Behaviourist Therapy - Aversion Therapy Flashcards
(18 cards)
How is the blank slate (tabula rasa) assumption applied in aversion therapy?
Behaviourists believe we are born as a blank slate and behaviours are learnt through observation and imitation. Therefore they believe undesirable behaviours such as addictive behaviours like alcoholism can be unlearnt and we can relearn a more appropriate one unlike other approaches such as biological where it has a biological cause.
How is classical conditioning used in aversion therapy?
The thing we are addicted to such as alcohol or gambling is the neutral stimulus and we associate it with a positive outcome (unconditioned response) such as feeling good. Behaviourists aims to countercondirion the person by creating a negative association (such as feeling sick or in pain) which with the source of the addiction.
How is operant conditioning used in aversion therapy?
Once the person has a new negative association with the addiction they are negatively reinforced to continue to avoid the addictive behaviour to prevent the unpleasant feelings which helps to maintain their abstinence
What are the components of aversion therapy?
- aversive stimulus
- counterconditioning
- covert sensitisation
What are the different forms of aversive stimulus?
- Antabuse
- rapid smoking
- electric shock therapy
How does Antabuse work?
This drug effects how the body metabolises alcohol by blocking the action of the enzyme aldehyde hydrogenase this causes a build up of acetaldehyde which is a toxin which causes unpleasant physiological effects such as sweating committing dizziness and headaches. If the person taking Antabuse drinks an alcoholic drink they will start to feel ill within ten minutes, Antabuse stays active in the body for at least 14 days. Therefore alcohol then becomes associated with a negative reaction rather than a positive one.
How does rapid smoking work?
This is used to treat a smoking addiction, the smoker sits in a room and takes a puff of a cigarette every six seconds until they feel sick or have finished a specific number of cigarettes. They will then associate the feeling sick with smoking so they will develop an aversion to smoking. This may be repeated over several sessions to make a strong enough association to have a severe aversion.
How does electric shock therapy work?
This is not a very common treatment but it is used for gambling, the person either engages in their usual gambling activity or they watch a video of themselves/someone else and whilst getting painful electric shocks. This is intensely repeated until a negative association is formed.
What is counterconditioning?
The client is presented with a aversive stimulus such as a drug or an electric shock which creates pain or feeling sick, this is repeatedly paired with the undesirable behaviour such as alcohol or gambling, the client now associates the undesirable behaviour a new negative response (alcohol with feeling sick and gambling with pain)
UCS (electric shocks) -> UCR (pain)
UCS (electric shocks) + NS (gambling) -> UCR (pain)
CS (gambling) -> CR (pain)
What is covert sensitisation?
A less commonly used form of aversion therapy, where the client uses their imagination rather than being directly exposed to an aversive stimulus. They may be asked to imagine upsetting, frightening, repulsive scenarios that get progressively worse, for example an alcoholic may be asked to imagine being sick, then being sick on someone else, then falling over and hurting themselves or others whilst being drunk.
What evidence is there to support the use of Antabuse?
Neiderhoffen and staffen (2003)
Compared Antabuse to a placebo group which showed the Antabuse group had a longer period of abstinence than the placebo group, therefore suggesting the unpleasant stimuli from Antabuse is effective in treating serious addictions such as alcohol. However it may be that aversion therapy is more effective when used in conjunction with other talking therapies.
What evidence is there to support the effectiveness of rapid smoking?
McRobbie (2007)
Participants in the rapid smoking condition showed a significant decrease in the urge to smoke 24 hours then a week later after rapid smoking than a control group who watched an anti smoking video. Therefore this suggests rapid smoking is an effective unpleasant stimulus in aversion therapy to break a smoking addiction. However this research may show it only has short term benefits as after 4 weeks there was no significant difference between the two conditions.
What is the issue of effectiveness of aversion therapy compared to other forms of treatment for addiction?
Due to the unpleasant nature of the treatment, patients might choose to stop engaging with the aversive stimulus meaning there are issues with non compliance. Therefore the long term effectiveness of aversion therapy may be questioned to aversive stimuli such as antabuse
What is an ethical and effectiveness weakness?
Aversion therapy only tackles the symptoms, not the root cause, so the negative stimulus will treat how they feel towards the addiction/undesired behaviour but it doesn’t treat the underlying biases of the addiction, the reason they developed it in the first place. This may make it seem effective in treating the initial addiction but the underlying problem may reoccur in the form of another addiction/undesirable behaviour which is known as symptom substitution. Also ethically thus could mean the patient experiences further psychological harm as the underlying reason has not been addressed through aversion therapy.
What ethical discussions are there regarding aversion therapy?
- risk of harm
- only tackles symptoms
- justified for long term benefits
- more ethical negative stimuli have been developed
Why is risk of harm an ethical issue in aversion therapy?
Antabuse can have very negative effects when mixed with alcohol such as convulsions and heart failure and rapid smoking is also unpleasant and can cause risks to health because it is smoking. This suggests aversion therapy is unethical compared to other forms of treatments for addictions such as CBT, however it can be argued the risks are justified because of the risk of alcohol and tobacco addictions as without treatment, addicts are highly likely to cause risk to of harm to their health psychically and psychologically.
How can the ethical costs be justified for aversion therapy?
The long term benefits of aversion therapy can be justified because breaking addictions can bring benefits to the persons health, finances and personal relationships, therefore the benefits outweigh any potential risks and can be considered an ethical therapy also the patients have given valid consent to take part.
What more ethical forms of negative stimuli have been developed in aversion therapy?
Covert sensitisation is a more ethical form as it involves the person imaging increasingly dreadful scenarios instead of being directly exposed to a potentially harmful negative stimuli. Kraft (2005) suggests it is not only effective but far more ethical as it avoids unpleasant reactions to substances such as Antabuse.
