Psychology PSYA4

-Broken down essay plan revision cards for Media and Phobias 

-Add in how the research supports or goes against what has been written in the AO1

-I've attempted to add in some IDA's but not sure how effective they are 

-Ideas must be elaborated to get any credible marks 

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  • Created by: oliver
  • Created on: 05-04-14 18:23

Clinical Characteristics

-Uncontrollable, extreme, irrational

-Anxiety levels beyond expected

-2x more likely in females

-Perceived as mental disorders when they interfere with everyday living

-Increased anxiety due to presence or anticipation

-Sufferers understand it is exaggerated and irrational 

-Use avoidance strategies which impact daily living

-Specific, Social and Agoraphobia 

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Issues of Classification and Diagnosis

-In order to be treated, phobic disorders must be classified and diagnosed; Use of classification systems; collections of symptoms classed together as a syndrome; DSM-IV 

-Importance of classification + diagnosis being consistent; Test-retest + inter-rater

Silverman: found test-retest of DSM-IV to be good

Kendler: found test-retest significantly reduced after an 8 year interval, Kendler suggested it was due to poor recall

Skyre: Diagnosis of social phobia has good inter-rater reliability (54 patients, 3 clinicians)

Alstrom: Found diagnosis of sweedish patients is good in reference to inter-rater, with a 90% concurrence rate

Cultural differences must be taken into account (TKS only found in Japan)

Validity; Comorbidity found in most phobic disorders

Social Phobias, Animal Phobias and depression usually have high levels of comorbidity 

Eysenck: 66% found to have more that one anxiety disorder 

Better diagnosis leads to better, more effective and correct treatment. 

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Biological explanations

-Genetics; not yet isolated a single gene; they have found genetic anomalies though; certain families are more vulnerable

Kendler: female twin pairs more closely related twins, the higher the concordance rate (24.4% MZ 15.3% DZ)

Yates: higher rates of social phobics with social phobic relatives against those with no social phobic relatives

NvN: Results may be due to nurture

Evolutionary approach; because they are still here they may have been advantageous; prepotency (animals respond to a threat which is harmful); Seligmans preparedness.

Garcia: rats learnt not to drink sweet tasting water paired with an injection which made them sick. Whereas didnt with an electric shock. (electric shock not in the EEA)

Cook: Monkeys could not develop a fear of rabbits whereas could with a snake

Cannot explain new, modern fears

Deterministic view: everyon should get a phobia of snakes

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Psychological explanations

-SLT; through observation and modellin of others; watching someone experience traumatic experience with a stimuus can lead to a phobia of that stimulus; based on vicarious learning

Bandura: observation of a model pretending to experience a pain from a buzzer sound lead to the observers showing emotional responses when they subsequently heard the same buzzer noise

Ost: Boy developed a strong phobia of vomiting after watching his grandfather die whilst vomiting 

Deterministic view: not everyone develops a phobia after observation

Conditioning; Classical vs. Operant; Mowrers two-process theory 

Watson and Rayner: Able to condition little Albert into having a phobia of white fluffy objects

Grey: Found that for phobics, avoidance of the stimulus acts as a reward and the avoidance of the stimulus is repeated. Inline with the two-process theory

Application: Behavioural therapy based on conditioning

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Biological therapies

-Drug therapy: Anti-anxiety: BZs and beta blockers; BZs enhance activity of GABA (GABA opens up Cl- channels, increasing Cl- flow and reducing other stimulation); gives the overall effect of calmness; Beta blockers bind to adrenaline receptors. 

Kahn: found BZs to be more effective than placebos in treating phobic disorders

LeCrubier :60% felt pain free whilst on the medication

Sternberg: followed up agoraphobics treated with BZs, they were compared with behavioural therapy. It was concluded that BZs were effective but only tackled symptoms, more like suppressants, questioning their appropriateness

Benzodiazepine dependence: some people experience withdrawal symptoms after three months of use: experiencing symptoms again, insomnia and tremors

Psychosurgery: Remove areas associated with emotion; last resort; very invasive; irreversible; steps before: diagnosis made, obstructing living, all other options have failed and patient given fully informed consent. 

