phobias

• what are phobias?

  extreme , irrational , unreasonable fear
• what can cause phobias?

  bad experiences
• what are the two types of depression?

  major depressive disorder and persistent depressive disorder
• what is persistent depressive disorder?

  • dont remember last time you were happy
  • extreme low mood
  • symptoms need to last longer than 2 years to be diagnosed
• what is major depressive disorder?

  • normal mood when youre not having an episode
  • symptoms need to last 2 weeks to be diagnosed
• what are behavioural characteristics of phobias ?

  panic , endurance , avoidance
• what are emotional characteristics of phobias?

  anxiety , fear , emotional
• what are cognitive characteristics of phobias ?

  selective attention to the stimulus , irrational beliefs , cognitive distortions
• behavioural characteristics of depression?

  activity levels , disruption to sleep and eating behaviour , aggression and self - harm
• emotional characteristics of depression ?

  lowered mood , anger , lowered self esteem
• cognitive characteristics of depression ?

  poor concentration , dwelling on the negative , absolutist thinking (thinking all situations are bad)
• Behavioural characteristics of ocd?

  compulsions are repetitive , compulsions reduce anxiety , avoidance
• emotional characteristics of ocd?

  anxiety and distress , accompanying despression , guilt and disgust
• what was the aim of the little albert study?

  provide empirical evidence that human emotional responses could be learned through classical conditioning
• what was the procedure of the little albert study?

  • an 11 month old boy was showed animals ( rats , bunnies, and also cotton wool ) and he had no response
  • he was then showed the animals and a metal bar was hit behind his head
  • he then associated the animals with the bar and got a phobia of white furry objects
• what is flooding?

  • a treatment that involves exposing the patient to their phobia without a gradual build up in an anxiety hierarchy
  • immediate exposure eg , a person with arachnophobia recieving flooding would experience a large spider crawl over them for an extended period
• how does flooding work?

  • flooding stops phobic responses very quickly, this may be because without the option of avoidance behaviour the client quickly learns that the stimulus is harmless
  • in classical conditioning terms, this is called extinction
• flooding - classical conditioning ?

  a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus. the result is that the conditioned stimulus no longer produces the conditioned response ( fear )
• ethical safeguards - flooding?

  flooding is not unethical but could be distressing so full consent must be given by the participant
• what is systematic desensitisation ?

  a behavioural therapy designed to gradually reduce phobic anxiety through classical conditioning

  a new response is learned ( counterconditioning )
• what are the 3 processes involved in systematic desensitisation ?

  • anxiety hierarchy
  • become relaxed
  • work up the hierarchy through exposure
• strength and weakness of flooding?

  strength = cost effective ( ten sessions of systematic desensitisation vs a 3 hour long session of flooding )

  weakness = highly unpleasant experience , sarah schumacher et al ( 2015 )found that participants and therapists rated flooding as significantly more stressful than systematic desensitisation which rises the ethical issue