Learning🍏 • Phobias

Question 1

What is a phobia?

Answer 1

A very intense fear to the point in which it significantly impacts a person’s everyday life

Question 2

What is the aquisition of phobias?

Answer 2

Developing/ aquiring a phobia through means such as association or learning vicariously

Question 3

What is the maintenance of phobias?

Answer 3

The maintanining of a aquired phobia or fear response; commonly through avoidance and consequently negative reinforcement (due to removal of something bad - the phobic stimulus)

Question 4

Is classical conditioning best applied to understand the aquisiton or maintenance of phobias?

Answer 4

Aquisition

Question 5

Classical conditioning says that you can create a ____________ of an object or situation if you ____________ that object (or situation) with a ____________ or ____________ experience

Answer 5

Classical conditioning says that you can create a phobia of an object or situation if you associate that object (or situation) with a fearful or unpleasant experience

Question 6

What is the aquisiton of phobias through classical conditioning?

Answer 6

Creating a phobia of something if you associate a certain stimulus with a fearful or unpleasant response/ expereince

Question 7

What is a study to support the aquisition of phobias through classical conditioning?

Answer 7

Dollinger et al.

Question 8

Explain Dollinger et al.

Answer 8

Classical conditioning as an explanation of aquisition of phobias

Examined childhood lightning strike survivors and compared them with a control group. It was found that the surivial group demonstrated significantly higher/ more intense fears of lightning/ tornadoes than the control group

ACTS AS EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT THE IDEA OF PAIRING A FEAR + EVENT = THE AQUISITION OF A PHOBIA (Supports premis of classical conditioning as a method of phobia aquisition)

Question 9

Is operant conditioning best applied to understand the aquisiton or maintenance of phobias?

Answer 9

Maintenance, it is very good for explaining why/how phobias are maintained and difficult to treat

Question 10

By avoiding a certain thing due to a ____________, you are removing something bad (____________ ____________) and consequently reinforcing the ____________ - thus ____________ it

Answer 10

By avoiding a certain thing due to a phobia, you are removing something bad (Negative reinforcemeny) and consequently reinforcing the phobia - thus maintaining it

e.g. taking away something bad such as going to the swimming pool due to fear of deep water, that person is avoiding the stimulus to their phobia, thus negatively reinforcing it as they are removing something bad/ they dislike. Due to the negative reinforcement the phobia is consequently being reinforced itself

Question 11

What is a study to support the maintenance of phobias through operant conditioning?

Answer 11

Mowrer

Question 12

Explain Mowrer’s study

Answer 12

Operant conditioning as an explanation of maintenance of phobias

The study examined a phobia/ fear of electric shocks in a rat. It was found that the rat would develop an avoidance response to the electric shock by jumping over a barrier. The escape/ jumping was is evidence of negative reinforcement as the rat removes the shock from hurting it - thus maintaining its phobia of electric shocks

Mowrer states that this avoidance and negative reinforcement is what maintains phobias

Question 13

Is social learning theory best applied to understand the aquisiton or maintenance of phobias?

Answer 13

Aquisition - vicarious/ observed aquisiton of phobias

Question 14

What are two studies to support the maintenance of phobias through operant conditioning?

Answer 14

Mineka & Zinbag
AND
Mineka & Cook

Question 15

Explain Mineka & Zinbag’s study

Answer 15

Social learning theory as an explanation of aquisition of phobias

Case study - focused on a boy who had developed severe emetophobia; the phobia was so bad it lead him to develop suicidal ideologies as he was so frightened of being sick. This can be explained through seeing his grandfather vomit whilst dying and him vicariously aquiring a fear of being sick through attention and retention

HUMAN EVIDENCE

Question 16

Explain Mineka & Cooks’s study

Answer 16

Social learning theory as an explanation of aquisition of phobias

Conducted a study on infant rhesus monkeys who watched and attended to adult monkeys (role models due to age) display fear/ anxiety to toy snakes and crocodiles. It was found that the infants displayed the same behaviour to the specific toys. This showed that they attended to the adults, displayed retention as they remembered the behaviour/ fear response AND finally shows the aquistion of a phoba through learning vicariously

ANIMAL EVIDENCE - ANTHROPOMOPRHIC + LOWER COGNITION

Question 17

What are the two main methods of treating phobias?

Answer 17

• Systematic desensitisation
• Flooding

Question 18

What is systematic desensitisation?

Answer 18

A behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principle of classical conditioning.

Question 19

What is the psychology behind systematic desensitisation - how does it work?

