Therapy- Aversion Therapy

Question 1

What are the aims of dream analysis?

Answer 1

For individuals to develop feelings of disgust associated with their addiction

Question 2

What can AV treat?

Answer 2

-Drug and alcohol abuse and addiction
-Devient sexual behavior
-Compulsive nail biting
-Gambling
-Smoking

Question 3

What are the 4 components of aversion therapy?

Answer 3

-Classical conditioning
-Covert sensation
-Operant conditioning
-New development

Question 4

C1- Classical conditioning, how does this work?

Answer 4

Pairs the unwanted behavior with an unpleasant (aversive) stimulus to reduce the behavior

Question 5

C1- Classical conditioning, schedule conditioning?

Answer 5

Before conditioning:
UCS- shock —> UCR- avoidance
During:
UCS- shock + NS- smoking —> UCR- avoidance
After:
CR- smoking —> avoidance

Question 6

C2- covert sensitization, what is this?

Answer 6

-Same principles of classical conditioning but there is no unpleasant stimulus (shock)
-They encourage patients to imagine scenarios that progressively get worse

Question 7

C2- Covert sensitization, example?

Answer 7

Patients who want to stop drinking would be asked to imagine a repulsive or frighting scene whilst they are driving

Question 8

C3- Operant conditioning, what is this?

Answer 8

Once association is made via classical conditioning the person tends to avoid further contact with the stimulus
-Negative reinforcement is now motivating the individual to continue to avoid the situation

Question 9

C3- Operant conditioning, example?

Answer 9

An alcohol avoids going into pubs or scenarios where people are drinking to avoid punishment

Question 10

C4- New developments, what is this?

Answer 10

Drugs can help with aversion therapy
-When mixed with alcohol, the drug can induce nausea creating an aversive effect
-However, when the patients avoid alcohol, the drug helps to induce feelings of tranquillity- further reinforcing the desired behavior

Question 11

C4- new development, what is the drug?

Answer 11

Tryptophan Metabolites

Question 12

C4- new developments, what do tryptophan metabolites?

Answer 12

Stop alcohol from breaking down properly, turning it into a different chemical that has unpleasant effects

Question 13

Applying assumption to therapy- behavior is learnt through operant conditioning?

Answer 13

Behaviorist believe that behaviour is learerned through conditioning
AV therpay is based on associations, according to the behaviourist aproach when 2 stimuli become associated together like gambling and pleasure, AV uses the same principles but changes the association and replaces pleasure with an unpleasant state, leading to suppression of the undesired behaviour
Also negative reinforcement is used to keep people away from bad behavior via operant conditioning

Question 14

Applying assumption to therapy, humans are born like a blank slate?

Answer 14

Explains that as children we are tabula rasa and we learn through our environment, we can retire our brain into the therapy as we learn association as well as being able to retrain our brain do what we learn and our behaviour is innate
-Humans learn all behavior through interactions and responses from environment, Adversion therapy follows the principles assuming behaviour can be learnt and unlearn. This is done through paring adversing stimulus with the unwanted behavior. AV aims for the patent t unlearn unwanted behavior like nail biting