1.4 - Psychopathology (set D - Phobias)

Question 1

What are phobias?

Answer 1

Anxiety disorder characterised by an irrational and persistent fear of an object or situation, which the suffer will go to lengths to avoid

• results in fight or flight response kicking in

Question 2

Outline 3 types of phobias?

Answer 2

• specific - split into 5 subgroups (animal, natural environment, situation ext)
• social - involves intense fear of social situation or interacting with people
• agoraphobia - fear of open spaces

Question 3

Outline the emotions characteristics of phobias?

Answer 3

• anxiety
• Unpleasant state
• Fear is immediate and extremely unpleasant

Question 4

Outline the behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 4

• panic (eg crying,screaming and running away)
• Avoidance
• Endurance (in unavoidable situations) - eg getting on a plane (with claustrophobia) as you can not get off once your on

Question 5

Outline the cognitive characterises of phobias?

Answer 5

• irrational thoughts
• Person knows there fear is excessive

Example - phobia of spiders is irrational as they are mostly harmless however you can not see beyond the immediate fear and think rationally

Question 6

What is the two process model?

Answer 6

Behavioural approach to explaining phobias - introduced by Mowrer

• idea that phobias are learned through classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning

Question 7

Outline how phobias are learnt according to the two process model?

Answer 7

Acquired through association between a neutral stimulus (NS) and something that already triggers a natural fear response (UCR)

• classical conditioning involved with formation
• eg little Albert becoming conditioned so that he would cry when presented with furry white objects

Question 8

Outline how phobias are maintained according to the two process model?

Answer 8

Behvaiour more likely to be repeated if the outcome is rewarding - the avoidance of the phobia stimulus reduces fear thus reinforcing (example of negative reinforcement)

Question 9

Give an example of how a phobia is learnt through association - focus on little Albert?

Answer 9

11 month old boy (little Albert) showed no fear to white furry objects, eg white rat (neutral stimulus) Watson and Rayner created a conditioned response by producing a lound sound when he reached out to the rat caused him to be started and cry

• associated the white rat with fear of the loud noise and would cry when seeing it

Question 10

Give an example of how a phobia develops through classical conditioning - use them example of someone being bitten by a dog?

Answer 10

Being bitten (UCS) creates fear (UCR)
Dog (NS) associated with being bitten (UCS)
Dog (becomes CS) produces fear response (CR)

Question 11

Outline the social learning component of behaviourist explanation?

Answer 11

• not part of two-process model
• suggests phobias may be acquired through modelling behvaiour of others
• eg seeing a parent respond to a spider with extreme fear may lead to child to acquire a similar behaviour because it appears rewarding (fearful person gets attention)

Question 12

Outline research to support social learning theory of phobias?

Answer 12

Mineka (1984) found that monkeys could develop snake phobias just by watching another monkey fear snakes - with the monkeys watching never having seen a snake

Question 13

Outline a weakness of using classical conditioning as an explanation of phobias?

Answer 13

Does not show that ‘real life’ phobias develop this way, as we could be biologically wired/prepared to associate things which are harmful to us with fear for our own survival

• for example we could be evolutionary prepared to fear heights

Question 14

Outline how the two-process model is supported by evidence that classical conditions is involved in the development of phobias?

Answer 14

• people with phobias often do recall a specific incident when their phobia appeared (eg being bitten by a dog)
• sue et al suggests that different phobias are result of different processes - agoraphobics associated with specific incident where as arachnophobia’s can attribute it to modelling

Question 15

Outline why the behavioural explanation can be viewed as incomplete?

Answer 15

NS being associated with fear should result in phobia but its not always the case - not everyone that’s bitten by dogs develops a phobia of them

• could be explained by diathesis-stress model, we inherit genetic vulnerability for developing disorder but it will only manifest if triggered by life event

Question 16

Explain why the two-process model is accused of ignoring cognitive factors?

Answer 16

• cognitive aspects of phobias that are not explained by behaviourist framework are hard to treat with behavioural treatments - may be better treated with CBT (cognitive therapies)
• cognitive approach proposes that phobias develop as the consequence of irrational thinking (eg being trapped in a lift and thinking your going to suffocate and die) could create extreme anxiety and trigger a phobia

Question 17

Explain how phobias developing could be explained by biological preparedness - why is this a weakness of behavioural approach?

Answer 17

• Behavioural can not explain all phobias
• Martin seligman argued that animals/humans are genetically programmed to rapidly learn association between potentially life-threatening stimuli and fear (‘ancient fears’, like height,strangers and snakes)
• this increases out likelihood of survival so are passed on (evolutionary)

Question 18

Give behaviourist approaches for treating phobias?

