Treating Phobias (Behaviourist Approach) Flashcards
(22 cards)
AO1
- Phobias – An irrational fear of an object or a situation
- Behavioural – ways in which people act (actions we complete)
Crying, screaming, running away, remaining in the presence of that behaviour - Emotional – related to a person’s feelings or mood (feelings we have)
Anxiety, fear of seeing object, emotional reactions that are unreasonable - Cognitive – refers to the process of ‘knowing’, including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing (mental processes we think)
Beliefs about the world are distorted, abnormal processing of the object, individuals hold irrational beliefs, anxious thoughts, difficulty divert attention - Systematic desensitisation (SD) – A behavioural therapy designed to reduce an unwanted response such as anxiety. SD involves drawing up a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking situations related to a person’s phobic stimulus, teaching the person to relax, and then exposing them to phobic situations. The person works their way through the hierarchy whilst maintaining relaxation.
- Flooding – A behavioural therapy in which a person a phobic is exposed to an extreme form of a phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety triggered by that stimulus. This takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions
AO3 (1) Treating Phobias
- A strength of systematic desensitisation (SD) is the evidence base for its effectiveness
- For example, Gilroy et al followed 42 people who had SD for arachnophobia in three 45 minute sessions
- This is a strength because the SD group were less fearful than the control group treated by relaxation without exposure, showing evidence that SD is likely to be effective for people with phobias
- However, this has limitations as not all phobias can be treated the way arachnophobia was treated in the case study. Social fears like
- having a fear of love or relationships cannot be overcome this way.
- Despite this, a review concluded that SD is effective for specific phobias, social phobia and agoraphobia
- Thus increasing the reliability of systematic desensitisation for treating phobias
AO3 (2) treating phobias
- A weakness of flooding is that it is a highly unpleasant experience
- For example, Schumacher et al found that participants and therapists rated flooding as scientifically more stressful than SD
- This is a weakness because it raises the ethical issues for psychologists of knowingly causing stress to their clients on top of the trauma they face from the phobia. Therefore showing how flooding is a highly unpleasant experience
- However some may argue that this is a serious issue as the psychologist / therapist have to obtain informed consent from the patient thus showing that the patients have to be aware of what they are going to experience
- Despite this, the traumatic nature of flooding means that dropout rates are high for flooding compared to SD
- Thus reducing the usefulness of using this treatment to treat phobias
AO3 (3) treating phobias
- Generalised - A weakness for behaviourist methods of treatment methods is that it does not address how phobias may be maintained due to cognitive processing.
- Behaviourism takes a more reductionist view on phobias and this is a weakness as ignoring the interacting factors and the complexities of human behaviour, we are at risk of losing a real understanding of human behaviour behind phobias
- For example, there is evidence to suggest that phobias could symbolise unconscious anxieties, therefore the real cause of the behaviour is ignored, therefore reducing the effectiveness of treatment.
- Some psychologists may argue that the benefit of having a more reductionist viewpoint is that it can help identify simple casual factors for behaviour and once the cause is identified - for example a fear of sharks because you were bitten by one – it is much easier to modify the behaviour through treatments such as systematic desensitisation by counter conditioning the phobia.
- Despite this, the reductionist view of behaviourism reduces the validity of the application of the approach to phobias due to the lack of context taken into account.
- Thus reducing the validity of treatment methods for phobias
explain the ao3s for treating phobia
strength - SD is evidence for effectiveness, Gilroy et al followed 42 ppl with SD for arachnophobia in 3 45 minutes sessions and SD group were less fearful than control by relaxation without exposure showing SD is effective, however not all phobias can be overcome the way arachnophobia like social fears (fear of love) cannot, despite this review said effective for specific, social and agoraphobia
weakness - flooding highly unpleasant, Schumacher et al found flooding scientifically more stressful than SD, raises ethical issues for psychologists causing stress on top of client trauma phobia faced, however serious issue and they got informed consent, despite this dropout rates higher than SD
weakness - doesn’t address how phobias may be maintained due to cog processing, behaviourist reductionist and ignores complexities of human behaviour as evidence that phobias could symbolise unconscious anxieties (which is a cog thing), however reductionist viewpoint means identify simple casual factors for behaviour and easier to modify behaviour through treatment like SD, despite this lack of context taken into account for phobias
what is SD
Systematic desensitisation (SD)
describe systematic desensitisation
Systematic desensitisation (SD) is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through the principles of classical conditioning. If the sufferer can learn to relax in the presence of the phobic stimulus they will be cured.
what is counterconditioning
Essentially a new response to a phobic stimulus is learned (phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation instead of anxiety). This is called counterconditioning.
what is reciprocal inhibition
In addition it is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other.
This is called reciprocal inhibition.
what is in-vivo and in-vitro
SD can be in-vivo (where they are directly exposed to phobic stimulus) or in-vitro (where they imagine
exposure to the phobic stimulus).
what are the three main processes involved in SD
relaxation
hierarchy
gradual exposure
explain relaxation
Relaxation techniques are taught to the service user; these include:
Focussing on breathing and taking slow, deep breaths as when we are anxious we breathe quickly so slowing this down helps us to relax.
Being mindful of the ‘here and now’.
Focussing on a particular object or visualising a peaceful scene.
Progressive muscle relaxation is also used where one muscle at a time is relaxed.
explain hierarchy
At the beginning of therapy, the therapist and the service user create a hierarchy from most to least fearful stimuli.
like think about it, look at a photo of it, look at it in real life, hold the container its in, let it crawl in close proximity, or let it crawl on your clothes, let it crawl on you
what is gradual exposure
SD works by gradually exposing the service user to fearful situations one step at a time. At each stage they practice relaxation so the situation becomes more familiar and their
anxiety reduces.
Treatment is successful when they can remain relaxed in situations high on the hierarchy.
important factors to consider when evaluating treatments
how ‘effective’ the treatment is and how ‘appropriate’ the treatment is
strengths of SD
effective - Gilroy and the 42 patients
appropriate - more ethical than flooding
weaknesses of SD
appropriateness - may not be appropriate type of treatment for all phobias
what is flooding
Flooding is a behavioural therapy which involves immediate and direct exposure to the phobic stimulus, rather than exposing the person gradually.
E.g. a person who has a phobia of enclosed spaces would be placed into an elevator and would not be able to leave until their anxiety levels reduce.
With flooding, a person is unable to avoid
(negatively reinforce) their phobia and through
continuous exposure, anxiety levels eventually
decrease. Since the option of avoiding the phobic stimulus is removed and high levels of anxiety cannot be maintained for a long period of time the fear will eventually subside.
what’s the different with flooding compared to SD
Flooding sessions normally last longer than SD
sessions, one session often lasting 2-3 hours.
Sometimes only one long session is needed to cure the phobia.
strength of flooding
effective - long term for specific phobias
weaknesses of flooding
effectiveness - not suitable for everyone
appropriateness - less effective for more complex phobias like social phobias
appropriateness - highly traumatic
weaknesses of both flooding + SD
issues of generalisation outside of clinical setting
ethical considerations - psychologically distressing