Marks et al: Superior than other treatments in lessening symptoms

Ruck: Capsulotomy many negative side effects proceeding the proceedure. (7 tried to commit suicide and two cases of epileptic seizures). Questioning appropriateness

Ethics: they are in a vulnerable state so need fully informed consent

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Psychological therapies

-CBT; ABC model (Action, belief, consequence); change irrational maladaptive thoughts to the opposite; therapist identifies faulty thinking; homework may be set

Spence et al: Reduced anxiety levels and improvements made were maintained after a one year follow-up

Kvale: after conducting CBT on dentist phobics, 77% of them regularly visited a dentist 4 years after the treatment. Suggests it solves the cause and works in the long-term

Holmburg: postural vertigo sufferers showed a limited length of improvement, reducing appropriateness for some phobias 

Individual differences: it has been suggested that people who are more willing to open up will benefit most from the therapy, some may feel their thoughts are 'realistic' (sadder but wiser)

-SD: based on classical conditioning; learn to associate fear with calm; step by step up a heirarchy (from covert to overt) 

Jones: Little peter was made to fear fluffy objects, then fear was reduced using SD, he was rewarded as he progressed. 

Avero: reduce flying phobics fear , 20 out of 20 showed reduced fear of flying after

Craske: Some results in social phobics but only partial, 50% relapsed over a short time, more suited for specific. 

Cost benefit must be made as techniques such as implosion may cause psychological harm

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Explanations of media on pro and antisocial behavi

-SLT: learnt behaviour; behaviours that are reinforced are imitated (vicariously); Bandura 4 steps: Attention, Retention, reproduction and motivation; prosocial should be equal to antisocial

Paik: effects of TV violence on antisocial behaviour increased when models were rewarded. Bandura: Children played with a doll more violently if a model was rewarded for violent behaviour against the same doll than if they were punished

Sprafkin: After watching an episode of Lassie where puppies were rescued, ppt's spent more time helping distressd puppies during a competition even though it decreased their chance of winning. Hearold: found that prosocial TV affected prosocial behaviour more than antisocial TV affected antisocial behaviour

Application: use prosocial TV in childrens tv programmes

- Cognitive priming: memorise scripts and use at a later date; not a direct imitation but inspires (primes) a certain type of behaviour; scripts used when a scenario is similar to the observed

Blackman: participants who heard a good news bulletin subsequently rated humans more positively vs. not. Holloway: prosocial message over the radio in waiting room were more cooperative in bargaining

Josephson: more violent when given walkie talkies after watching a violent film involving walkie talkies.

 Deterministic: not everyone recreates violent actions they have observed, takes away free will (locus of control)

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+ve and -ve effects of computers and video games

-Video games: capability of having a big impact; time spent and 1st person; potential for +ve

Matthews: those playing video games had decreased activity in brain areas associted with inhibition, self control and concentration

Anderson: Meta analysis found that video violence leads to temporary increase in aggressive behaviour

Gee: video games have the capability to help problem solving skills and help understanding

Kestenbaum: Video games had a calming effect by allowing expression of anger through competition

Application: video games may have the potential to help those with anger issues or help increase a child's problem solving skills

-Computers: positive tool for communication, learning and developing social skills; however may lead to deindividuation and subsequent decrease in inhibition; it has also been suggested that it is more difficult to memorise from a computer screen 

Peter: social network sites encourage communication and relationship building, helps typically shy people with socialising

Pearce: Information memorised from a piece of paper was 85% compared to 4% who memorised on a computer. 

Individual differences: the way in which a person uses a computer differs

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Elaboration likelihood model

-Central route: focus on actual message; long lasting; care about message; resistant to counter arguments

Petty and Cacioppo: found Central route leads to longer lasting attitude change than peripheral

Chaiken: more likely to retain information and attitude through central route 

-Peripheral route: context not content; often when time is limited; we are cognitive misers and tend to evaluate the easiest way possible; less permanent and short lasting; not resistant to alternative routes

Walster: physically attractive sources are more persuasive, especially when paired with a less demanding topics

Miller: found that peripheral route processing relies on environmental conditions such as credibility of the source, quality of presentation and catchy slogans

Petty: found that when students were motivated they would process via CR but when unmotivated would process via the PR. Therefore depends on circumstance

Applications: adverts can be tailored for the target, Vidrine: found that those with a high need for cognition were more persuaded by factual campaign (CR), those with a low need for cognition were more persuaded by an emotional based campaign. 

