Phobias (+ Explanation & Treatment)

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20 Terms

1
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Define Phobias

Irrational fear and anxiety of an object or situation.

2
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Name 3 types of Phobias

Specific Phobias: Fear of an object situation or animal

Social Phobias: Fear of Social situations, public speaking

Agoraphobia: Entering open/crowded places, leaving the house or of being in places from which escape is difficult.

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What are the Behavioural characteristics of Phobias (with Examples)?

Panic: Crying, Screaming, Running away

Avoidance: Changing daily routines to avoid contact with the phobia

Endurance: Choosing to remain in the presence of the fear

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What are the Emotional characteristics of Phobias (with Examples)?

Anxiety- unpleasant state of high arousal - phobias are considered anxiety disorders.

Fear - immediate, unpleasant , intense shorter periods of anxiety.

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What are the Cognitive characteristics of Phobias (with Examples)?

Selective attention- inability to look away.

Irrational beliefs - thoughts that can't be easily explained. E.g. 'If I blush people will think I'm weak'

Cognitive distortions - perceptions may be inaccurate or unrealistic

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Outline the Two Process Model of explaining phobias - Mowrer (1960)

  • States that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.

  • Acquired through association - for example some people have a fear of dogs - explained through classical conditioning.

  • When the NS (the dog) is associated with the UCS (being bitten) this leads to the UCR (anxiety). So now the NS has become a conditioned stimulus (CS) and creates a conditioned response (CR) of anxiety.

  • Fear is maintained through operant conditioning (negative reinforcement). When someone avoids a phobic stimulus (eg. a dog park) they escape the anxiety that they would have experiences (fear of seeing dogs).

  • The relief felt from avoiding dogs negatively reinforces the phobia and ensures it is maintained rather than confronted.

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Outline Watson and Rayner's study into Classical Conditioning in Phobias.

Little Albert Experiment:

  • Little albert was presented with various objects which he liked, including a white rat (the neutral stimulus)

  • Little Albert particularly liked the white rat, however whenever he went to touch it a bar would be struck on a metal pole to make a loud noise (unconditioned stimulus).

  • Albert would cry when touching the rat - making fear an unconditioned response.

  • This response was carried onto other objects similar to the white rat - this is known as generalisation.

  • Watson concluded that Phobias were caused by conditioning.

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Strength of Two Process model - Real world application

E.g: Can be applied to exposure therapies such as systematic desensitisation and flooding. Systematic desensitisation is based on the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias. It allows clients to endure their phobia rather than avoiding it which leads to clients successfully reducing their fear by combating and reducing their anxiety.

Exp: This matters because the two process model has practical value in society, as well as offering a way to increase well being.

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Limitation of Two Process model - Does not account for cognitive characteristics of phobias.

E.g: People hold irrational beliefs about a phobic stimulus (such as thinking a spider is dangerous).The two process model explains avoidance behaviour but does not offer an adequate explanation for phobic cognitions.

Exp: This matters because the two process model does not completely explain the symptoms of phobias and therefore there may be better alternatives approaches to explain this.

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Strength of Two Process model - Supporting research in the acquisition of a phobia through classical conditioning.

E.g: Little Albert experienced fright (loud noise) when reaching towards the white rat. Through pairing, these stimuli were associated, creating a phobia.

Exp: This matters because the case study supplies support and consistency between the theory and research.

Counterpoint: On the other hand, this support is only based on one individual therefore the results of how phobias are acquired may not generalise to others. For example, common phobias such as snakes occur in populations where snakes do not live. Additionally, not all frightening experiences lead to phobias. This means that the association between phobias and frightening experiences is not strong enough to provide a conclusion.

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Outline Systematic Desensitisation

  • Behavioural Therapy that treats phobias through gradually reducing anxiety using the principle of classical conditioning.

  • Involves learning a new response to the phobia stimulus (relaxation rather than anxiety). This is called counter conditioning.

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What are 3 processes involved in Systematic Desensitisation? (1)

The anxiety hierarchy

  • Made with the therapist and the client.

  • Forms a list of situations relating to the phobic stimulus that provokes anxiety. This is ordered from least to most frightening.

  • For Example, someone with a fear of spiders would identify a picture of a spider as low on their hierarchy whereas holding a spider would be high.

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What are 3 processes involved in Systematic Desensitisation? (2)

Relaxation

  • The therapist will teach the client to relax as deeply as possible. This may involve breathing exercises or mental imagery techniques. Clients can be taught to imagine themselves in a relaxing situation, or practise meditation.

  • Alternatively, they could be given valium to achieve a state of relaxation.

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What are 3 processes involved in Systematic Desensitisation? (3)

Exposure

  • The client finally needs to be exposed to the phobic stimulus whilst feeling relaxed.

  • This takes place across several sessions, starting at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy.

  • If the client can stay relaxed during the lower levels, they can then move up the hierarchy

  • Treatment is successful when the client can stay relaxed in situations high on the anxiety hierarchy.

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Strength of Systematic Desensitisation - Effectiveness

E.g: Gilroy et. al (2003) followed up 42 people who had SD for a spider phobia. At both 3 and 33 months of the therapy, the SD group were less fearful than the control group.

Exp: This matters because SD is likely to be an effective and helpful treatment for individuals with phobias.

Counterpoint: However, the research was only conducted on clients with spider phobias therefore cannot be generalised to clients with other phobias.

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Strength of Systematic Desensitisation - Can be used to help people with learning difficulties.

E.g: For Example, alternative therapies like CBT include cognitive rational thought and therefore could confuse an individual with a learning difficulty.

Exp: This matters because SD is often the most appropriate treatment for people with learning difficulties.

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Outline Flooding

  • Therapy that exposes an individual to their phobia immediately rather than using gradual stages

  • Sessions last 2-3 hours.

  • One session is often enough to cure the phobia however sometimes additional sessions are required.

  • Phobic responses should stop very quickly as there is no way to avoid the stimulus and the client will soon find out that it is harmless (extinction).

  • A learned response becomes extinguished when the conditioned stimulus (dog) is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus (being bitten). Therefore the fear (conditioned response) is no longer produced.

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Ethical Safeguards of exposure therapies

A client would be given a choice of SD or flooding. If flooding is chosen they would need to provide informed consent (this means it is not unethical)

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Strength of Flooding - Highly Cost effective

E.g: A therapy is considered cost effective if it is clinically effective and not expensive. As flooding can work in as little as one session, as opposed to 10 sessions of SD, we can suggest that this is a cost-effective treatment as they both achieve the same result.

Exp: This matters because more people can be treated at the same cost with flooding than with SD or other therapies. This is essential for services like the NHS when they are in financial crisis

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Limitation of Flooding - Highly Unpleasant Experience

E.g: Schumacher et al (2015) found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more distressing than SD. This raises the ethical issue of psychologists knowingly causing stress to their clients.

Counterpoint: On the other hand, this is not a major cause for concern as psychologists must obtain full informed consent prior to both therapies. However, it still raises an issue of drop out rate in flooding. Due to its traumatic nature, therapists may avoid using flooding as an exposure therapy due to its high drop out rate.

Exp: This matters because it means that these exposure therapies are not being conducted cost effectively.