Phobias

Behavioural:  

• Panic - This may involve a range of behaviours such as crying, screaming or even running away from the phobic stimulus.
• Avoidance: Considerable effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus. This can make it hard to go about everyday life, especially if the phobic stimulus is often seen, e.g. public places.

Emotional: 

• Anxiety and fear - Fear is the immediate experience when a phobic encounters or thinks about the phobic stimulus. Fear leads to anxiety.
• Responses are unreasonable - Response is unreasonable -response is widely disproportionate to the threat posed. E.g. an arachnophobia will have a strong emotional response to a tiny spider.

Cognitive:

• Selective attention to the phobic stimulus - The phobic finds it hard to look away from the phobic stimulus e.g. a poganophobic (fear of beards) cannot concentrate on a task if there is a bearded man in the room.
• Irrational beliefs - For example, social phobias may involve beliefs such as 'if I blush people will think I'm weak'

The two process model: Classical and operant conditioning.Orval Hobart Mower ( 1960) argued that phobias are learned by classical conditioning and then maintained by operant conditioning, i.e. two processes are involved.

Classical Conditioning:

• UCS triggers a fear response ( fear is the UCR), e.g. being bitten by a dog
•  NS is associated with the UCS, e..g being bitten by a dog ( the dog previously didnt create anxiety.
• NS becomes a CS producing fear (which is now the CR) The dog becomes CS causing CR of anxiety/ fear following the bite.

Little Albert - Watson and Rayner showed how little Albert played with a white rat a loud noise was made close to his ear. the noise is the ucs and the response is ucs ,rat which was the ns did not create fear until the banag and the rat had been [paired together several times().Albert showed a fear resoponse ( cr) every time he came into contact with the rat ( now a cs)

Generalisation of stimuli - For example, Little Albert showed a fear in response to other white objcets including Santas Beard, fur coat and even Watsons hair

Maintainence by operant conditioning ( negative reinforcement) -

Operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced or punished.

• Negative reinforcement - an individuakl produces behaviour that avoids something unpleasant
• Positive reinforcement - when an individual produces behaviour and is rewarded
• Consequence - when an individual does a behaviour and is punished

When a phobic avoids a phobic stimulus they escape the anxiety that would have been experienced. The reduction in fear negatively reinforces the avoidance behaviour and the phobia is maintained.

Example of reinforcement:

If someone has a fear of clowns ( coulorophobia) they will avoid circuses and ither situations where they may encounter clowns.

The relief felt from avoiding cloiwns negatively reinforces the phobia and ensures it is maintained rather than confronted.

A strength of the two process model is it has good expalantory power-

The two process model wnet beyond Watson and Rayners simple classical conditioning explanation of phobias. It has important implications for therapy. If a paitentn is prevented from practising their avoidance behaviour then the phoibc brhasviour declines. The application to therapy is a strenght of the two process model.

There are alternative explanations for avoidance behaviour -

In more complex behaviouirs like agrophobia , theire is evidence that at leat some avoidance behaviour is motivated more by positve feelings of safety. This explains why some agrophoibcs are able to leave their house with a trusted friend with relativley little anxiety, but not alone ( Buck 2010). This is a problem for the two process model, which suggest that avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction.

A limitation is that not all bad experiences lead to phobias - Sometimes phobias do appear following a bad experience and it is easy to see how they could be the result of conditioning. However, sometimes people have a bad experience ( such as being bitten by a dog )and odnt develop a phobia ( DiNardo et al 1998) This suggests that conditioning alone cannot explain phobias. They may only devlop where vulnerability exists

A limitation is the two process model is an incomplte explanation of phobias.

• Even if we accept that classical and opernat confitioning are invloved in the development and maintainence of phobias, there are some aspects of phobia behaviour that rewuire futher explaining.  We easily acquire phobias of things that were danger in our evoluntionary past (e.g. fear of snakes or the dark) This is biological prepardeness - we are innately prepared to fear some things more than other ( Selingman 1971).
• The phenomonan of biological prepardness is a problem for the two process model because it shows there is more to accuiring phobias than simple conditioning.