Answer 19

Essentially, a new response to the phobic stimulus (CS) is learned to replace the previous response of fear/ anxiety - ** the phobic stimulus is paired with the response of relaxation instead of fear/ anxiety**

This learning of a different/ relaxive response is called Counter Conditioning

Question 20

What is counter conditioning?

Answer 20

Replacing a response with a desirable one. The stimulus remains but the fear response is switched to a relaxed one via the process of systematic desensitisation

Question 21

What is reciprocal inhibition?

Answer 21

Reciprocal inhibition refers to a technique in which a desired behavioral response is gradually introduced to a stimulus that causes an undesired response.

Question 22

There are 4 phases to the procedure of systematic desensitisation, list each one.

Answer 22

1. Functional Analysis
2. Heirarchy of Fear
3. Relaxation
4. Gradual Exposure

Question 23

There are 4 phases to the procedure of systematic desensitisation, explain each one.

Answer 23

1. Functional Analysis
   * Therapist asks client questions about the nature of their phobia in order for them to understand the extent of it and contextualise it e.g. when it started, what triggered it initially
2. Heirarchy of Fear
   * Constructed by client and therapist; it is a list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety/ fear arranged in order from the least to the most frightening
3. Relaxation
   * Therapist teaches the client relaxive techniques in order for them to be capable of deep relaxation. e.g. breathing exercises (Square breathing) or claming mental imagey techniques
4. Gradual Exposure
   * Finally, the client is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state. This would take place over several sessions, starting with exposure to situations listed at the bottom of the heirarchy of fear - once client can remain relaxed in presence of the lower levels they then start to progress up to the higher levels

Question 24

When is systematic desensitisation successful?

Answer 24

When the client can stay relaxerd in situtations listed high up on their heirarchy of fear

Question 25

How does gradual exposure work to finally remove the phobia?

Answer 25

It works through replacing the **response** of fear and changing it so that rather than the stimulus causing a fear response, it **produces a relaxed response** instead

Question 26

What are the two types of exposure clients can undergo + define?

Answer 26

* In **Vitro** - The client **imagines** exposure to the phobic stimulus/ related situation * In **Vivo** - The client is **actually exposed** to the phobic stimulus/ related situation

Question 27

What is a strength and weakness to systematic desensitisation?

Answer 27

**S** - It is a very ethical process as it is entriely patient-lead **W** - It is usually around 4-6 sessions or can go up to 12 if a severe phobia, therefore the process can be very time consuming and expensive **W** - A weakness of in vitro experiences is that it relies on the client's ability to be capable of imagining the fearful situation, some people are unable to create such images - **thus systematic desensitisation is not always effective due to individual differences such as neurodiveregence**

Question 28

# SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION Explain Wolpe's Study

Answer 28

**Successfully** used the method to treat an **18 year old male with a severe handwashing compulsion - involving fear of contaminating others with urine** * After urinating boy would wash genitalia for 45 minuets, 2hr washing hands and 4hr showering * Treatment involved placing boy into relaxive state and then asking him to imagine low anxiety scenes (e.g. **drop of urine in trough of water with unknown man touching it**) * As anxiety gradually dissipated, Wolpe increased imaginary concentration of urine in trough * In addition, a **real bottle of urine** was presented at a distance and gradually moved closer to the boy the better he became * Finally, Wolpe could apply drops of diluted urine to back of boy hand **without** evoking anxiety as a response - **follow up 4 years later revealed complete dissipation of anxiety**

Question 29

# SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION Explain Lang et al.'s study

Answer 29

**Successfully used treatment with a group of college students who were all suffering from a snake phobia** * Underwent **11** sessions to work through their heirarchy. * Hypnosis was used as a relaxive method alongside other techniques e.g. breathing * After the treatment sessions, **participants fear rating fell and improvements were still evident 6 months later**

Question 30

# SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION Explain Rothbaum et al.'s study

Answer 30

**Successfully** used systematic desensitisation with participants who were afraid of flying * Following the treatment **93% of the participants agreed to take a trial flight** * In addition, it was found that anxiety levels were **lower** in main group who had had treatment than in a control group that had not. * Was found in follow up **6 months later** that the participants' **improvement was maintained**

Question 31

State **4** simple points you could make if asked to evaluate **Systematic Desensitisaton** as a treatment for phobias

Answer 31

1. **S** - **Rothbaum et al.** - successful use on participants who had aerophobia (fear of flying) 2. **S** - **Lang et al.** - successful use of treatment with a group of college students who were all suffering from a snake phobia 3. **S**- **Wolpe** - successful use of treatment on 18 year old boy with a with a severe handwashing compulsion - involving fear of contaminating others with urine 4. **W**- **Individual differences**, some individuals are incapable of imagining due to neurodiveregence etc.. so implosion/ in vitro cant work

Question 32

What is flooding?

