Psychopathology - Phobias

Question 1

What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 1

Panic, avoidance and endurance
- Panic may include crying or screaming
- avoidance - the individual may avoid the phobia in order to reduce anxiety

Question 2

What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?

Answer 2

• fear - the fear the individual would feel would be disproportionate to the danger posed

Question 3

What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Answer 3

• selective attention - sufferer will find it hard to concentrate on anything else when the stimulus is present
• cognitive distortions - views held which aren’t true e.g. spiders are evil!

Question 4

Describe the two-process model

Answer 4

• Mowrer (1960s)
• the two-process model includes classical and operant conditioning
• classical conditioning is learning through association
• operant conditioning is learning through consequence

Question 5

What is a strength of the behavioural approach?

Answer 5

• Watson and Rayner’s Little Albert study - demonstrates phobias can be acquired through association

Question 6

What is a weakness of the behavioural approach of phobias?

Answer 6

• the behaviourist approach does not fully explain all phobias
• Medes and Clark found that only 2% of children with a phobia of water
• could recall a negative experience of water
• and 56% of parents told the researchers that the phobia has been present from the child’s first encounter with water

Question 7

Name two types of treatments for phobias

Answer 7

• systematic desensitisation
• flooding
• both S.D and flooding use the idea of reciprocal inhibition
  ( Fear and relaxation are two antagonistic emotions)

Question 8

Describe what happens during the treatment systematic desensitisation

Answer 8

• therapist teaches client relaxation techniques through breathing exercises
• client creates an anxiety hierarchy - list of feared situation from the least feared to the most feared
• client is exposed to each level of the anxiety hierarchy from the least to the most feared

(client must be able to relax at each stage, before the therapist moves to the next stage)
- association extinct when client can hold phobic object without fear

Question 9

Describe what happens during the treatment flooding

Answer 9

• Flooding is direct exposure to the maximum level of the phobic stimulus e.g. top level of the hierarchy
• immediate exposure is expected to cause an extreme panic response in the client e.g. scream, cry
• therapist’s job is to stop the client from escaping the situation
• eventually, client will become exhausted and calm down in the presence of a phobic object - fear response takens energy
• anxiety will decrease due to removing the stimulus + the phobia will have been reinforced