Answer 18

• systematic desensitisation (SD)
• flooding

Question 19

Outline systematic desensitisation (SD)?

Answer 19

• based on principals of classical conditioning
• therapy aims to extinguish undesirable behaviour by replacing it with a more desirable one
• there are stages to the therapy

Question 20

How many session of systematic desensitisation are required?

Answer 20

Number of sessions vary depending on the strength of the phobia - usually 4-6 sessions but can be up to 12

Question 21

Outline and explain stage 1 of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 21

Therapist trains client in deep relaxation techniques (eg practicing deep breathing using the diaphragm or muscle relaxation)

• the aim is to replace fear response with relaxation

Question 22

Outline and explain stage 2 of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 22

Therapist asks client to create fear hierarchy, from the least feared situation to the highest level of fear associated with their phobia

Example:
Least fearful - thinking about a spider
Medium fearful - looking at a spider in a box
Most fearful - holding a spider with bare hands

Question 23

Outline and explain stage 3 of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 23

• client starts to work way through hierarchy, performing their relaxation techniques they have previously learned
• once they feel comfortable at each level, they move up to the next stage of the hierarchy, if at any stage the fear becomes to much they move down to the previous one until they feel in a relaxed state

Question 24

What is the goal of systematic desensitisation?

Answer 24

Client starts to associate their phobia with relaxation, eg looking at a spider where they are relaxed and calm

Question 25

Outline Gilroy’s research support for Systematic desensitisation?

Answer 25

Followed up on 42 patients who had been treated with SD their phobia was assessed including using spider questionnaire and by assessing their response to a spider - A control group was treated by relaxation without exposure

followed up 3 months after treatments the SD group was less fearful then the relaxation group

Question 26

Outline the behavioural technique of flooding for phobias?

Answer 26

more intense therapy that is immediate and uses unavoidable exposure to the feared object or situation - you naturally start to calm down as fight or flight starts to reduce

Question 27

Outline how flooding prevents avoidance behaviour during treatment?

Answer 27

Patient can not leave the situation until they are calm and anxiety has reduced - this allows the client to learn that the stimulus is harmless so they no longer produce the conditioned fear response

Question 28

Outline how flooding treatment can change areas of the brain?

Answer 28

Amygdala (area of brain that is the centre of brains emotional response) can be re-trained to stop overreacting

Question 29

How many session of flooding are usually required?

Answer 29

One long session

Question 30

Define extinction in regard to treating phobias?

Answer 30

involves learning to associate the thing you fear with something neutral - exposure to phobia but without gradual build up in an anxiety hierarchy way

Can be done in two ways - vitro or vivo

Question 31

Outline the two ways extinction can be done?

Answer 31

Vitro - the client imagines the exposure to the phobic stimulus

Vivo - the client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus

Question 32

Outline research support for flooding?

Answer 32

Studied 24 Vietnam veterans with PTSD, soldiers received 14 to 16 sessions of flooding - they were tested before, after and 6 months later for symptoms of PTSD

Compared to a control group (who didn’t receive any therapy) the flooding group have fewer terrifying flashbacks

Question 33

Outline 3 strengths of flooding for the treatment of phobias?

Answer 33

• quick compared to systematic desensitisation which takes up to 12 sessions where as flooding is usually one session
• has research evidence which shows its effective - Keane 1989
• cheaper - can be offered by NHS

Question 34

Outline 2 strengths of systematic deseitisation for the treatment of phobias?

Answer 34

• you are able to go at your own pace, can be more comfortable compared to flooding
• has research evidence that shows it’s effective - gilroy 2003

Question 35

Outline 2 weaknesses of systematic deseitisation for the treatment of phobias?

Answer 35

• have to be committed as it can take up to 12 sessions, may be doing 2 a week
• cost - due to the number of sessions, probably wont be offered on NHS

Question 36

Outline 2 weaknesses of flooding for the treatment of phobias?

Answer 36

• can be highly distressing for the individual undergoing treatment - could increase anxiety
• unethical compared to systematic desensitisation as the individual has no control and cannot leave if they are too scared - put under immense distress and can be left with lasting effects of this distress

Question 37

Outline why flooding can be a risky option for treatment of phobias - provide research evidence for this?

Answer 37

individual has no control and cannot leave if they are too scared - put under immense distress - Barrett (1969) gave a girl a session of flooding who was scared of snakes. She associated the snakes with closing her eyes and could never sleep again after the session (she saw snakes when her eyes were closed)