that isn’t overwhelming for the patient
At the top there is something very frightening
The patient starts at the bottom and gets used to that level, and when they’re relaxed they move onto the next level.
1-100 scale with 100 being the worst

Question 14

What is covert SD and why is it used?

Answer 14

The therapist may use imagined situations as the scenario would be too difficult to recreate in reality, e.g a reenactment of a plane flight with someone scared of flying.

Question 15

Who treated little peter’s fear of white animals and when?

Answer 15

Jones, 1924

Question 16

What is the little peter case, treated by Jones?

Answer 16

Little peter had a fear of white Animals.
Jones reduced this by using Classical Conditioning.
-he was sat closer and closer to the rabbit and was rewarded with his favourite food whenever he was happy to play with the rabbit.

Question 17

Who created virtual reality systematic desensitisation and when?

Answer 17

Rothbaurn et al. In 1998

Question 18

What did rothbaurn et al create regarding virtual reality?

Answer 18

-created a virtual reality system to expose patients to the item they were scared of in a controlled way.

Question 19

What are the two pros to virtual reality systematic desensitisation?

Answer 19

-very effective as never have to leave the therapists office.
-virtual reality also enables the creation of situations where it would be too expensive or difficult to set up in the real world, e.g treating a fear of large crowds in an open space.

Question 20

What did Wechser et al. Suggest in 2019 about the virtual reality systematic desensitisation posed by Rothbaurn et al.?

Answer 20

-found the UR exposure didn’t work for social phobia as it lacks the realism needed to treat this type of phobia.
-suggests all phobias are different and there shouldn’t be a universal approach to treating them.

Question 21

What did Gilroy et al. Conduct in 2003?

Answer 21

-conducted follow up test with 42 people who had previously had SD as a treatment for arachnophobia.
Found that at both 3 and 33 months the ppts were less fearful than a control group who hadn’t had any therapy but had been taught relaxation techniques.

Question 22

What were the findings of Wechser et al. (2019) regarding Systematic Desensititation?

Answer 22

Found that SD worked for a variety of phobias, i.e specific phobia, social phobia, agoraphobia

Question 23

What did Burton et al. Demonstrate in 2017?

Answer 23

Demonstrated that a modified version of SD could be used with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability disorder (IDD) in a successful way.

Question 24

What was concluded about Systematic desensitisation?

Answer 24

More work was needed to refine the technique to make it the most effective as possible in treating phobias in individuals who cannot engage with cognitive behaviour therapy.

Question 25

What are the two steps to flooding ?

Answer 25

1. The patient is taught the relaxation techniques and are then exposed to the most stressful situation.
2. They are left in the fear inducing situation until they have calmed down and learnt they do not need to be frightened of the stimulus.

Question 26

In classical conditioning terms, what is flooding called ?

Answer 26

Extinction

Question 27

What did Wolpe do in 1960 as an example that flooding is successful?

Answer 27

-used flooding to treat a girl’s fear of cars; he forced the girl ( with parental consent) to sit in the back of a car and then drove around town for four hours.
The girl’s hysteria eventually stopped and learnt to be relaxed in cars.

Question 28

What did Ost additionally highlight about flooding in 1977?

Answer 28

Highlights that flooding was most effective when the patient was encouraged to continue exposing themselves to the feared situations after they have gone through flooding.

Question 29

What did Solter suggest about SD in 2007?

Answer 29

Stated that SD isn’t easy to use with young children as they are unaware with what’s going on. However, flooding can be successful.

Question 30

What was the case Solter reported on in 2007 highlighting the success of flooding?

Answer 30

A 5 year old girl showed signs of a traumatic stress response (phobia) to being in the hospital after needing surgery. The child’s response was treated through several sessions of flooding in the hospital. 2 months later, the child showed no remaining symptoms, and 1 year later she was symptom free.

Question 31

What are the two things Schumacher et al. (2015) found regarding flooding?

Answer 31

-flooding may be too stressful for some patients to handle and should be avoided when there are concerns over physical health, e.g a heart condition
-Schumacher found that attrition rates are higher for flooding then SD.

Question 32

What are the 2 pros of flooding compared to SD?

Answer 32

-cheaper as it takes less time
- better for NHS as it manages finances more carefully, and is an example of psychology being going for the economy.

Question 33

What are the two limitations to flooding and SD?

Answer 33

• in both the patient may experience symptom substitution; this is where the original symptom is replaced by a new symptom.
• the phobia has not so much been treated as transferred.

Question 34

What did Persons report on in 1986?

Answer 34

Reported on a woman who was treated with flooding for her fear of death but subsequently developed a phobia for being criticised .

Question 35

What is the main alternative treatment to tackling phobias?

Answer 35

Tranquillisers (biological treatment)

Question 36

What type of tranquilliser is used to treat phobias?

Answer 36

Benzodiazepines.

Question 37

How do benzodiazepines work in treatment for phobias ?

Answer 37

These increase the level of the neurotransmitter GABA, which slows down the processes of the brain and removes feelings of anxiety with phobias.

Question 38

What are the two most common types of BZ?

Answer 38

Xanax
Valium

Question 39

What is the strength to BZs in treating phobias?

Answer 39

Very effective at treating anxiety as they slow down the processes occurring in the brain and remove any feelings of anxiety.

Question 40

What is the weakness to BZs in treating phobias?

Answer 40

They are very addictive and there is a risk of long term problems if they are relied on for too long.