Two process model doesn't properley consider the cognitive aspects of phobia.

• We know that behavioural explantions in general are orientated towards explaining behaviour rather than congntion. ( thinking). This is why the wo process model explains maintainence of phobias in terms of avoidance- but we also know that phobias have a cognitive element. The two process theory does not adequetley address the cognitive element of phobias.

Systematic desenatisation:-

Based on classical and operant conditioning.
The therapy aims to gradually reduce anxiety through counterconditioning:

• Phobias are learned so that phobic stimulus ( condtioned stimulus,CS) produces fear ( coditioned response,CR)
• CS is paired with relaxation and this becomes the new CR.
• Recprical inhibition - it is not possible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other.

Formation of anxiety:

• Paitent and therapist design an anxiety hieracy - a list of fearful stimuli arranged in order from least to most frightening.
• An arachnophobic might identify seeing a picture of a small spider as low on their anxiety hieracy and holding a trantula as the final item.

Relaxation practised at each level of the hieracy:

• Phobic individual is first taught relaxation techniques such as deep breathing and or meditation
• Paitent then works through the anxiety hieracy. At  each level the phobic is exposed to the phobic stimulus in relaxed state.
• This takes place over several sessions starting at the bottom of the hieracy.Treatment is successful when the person can stay relaxed in situations high on the hieracy

Implosion therapy:

• This is where the paitent has to imagine their worst phobia, so don't actually encounter it but imagine it.

Immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus:

• Flooding involves bombarding the phobic paitent with the phobic object without a gradual buildup.
• An arachnophobic recieving flooding treatment  may have a large spider crwl over their hand until they can fully relax

Very quick learning through extinction:

• Without the option of avoidance behaviour, the paitent quickly learns that the phobic object is harmless through exhaustion of their fear response. This is known as as extinction.

Ethical Safeguards:

• Flooding is not unethical but it is unpleasant experience soit is important that paitents give imformed consent. They must fully be aware what they are in for.

A strength of SD is that it effective:

Gilroy et al ( 2003) followed up 42 paitents who had SD for spider phobia in three 45 minute sessions. At both three and 33 months, the SD group were less fearful than the control group treated by relaxation without exposure.This is a strength because it shows that SD is reducing the anxiety in spider phobia and that the effects of the treatment are long lasting.

Another strength is that SD is suitable for a diverse range of paitents:

The alternatives to SD such as flooding and cognitive therapies are not well suited to some paitents. For example, having learning difficulties can make it very hard for some paitents. For example, haivng learning difficulties can make it very hard for some paitents to understand what is happening during flooding or to engage with cognitive therapies which require reflection.For these paitents,SD is probaly the most suitable treatment.

A futher strength is that SD tends to be acceptable to paitents.

A stregnthof SD is that paitents prefer it. This is because it does not cause the same degree of trauma as flooding.It may also be because SD includes some elements that are actually pleasant,such as time talking with a therapist. This is reflected in the low refusal rate ( number of paitents refusing to start treatment) and low attrtion rates (number of paitents dropping out of treatment)

A limitation of flooding is that it is less effective for some types of phobia:

Although flooding is highly effective for treating simple phobias, it appears to be less so for more complex phobias like social phobias. This may be because social phobiashave cognitve phobias have cognitive aspects, e.g. a sufferer of social phobia doens't simply experience anxiety but thinks unpleasant thoughts about the situation. This type of phobia may benefit morefrom cognitve therapies because more more cognitive therapies because such therapies tackle irrational thinking

 A futher limitation is that flooding is traumatic for paitents:

Perhaps witht he msot serious issue with the use of flooding is the fact that it is highly traumatic expereicnec. The problem is not that flooding is unethical (paitents do give informedconsent) but that paitents are often unwilling to see it through the end.

This is a limitation because utlimately it means that the treatment is not effective, and time and money are wasted preparing patients only have them refuse to start or complete treatment.