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Hovland-Yale model

-4 important factors; first is communicator; experts > non-experts

Hovland: found that more attitude change occured when reading an article written by an expert

- Second is message; balanced is more persuasive; positive moods or in a positive context; repetition; however too much can cause a backlash

Mcguire: found that ppts given a two sided argument were more resistant to a counter argument attacking the original message than those given a one sided argument

Zajonc: Turkish words shown repetitively were more claimed to have more meaning than those shown less frequently, even though the ppt did not know what they meant

Belch: Intentions of buying a product decreased after an advert was shown many times.(backlash) 

Gorn: found that ppts preferred an advert with a likeable song than the same advert with a dislikeable song. (emotions influence persuasion

-third and fourth: Channels (e.g. face to face more persuasive for individuals but mass is more effective for lots of people). Audience (i.e. those with lower self esteem and lower intelligence more likely to be persuaded. )

Rhodes: lower intelligence people more likely to be persuaded. Application: advertisers can use this information

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Attraction of celebrity (social psychological)

-Absorbtion addiction model: seek parasocial relationships in order to fill dissatisfaction in their own lives; by doing so they 'absorb' some of their success; normally stays healthy but can lead to addiction; McCutcheon outlined 3 levels: Entertainment social, Intense- personal and Borderline pathological 

Asne: found that people most attracted to celebrities were lonely and shy

Eyal: lonely viewers more upset by the ending of friends than non lonely, suggesting relationships had been formed with the characters 

Maltby: First two stages linked with social dysfunction, those in first were lonely and those in second scored highly on depression and anxiety

Maltby: when parasocial relationships had formed it was linked to a poor self body image. 

Western culture: may be culturally specific

-Attachment theory: insecure worried abour disappointment so are more likely to for PSRs

McCutcheon: Inscure attached more likely to aggree with stalking and obsession of celebrities

Roberts: Correlation between insecurely attached types and attempts to contact celebrities

Exps see attraction as pathological but Raminer demonstrated how PSRs can be beneficial

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Attraction of celebrity (evolutionary)

- Men and women differ in what they desire; prestige hypothesis (women desire those with high status and power); men desire good looks

Townsend: found that those who worked to become high status became more sttractive to women 

Dunbar: Found that, using personal ads, women desire professional men and men desire physical attractiveness

McCutcheon: found that only 61% of women and 24% of men claimed their favourite celeb was one of the opposite se,x. other factors may be at play rather than just se,xual attraction

Cultural bias: Anderson: found that larger women were preferred where food supply was lower

Absorbtion addiction model better in explaining same se,x parasocial relationships

-Gossip theory: show our attraction through gossiping about celebs; In the EEA gossiping was the best form of communication; paying attention to celebrities actions and behaviour may be beneficial to us. 

Debacker: found that celebrity interest is a by product of acquiring fitness relevant survival information

Deterministic: suggests that everyone should form some type of interest in celebrities 

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Research into intense fandom (celeb worship)

McCutcheon: found three stages of celebrity worship, and developed the celebrity attitude scale. Entertainment social, intense personal and borderline pathological

Maltby: found it wasnt one dimensional, it was found that they were more like types of celebrity worship

Sterer: found those in the entertainment social were attracted due to their ability to entertain them 

Maltby: found that those in the borderline pathological had much poorer general mental health than those in the entetainment social 

McCutcheon : found a negative correlation between amount of education and interest in celebrity worship

McCutcheon: found no link between childhood attachment types and mild forms of celbrity worship

- mostly correlational 

- Cultural differences may occur

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Research into intense fandom (celeb stalking)

-Obsessive behaviour focused on an individual which is unwanted and creates fear in the victim

Kienlen: studied relationships between stalking and insecure attachment types. From his research he was able to identify three types of stalker: preoccupied, Fearful and Dismissing

Kienlen: Found that, by studying 25 stalkers in Missouri, early childhood disruption of attachment was found in most of the stalkers. Also there was a relationship prior to the offense in many cases 

Lewis: found stalkers have typical traits of insecure attachment types such as emotional instability

Issue with C&E and small samples

Emmelkamp: found 5 different types of stalkers: erotomanic, obsessional, resentful, predatory, and psychotic. Label 'stalker' is far too wide

Mullen: 80% of incidents involving stalking of the royal family involved a stalker with serious psychotic disorders. Therefore suggesting a physiological element which attachment theory cannot explain

Application: identifying the type of stalker using research such as this can lead to more effective diagnosis and treatment e.g. psychotic may be best treated using drugs

Research has suggested that obessive rejected have responded well to psychotherapy, and psychopathic stalkers have proven resistant as they are good at using deception

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Comments

Joey Speed

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Exceptionally useful notes Oliver! clearly you know your stuff!

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