Answer 32

The **immediate** exposure of phobic individuals to their respective phobic stimuli **without** the gradual buildup in a heirarchy of fear

Question 33

How does flooding work?

Answer 33

Flooding works by **immediately exposing** an individual to a very frightening situation (either in vitro or vivo) in relation to their own phobia. The process works to reduce/ cure the phobia by the participants' **achieving relaxation through no longer being able to remain alarmed or scared due to becoming exhausted by their own fear response**. The human body cannot run the alarm stage for a prolonged period of time, hence participants become exhausted, can no longer run the alarm stage and, as a result, **the phobia-sufferer finds they are no longer panicked or at victim to harm in the presence of the stimuli and as a result a new calm association is made with it** - thus counter conditioning and replacing asociation with relaxation as opposed to the exisiting anxiety/ fear

Question 34

What are the two types of flooding?

Answer 34

* Exposure therapy * Implosion therapy

Question 35

Explain the two types of flooding

Answer 35

* **Exposure therapy** An in **vivo** process which involves presenting the phobia-sufferer with the stimuli they fear and forcing them to confront it * **Implosion therapy** An in **vitro** process which involves asking the phobia-sufferer to imagine interacting with or view pictures of vidoes with the stimuli they fear and forcing them to confront it

Question 36

Explain what will occur during the alarm stage?

Answer 36

The heart would beat faster, perspiration would begin and adrenalin would be released

Question 37

What is a strength and weakness to flooding?

Answer 37

**S** - Flooding sessions are commonly much longer than those of systematic desensitisation, but sessions are needed in significantly lower amount - sometimes only a single session would be required to cure the phobia, thus deeming treatment time-efficient e.g. **Wolpe** - In another experiment the participant was cured extremely fast in only 4 hours **W** - A potentially traumatising and psychologically damaging experience e.g. **Wolpe** - within one of his experiments a participant was hospitalised as a result of increased anxiety after treatment e.g. **Barrett** - participant developed extreme insomnia as a result of treatment

Question 38

# FLOODING Explain Stampful's study

Answer 38

Acts to **support** the effectiveness of Flooding (In this case **Implosion** therapy - **Vitro**) * Sampful bombarded his patients with detailed descriptions of the situations they had feared for 6-9 hours. * Afterwards, it was found that the participants had **completely lost their phobia and fear of the situation**

Question 39

# FLOODING Explain Barrett's study

Answer 39

Acts to **condradict** the effectiveness of Flooding (In this case **Implosion** therapy - **Vitro**) * Barrett used implosion therapy as a treatment of a client who had a phobia of snakes * The client was asked to close her eyes and imagine snakes * After a prolonged period of doing as such, she began to **associate closing her eyes with snakes and this resulted in an extreme case of insomnia** Example of a instance in which the individual was **counter conditioned** to have a worse association that have a better one

Question 40

State **4** simple points you could make if asked to evaluate **Flooding** as a treatment for phobias

Answer 40

1. **S** - **Wolpe** - Sessions needed in lower volume to cure, time efficent, one of his experiments, ppt was cured in 4 hours 2. **S** - **Stampful** - sucessful use of implosion therapy to cure participants' phobias 3. **W**- **Ethical concerns w/ Wolpe** - psychological harm can come as a result of treatment as can be traumatising, he reported one of his clients was hospitalised with increased anxiety after treatment 4. **W**- **Barrett** - issues and possile fault with counte conditioning that can make phobia worse rather than cure it, participant phobia of snakes developed into severe insomnia

Question 41

What is the primary difference between the methods of Systematic desensitisation and Flooding?

Answer 41

That flooding does **not replace** the fear response with a different response and counter condition the individual, it merely replaces it with **no response**

Question 42

What weakness of Flooding is the difference between the methods of Systematic desensitisation and Flooding a result of?

Answer 42

The danger the **spontaneous recovery** of the phobia * Spontaneous recovery is the sudden return of the extinguished phobia/ behaviour/ response * In flooding, a major weakness is that it does not replace the response with a new one but merely replaces it with no response - **thus potentially allowing for the spontaneous recovery of the previous fear response**