Behavioural explanation- PHOBIAS Flashcards
(14 cards)
Phobias characteristics
Shortness of breath, palpitations, panic attack, failure to regulate body temp, shaking, trembling.
Behavioural explanation suggests phobias…
caused by classical conditioning and mental illness such as anxiety- are a learned response.
e.g phobia of dogs initiated by being bitten (stimulus) and fear response. Dog=neutral stimulus, becomes paired with pain- dog becomes conditioned stimulus, conditioned response of fear- thus phobia developed following a single incident of being bitten.
Person must be exposed to phobic object without anxiety provoking stimulus in a process of extinction.
Evidence to support this explanation
Comes from Watson & Rayner’s study conditioning Little Albert to fear white rats demonstrating mental illness can be learned through conditioning.
UCS= loud noise
UCR= being upset
NS= white rat
Evaluation
Relies of lab experiments which lacks ecological validity.
Reductionistic- ignores individual offering situational factors only.
Nurture- phobias learned.
Deterministic- determined by past experiences
Scientific- well evidences- cause + effect established.
Possible applications
If phobias can be learned, they can be unlearned.
Systematic desensitisation- gradual exposure, several sessions, taught relaxation techniques.
Flooding- intense exposure until anxiety subsides.
Extinction- exposing person to phobic object without anxiety.
Treating phobias (2 ways)
2 behaviourist therapies used to treat phobias are systematic desensitisation & flooding.
Both therapies use principles of classical conditioning to replace persons phobia with new response- relaxation.
Treating a phobia required breaking the association between the phobic stimulus and the anxiety/avoidance responses.
1) Systematic desensitisation
Uses reverse counter-conditioning to unlearn the maladaptive response to a situation or object- evoking another response (relaxation).
‘desensitised’= less of a response.
Systematic desensitisation works gradually exposing person to feared situation- not as overwhelming. Therapist & patient start with least threatening thought, at each stage patient would feel a fear reaction, then therapist would teach them how to relax at same time as facing that level of fear.
When patient at one stage and reports no anxiety, can move onto next stage- process repeated over several sessions until patient able to experience most frightening on hierarchy without anxiety.
3 critical components to systematic desensitisation:
Fear hierarchy.
Relaxation training.
Gradual exposure.
1st step: Fear hierarchy
Client and therapist work together to develop fear hierarchy, rank phobic situation from least to most terrifying.
2nd step: Relaxation techniques
Individual taught relaxation techniques such as self-hypnosis, breathing techniques, muscle relaxation strategies, mental imagery techniques etc…
Therapist may teach several techniques & let patient decide which they prefer.
3rd step: Gradual exposure
Gradually exposing patient to phobic situation, while relaxed.
2) Flooding
Alternative approach to treating phobias- involving exposure to phobic stimulus with no gradual exposure and no opportunity to escape.
Treatment is based on idea that an anxiety response can only be sustained for a finite amount of time.
After a while anxiety response will subside and person will relax- at this point learns new association between phobic stimulus and relaxed state.
Strengths of systematic desensitisation
Cheaper and quicker than other treatments such as psychoanalysis (can go on for years)
Weaknesses of systematic desensitisation
Although patient may have reduced symptoms of the phobia, such treatments do not address the root causes which other forms of therapy would aim to do e.g psychoanalysis.
Some phobic objects are too dangerous/impractical to have in a therapy room such as wild animals- solution is practice SD in a controlled environment meaning phobic object may be represented in photographs or imagined, not physically present.
Not affective for treating all phobias- conditioning cannot cure all disorders e.g schizophrenia and patients with phobias which have not developed through personal experience (classical conditioning).
