CLASSICAL CONDITIONING APPLIED IN PSYCHOTHERAPY / GRADUATED EXPOSURE / STEPS G.E. / LITTLE ALBERT

Question 1

DEFINITION: PSYCHOTHERAPY

Answer 1

• Treatment of mental and emotional disorders through the use of psychological techniques. This leads to improving SOCIAL and VOCATIONAL functions and personal growth

Question 2

DEFINITION: GRADUATED EXPOSURE

• The individual is gradually DESENSITIZED to the anxiety-provoking stimulus.

Answer 2

• Treating phobias and other mental health problems
• used/performed when the ASSOCIATION between two unrelated stimuli is so strong that natural extinction does not occur
• Therefore, an INTERVENTION is required
• Gradually exposing the individual to an increasingly similar stimulus, presenting SUCCESSIVE APPROXIMATIONS until the CS no longer produces the CR

Question 3

STEPS: GRADUATED EXPOSURE

Answer 3

1) Teach the individual relaxation strategies
2) The client breaks down the feared object into a graduated list (known as a FEAR Hierarchy)
3) Step by step, the individual is exposed to the fear stimuli (Least AP to Most AP). In this step the individual learns to associate the feared stimulus with a calm/relaxing feeling.

Question 4

DEFINITION: IMAGINAL EXPOSURE

Answer 4

• Relates to an image

- exposing the individual to a feared stimuli by showing them an image that is anxiety-provoking

Question 5

DEFINITION: VIVO EXPOSURE

Answer 5

• Happening outside a living organism

- Outside/external environment

Question 6

LITTLE ALBERT (CC)

Answer 6

Before conditioning

• testing if he was capable of making a fear response (NS and UCS were separate)
• NS: White fluffy rats
• UCS: Loud noise

Acquisition

• NS and UCS were presented repeatedly
• Little Albert formed an association between the two stimuli

After
- Little Albert learnt (was conditioned) to fear white fluffy rats

NOTE: He was showed STIMULUS GENERALISATION (other white fluffy objects produced the same CR = fear)

Question 7

LITTLE ALBERT: ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

Answer 7

• No harm to the participant (WAS BREACHED)
• there was a LACK of DEBRIEFING (Didn’t extinguished the conditioned fear response)
• No WITHDRAWAL RIGHTS
• No CONFIDENTIALITY (Researchers published the results without asking for permission from Little Albert or his mother)