Behaviourist Approach to Phobias

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  • Created by: asusre
  • Created on: 15-04-21 12:19
What is a phobia?
A phobia is an irrational fear of an object or situation. Phobias are characterised by excessive fear and anxiety, which is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus.
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What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
The behavioural characteristics of phobias are a panicked response, avoidance behaviours or endurance.
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What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
The emotional characteristics of phobias are disproportionate fear and anxiety.
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What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
The cognitive characteristics of phobias are selective attention to the phobic stimulus, irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions.
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What study proposed the behaviourist explanation of phobias, and what is it?
Mowrer (1960) proposed the two-process model to explain phobias. Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning, and maintained by operant conditioning.
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What is the role of classical conditioning in the two-process model?
Classical conditioning accounts for the acquisition of phobias. It involves learning to associate a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that already triggers a fear response.
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What case study shows how classical conditioning accounts for the acquisition of phobias?
Watson and Rayner (1920) conditioned a phobia in a baby called 'Little Albert'.
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In the Watson and Rayner (1920) case study of 'Little Albert', what was the neutral/conditioned stimulus and what was the unconditioned stimulus?
The neutral/conditioned stimulus was a white rat, which was presented with the unconditioned stimulus: a loud, frightening noise made in Little Albert's ear.
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What is the role of operant conditioning in the two-process model?
Operant conditioning maintains a phobia by (negatively) reinforcing avoidance behaviour through a reduction in anxiety.
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How can avoidance behaviour be positively reinforced?
Avoidance behaviour can be positivey reinforced when phobics are rewarded by their friends with extra attention or changing of plans to avoid the phobic stimulus.
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What are the strengths of the behaviourist explanation of phobias?
The behaviourist explanation of phobias has a practical application of exposure therapies and there is research evidence supporting the development of phobias through classical conditioning.
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What research supports the role of traumatic experiences in the development of phobias?
Jongh et. al (2006) found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had experienced a traumatic experience (most with dentistry, some with violent crime).
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What are the limitations of the behaviourist explanation of phobias?
The limitations of the behaviourist explanation of phobias is that traumatic experiences do not explain all phobias, and it ignores cognitive and evolutionary aspects of phobias.
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What is the evolutionary perspective on phobias without traumatic experiences?
The behaviourist approach cannot explain why many people have phobias of objects they have never come into contact with, which may be better explained by an evolutionary theory of phobias which suggests that it is adaptive for humans to acquire phobias of
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How does the behaviourist approach fail to explain cognitive symptoms of phobias?
Phobias not only have behavioural symptoms, but also cognitive ones, such as holding irrational beliefs about, paying excessive attention to, and having distorted perceptions around phobic stimuli. The behaviourist approach, whilst explaining avoidance be
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What study shows that not all traumatic experiences lead to the development of phobias?
Di Nardo et al (1988) showed that not everyone who has been bitten by dogs goes on to develop a phobia of dogs. This may be explained by the fact that one traumatic experience does not affect the positive schema surrounding the object (you already like do
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What is systematic desensitisation?
Systematic desensitisation is a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through counterconditioning.
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What is counterconditioning?
Counterconditioning is when a a previously learned experience is counteracted to make new associations. If the phobic stimulus is paired with relaxation rather than anxiety, a new response to the phobic stimulus is learned.
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What are the stages of systematic desensitisation?
First, anxiety/desensitisation hierarchy is made,
then the client learns how to relax to achieve reciprocal inhibition,
then the client is exposed to the phobic stimulus, moving up the hierarchy when they can stay relaxed.
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What is an anxiety/desensitisation hierarchy?
An anxiety/desensitisation hierarchy is a list of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety, arranged in order from least to most frightening.
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What is reciprocal inhibition?
Reciprocal inhibition means that it is impossible to be both relaxed and anxious at the same time, so one emotion prevents the other.
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What are the strengths of systematic desensitisation?
The strengths of systematic desensitisation are that it has research support, it works for social phobias and agoraphobia, it is suitable for people with learning disabilities and it can use virtual reality.
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What are the limitations of systematic desensitation?
The limitations of systematic desensitisation are that it may not work for more complex phobias and that virtual reality exposure may not be as effective as real exposure for social phobias.
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What research supports the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation?
Gilroy et al (2003) found that a group of 42 people who had been treated with systematic desensitisation for arachnophobia were less fearful of spiders than a control group after both three and 33 months.
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What research supports the use of systematic desensitisation for social phobias and agoraphobia?
Wechsler et al (2019) concluded that systematic desensitisation is effective for specific phobia, social phobia and agoraphobia.
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What study found that VR exposure may be less effective than real exposure for social phobias?
Wechsler et al (2019) suggests that VR exposure may be less effective than real exposure for social phobias because it lacks realism.
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What is flooding?
Flooding is a behavioural therapy which involves immediate exposure to the phobic stimulus so that the client is bombarded with fear. They must stay in the exposure of the object of fear until their anxiety eventually subsides.
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Why does flooding work so quickly?
Flooding stops phobic responses very quickly because without the option of avoidance behaviour, the client quickly learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless.
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Explain flooding in terms of classical conditioning.
The conditioned response becomes extinct when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus. The result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned fear response.
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Which two ways can exposure be done in flooding?
Exposure can be done in vitro (the client imagines exposure to the phobic stimulus/virtual reality) or in vivo (the client is actually exposed to the phobic stimulus).
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What ethical issues are important for flooding?
Flooding is an unpleasant experience, so it is important that clients give fully informed consent and are aware of their right to withdraw.
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What are the strengths of flooding?
The strengths of flooding are that it has research support and it is cost-effective.
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What is a limitation of flooding?
Flooding can be a traumatic experience, which has ethical issues and can lead to higher attrition rates than systematic desensitisation.
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What study supports the effectiveness of flooding?
Wolpe (1960) used flooding to remove a phobia of cars. A girl was forced into a car and driven around for four hours until her phobia of cars was eradicated.
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What study found that therapists and clients do not favour flooding?
Schumacher et al (2015) found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than systematic desensitisation.
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What is one limitation of behavioural therapies to treat phobias?
Behavioural therapies for phobias may cause symptom substitiution and only mask symptoms and do not tackle the underlying causes of phobias.
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What study shows that flooding may cause symptom substitution?
Persons (1986) reported a case of symptom substitution where a client’s phobia of death declined when treated using flooding, but her fear of being criticised got worse.
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