Phobias Flashcards
(24 cards)
Define phobias
An irrational fear of an object or situation that leads to significant anxiety and has an impact on day-to-day life
What are the 3 DSM-5 categories of phobias?
- Specific phobias- excessive fear of a particular object or situation
- Social anxiety/social phobia- excessive fear of a social situation eg. public speaking
- Agoraphobia- excessive fear of being outside or public places
What are three behavioural characteristics of phobias?
- Panic- crying, screaming, running away
- Avoidance- changing day-to-day life
- Endurance- continue to feel high levels of anxiety
What are two emotional characteristics of phobias?
- Excessive anxiety- feeling that it is about to happen. A long lasting feeling but less severe
- Excessive fear- feeling when you first come into contact with the phobia. A short term feeling but more severe
What are three cognitive characteristics of phobias?
- Selective attention to phobic stimulus- first to spot it and cannot divert attention away
- Irrational beliefs- lack logical reasoning
- Cognitive distortions- warped perspective of the phobia
What is classical conditioning?
Learning by association- repeated pairing of two stimuli to create a conditioned response
How does Little Albert support the role of classical conditioning in phobias?
Firstly, he had no response to the rat, but had fear of loud noise. Then when the rat and loud noise were put together, he felt fear. When it was just the rat, he started to feel fear.
This shows there is supporting evidence that phobias are learned through classical conditioning, meaning the validity of the explanation is high
What aspect of operant conditioning is particularly important for explaining the maintenance of phobias?
Negative reinforcement as when they avoid the phobia, they’re avoiding the punishment of the way they feel when they experience it
What is the two-process model?
An explanation for how phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and then maintained through operant conditioning
Who created the two-process model?
Mowrer (1960)
What are the practical applications of explaining phobias and why is this a strength?
If we know we learn through association, we can treat people with those phobias through disassociation. The behavioural explanation is a valuable explanation as the two-process model has real life benefits that research has shown to be effective
What are the issues of using only the behaviourist approach to explain phobias?
The behaviourist doesn’t consider cognitive processes, so it can’t explain all aspects of phobias. This means it is not a comprehensive explanation
Why is it a limitation that the theory has ethical issues?
There were lots of ethical issues as Albert formed a phobia of rats long-term, and it lacked protection from harm as it caused him extreme distress.
This is a limitation as it damages the reputation of psychology, meaning people won’t want to participate in future research
What are exposure therapies?
Built on the behavioural theory that classical conditioning explains how phobias are acquired
What is counterconditioning?
A new response to the phobic stimulus is learnt
What is extinction?
A learning response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus no longer leads to the conditioned response
What is systematic desensitisation?
A behavioural therapy designed to reduce anxiety towards the phobic stimulus gradually through classical conditioning
What are the three core processes of systematic desensitisation?
- Anxiety hierarchy- client and therapist list situations related to phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety from least to most anxiety inducing
- Relaxation- uses the principle of reciprocal inhibition. The patient is taught to relax through various methods
- Exposure- participant is exposed to phobic stimulus going up the anxiety hierarchy in a relaxed state
What supporting evidence of systematic desensitisation is there?
Gilroy et al (2003) followed 42 people with arachnophobia SD treatment in three 45 minute sessions and found that at 3 and 33 months the SD group were less fearful than a control group
What is a limitation of systematic desensitisation?
It requires many sessions and is a person-centred therapy requiring a professional, so it is expensive
What is flooding?
A behavioural therapy based on classical conditioning that is designed to reduce anxiety towards the phobic stimulus through immediate exposure
What is a strength of using flooding?
It is quicker as it only requires one session, so the extinction is very fast
What is a limitation of flooding?
It can be traumatic, as Schumacher et al (2015) found participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than SD
How is symptom substitution a limitation of both behaviourist treatments of phobias?
Lack of emphasis on cognitive thought means the underlying causes may not be tackled, leading to symptom substitution
