phobias

What is the behavioural characteristic of a phobia

The way you act e.g.

• panic = running away from a spider

• Avoidance = avoiding certain situations which may include the phobia

What is the cognitive characteristic of having a phobia

The way in which people think e.g.

• fear = thinking they will die if the spider comes near them, it’s a disproportionate fear to the object

• Anxiety = and unpleasant state of high arousal which makes it difficult to experience any positive emotions

What is the cognitive characteristic of having a phobia

The way in which people think e.g.

• irrational thinking = thinking they will die if the spider comes near them, the person is resistant to any rational thinking

• Selective attention = a person can only focus on the thing they fear if it’s in the room and nothing else

What is a social phobia

A fear of a social situation e.g. public speaking

What is a social phobia

A fear of a social situation e.g. public speaking

What is agoraphobia

Fear of leaving the home or a safe place

What approach is used to show how phobias are learnt

The behavioural approach

How does the two process model show how phobias are learnt

• they are learnt through classical conditioning

• Little Albert study

• Fear is then generalised to anything similar

How is a phobia reinforced through the two process model

Negative reinforcement

• a person would a void any situation that involves their phobia and so then associate avoidance with no fear

What are strengths of using the behavioural approach to show how phobias are learnt

• supporting research

• Practical applications

What is the supporting evidence to use the behavioural approach

• Ad de jongh conducted research which found that 73% of P’s with a fear of the dentist had also experienced a traumatic event with dentistry

• However 21% of those in the control group with little to no dental anxiety had also experienced a traumatic event but had no phobia

• Showing individual differences affect it as well

How does the use of the behavioural approach have practical applications

• Many behavioural therapies have been introduced in order to unlearn phobias and have been shown to be extremely successful

• McGrath et al found that 75% of phobic patients showed an improvement after having therapy

What are the limitations of the use of the behavioural approach

• fails to explain the role evolution plays in people’s fears

• Fails to explain cognitive aspects

How does the use of the behavioural approach fail to explain evolution affects people’s fears

• Seligman found that we are innately fearful of things that can cause serious harm to us e.g. sharks and this is called preparedness

• This suggests that this explanation is too simplistic as it has to be more complex that conditioning

How does the use of the behavioural approach fail to explain cognitive reasons for phobias

• li and graham split P’s into a phobic and non phobic group and then asked them to estimate the size of a spider and the phobic group estimated it to be more larger than it was

• This suggests they have cognitive differences that may affect their phobia

What are the 2 ways to treat phobias

• systematic desensitisation

• Flooding

What is systematic desensitisation

• takes 10 sessions typically 1 hour each

• Gradually reduce the phobic anxiety through principles of classical conditioning

• A news response to the stimulus is learnt and this is called counterconditioning

What are the 3 things involved in systematic desensitisation

• anxiety hierarchy

• Relaxation

• Exposure

What is the anxiety hierarchy

The client and therapist put a list together of the least fearful situation up to the most fearful situation

E.g. looking at a picture (least

E.g. stroking a dog (most)

What is meant by relaxation

The therapist teaches relaxation techniques e.g. deep breathing and mindfulness as it is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time - this is called reciprocal inhibition

What is meant by exposure

The client is exposed to each stage they selected on the anxiety hierarchy and is encouraged to remain relaxed during it and they only progress to the next stage when they are fully relaxed

What are the 2 ways that exposure can be done

• in vitro

• In vivo

What does in vitro mean

The client imagines the exposure to the phobic stimulus

What does in vivo mean

The client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

What are the strengths of systematic desensitisation

• supporting evidence

• Preferred to flooding

• technological advances

How can tech advances be used in systematic desensitisation

For fears that can’t be done in stages e.g. fear of flying then therapists use things like VR to allow the patient to experience is without having to actually do it

What is a counterpoint to VR

Wechsler et al says that it isn’t as effective as it lacks realism and so doesn’t fully decrease the phobia as much as it could

What is the supporting evidence for systematic desensitisation

• McGrath reported that 75% of patients showed an improvement in their symptoms after this treatment

• Gilroy followed up 42 patients which has this treatment and found that after 33 months their symptoms have decreased

Why is systematic desensitisation preferred to flooding

• it doesn’t cause the same degree of trauma

• Less people drop out of this treatment compared to flooding

• Can help a higher number of patients

• Patients can do it on their own timeline

What is the limitation of systematic desensitisation

not effective for all phobias

• ohman says it’s not effective for phobias that have an underlying evolutionary component e.g. fear of heights

• Additionally it can only be used for P’s who can successfully use the relaxation techniques

What is flooding

• exposing the phobic stimulus without gradual progression - immediate exposure

• One long session (2-3 hours)

• Continues until patient is fully relaxed

• Stops phobic responses quickly as patient can’t escape

What are the ethical safe guards of flooding

• it’s not inherently unethical

• Highly distressing

• P’s must give full informed consent

• P’s are given a choice for which treatment they would want

What are the strengths of flooding

• cost effective - ougin found that it was just as effective as S.D but it’s done in a much shorter time frame

• so this means P’s can be free of their symptoms much faster

What are the limitations of flooding

• traumatic

• Only effective for specific phobias

How is flooding traumatic

• schumacher found that it was much more distressing than S.D because the patients couldn’t go on their own timeline and were exposed to the most fearful situation straight away

How is flooding only effective for specific phobias

• It can’t be used to treat phobias like social phobia or agoraphobia as there is no way to treat the irrational thinking of such a complex phobia

• Phobias such as these need to be treated using CBT which treats the irrational thinking

What is a strength of both therapies

Economic benefits

• it’s much cheaper than other therapies and can quickly treat most phobias

• Mental health costs England around £300 million per year