Phobias

• What is the definition of a phobia

  An out of proportion fear of objects, places or situations.
• what are the 3 types of phobias

  -specific phobia

  -social phobia

  -agoraphobia
• what are the 5 criteria needed for a diagnosis of a phobia?

  • persistent fear of specific object.
  • Exposure to the phobic stimulus nearly always produces a rapid anxiety response
  • fear of the phobic object/ situation is excessive
  • The phobia is either avoided or responded to with great anxiety.
  • The phobic reactions interfere significantly with the individuals working or social life
• what is an emotional phobia

  • anxiety (long term)
  • fear
  • both of these emotions are disproportionate to the actual threat of stimulus
• what is a cognitive phobia

  • fixation on phobia
  • irrational belies about feared stimuli
  • perception about phobia is inaccurate
• what is a behavioural phobia

  • avoidance
  • panic
  • endurance (freezing)
• what are the phobia explanations?

  • argues all behaviours are learnt
  • mowrer 1960 devloped the 2 process model
• what is process 1?

  acquisition of phobias - association of a UCS and a NS
• what study did watson and raynar use?

  little albert
• what was the generalisation of little?

  albert eventually became scared of everything white or fluffy
• what is process 2?

  • the maintenance of phobias - operant conditioning.
  • it explains the avoidance and escape behaviours that are shown by people with phobias.
  • they escape the phobia to reduce anxiety.
• what is a strength of this topic?

  • useful application to treatment of phobias
  • the maintenance of phobias occurs when people actively avoid their phobia to decrease anxiety.
  • systematic desensitisation and flooding make those who have a phobia face it directly = avoidance cant occur
  • supports the usefulness of the theory as it can help overcome the phobia.
• whats a limitation of treatment to phobias?

  • only explains behavioural characteristics
  • for example operant conditioning can explain the maintenance of phobias through avoidance but behaviours are only 1 component of phobias.
  • 2 process model doesnt explain where the faulty cognition comes from.
  • model cannot offer a full explanation so it lacks validity
• whats another strength of phobias?

  • theres supporting evidence (ohman et al)
  • gave ppts shocks while looking at pictures of things logical to fear and things illogical to fear.
  • ppts became anxious about these things but this process of association took less time for logical fears.
  • supports classical conditioning but suggests other factors involved as there was a development for logical fears over illogical.
• What is the final weakness of phobias (treatments)

  • takes nurture side
  • seligman 1970 said phobias may be adaptive to fear things that could harm us.
  • ancestors avoided these things to survive so we have inherited their fear and cycle continues.
  • therefore it could explain why its easier to condition fear for logical things in ohmans experiment.
• what is systematic desensitisation?

  1. learn relaxation techniques due to principle of reciprocal inhibition
  2. create an anxiety heirarchy
  3. gradual exposure - work through the heirarchy using relaxation techniques
• what does in vivo mean?

  in real life
• what does in vitro mean?

  imagination
• what is flooding?

  • based on classical condkitioning
  • have to endure phobic stimuli until totally calm.
  • no gradual exposure - direct and immediate instead
• what is a strength of treatment for phobias?

  • research to support the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation
  • gilroy et al 2002, used 42 ppts with a fear of spiders and each of them was treated using three 45 minute SD sessions.Then compared to a control group.
  • when followed up with at both 3 and 33 months after treatment, the SD group was less fearful of spiders than the control group.
  • therefore this provides support for SD as long term treatments for phobia.
• what is a weakness of treatments to phobias?

  • works not as well for phobias that are thought to be evolutionary.
  • not all phobias are from an experience through classical conditioning.
  • some phobias like heights serve as an adaptive behaviour that aids survival.
  • therefore, this therapy wouldn't work for those with these types of phobias
• whats another weakness of treatment to phobias?

  • flooding can be very traumatic and unpleasant.
  • patients are confronted with the worst case scenario of their phobia.
  • wolpe 1969 even reported a case where a patient had to be rushed to the hospital because she was so anxious.
  • therefore it questions how appropriate this therapy is.
• whats the final strength of treatments to phobias?

  • research to support the effectiveness of flooding in treating phobias.
  • nesbitt 1973 reported a case of a 7year old who is scared of escalators and she was required to ride up and down the escalator repeatedly.
  • after 27 minutes she could do it alone and after 29 minutes there was no anxiety.
  • therefore this supports flooding to be successful at curing phobias.