phobias

• what is fear

  the word we use to describe our emotional reaction to something dangerous
• what is a phobia

  a constant and severe fear of an object, person or situation it is an irrational panic response because the fear is much greater than the danger posed and it interferes with the persons normal life
• what can be used to remember the phobia definition

  CSI

  Constant

  Severe

  Irrational
• is being afraid the same as a phobia

  no being afraid is therefore not the same as having a phobia
• what are some examples of how people with phobias behave

  • screaming
  • crying
  • stuttering
  • shaking
  • hug themself
  • flinching
  • avoidance
  • endurance
• what is some examples of how people with phobias feel

  • distress
  • sick
  • fear
  • high state
  • arousal
• what is some examples of how someone with a phobia thinks

  • gonna be attacked
  • irrational thoughts
  • negative things
• what are the 3 behavioral characteristics of phobias

  • panic
  • avoidance
  • endurance
• what are the behavioural characteristics of panic

  • a response of the stimulus
  • include a range of behaviour such crying, screaming and running away
  • children may react differently such as freezing, clinging or having a tantrum
• what is the behavioural characteristics of avoidance

  • unless the sufferer is making an effort to face they tend to go to alot of effort to avoid phobia causing it to disturb everyday life
• what is the behavioural characteristics of endurance

  • a sufferer remains in the presence of a phobic stimulus but continues high levels of anxiety
  • may be an unavoidable situation such as flying
• what are the 3 emotional characteristics of phobias

  • anxiety
  • example arachnophobia
  • emotional response are unreasonable
• what are the emotional characteristics of anxiety

  • classes as anxiety disorder
  • an unpleasant state if high arousal which prevents sufferers relax and very difficult for any positive response
  • can be long term
  • fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobia stimulus
• what is the emotional characteristics of arachnophobia

  • a phobia of spiders
  • a person will have high anxiety levels as a response to the presence of the spider
  • when they see a spider they will experience fear - a strong emotional response to the spider itself
• what is the emotional characteristics of emotional responces are unreasonable

  • the emotional response we experience in relation to phobia goes beyond reason
  • eg arachnophobia involves a very strong emotional response to a tiny spider
  • this is a widely disproportionate to the danger posed by any spider someone with a phobia is likely to meet
• what are the 3 cognitive characteristics of phobias

  • selective attention to the phobia stimulus
  • irrational belief
  • cognitive distortions
• what are the cognitive characteristics of selective attention to the phobia stimulus

  • if a sufferer can see a phobic stimulus its hard to look away
  • it is a good thing to keep our attention on something dangerous as it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat
  • its can be not useful if the fear is irrational
  • eg// arachnophobia will struggle to concentrate on what they are doing if there is a spider
• what are the cognitive characteristics of irrational belief

  • may hold irrational belief in relation to phobic stimulus
  • eg// the belief of spiders is going to kill you or poison you
  • eg// the social phobia has the belief "i must always be intelligent"
  • this kind of belief increases the pressure on the sufferer to the preform well in social situation
• what are the cognitive characteristics of cognitive distortions

  • the phobic perceptions of the phobia stimulus may be distorted
  • eg// arachnophobia may see spiders as alien and aggressive looking
• who came up with the 2 process model

  hobart mowrer
• what did Hobart Mowrer propose

  phobias can be learnt from the environment by classical conditioning and then maintained by operant conditioning
• what does the 2-process model explanation claim using classical conditioning

  phobias occur when a stimulus that causes fear is paired with a neutral stimulus, the neutral stimulus then became associated with fear this causes the neutral stimulus to be feared by the person which may result in a phobia
• what is the evidence for the two-process model

  watson and raynor
• what did waston and rayner do

  conducted a laboratory experiment that caused a phobia to develop in a young albert, before the study took place they discovered that albert only had a fear of loud noises they used this fear to condition albert to have a fear of white rats. every time albert went to touch a rat the investigators produced a loud sound resulting in albert having a phobia of white rats
• what happened in the little albert study

  before conditioning - loud noises (UNS) -> fear (UCR)

  white rats (NS) -> no response

  during conditioning - loud noises (UCS) + white rats (NS) -> fear (UCR)

  after conditioning - white rat (CS) -> fear (CR)
• what was the response of the little albert study

  little albert has learnt to have a phobia of rats because he associated them with the loud and fear
• what are 2 limitations of the little albert study

  • the study was unethical
  • little albert generalized his phobia to other white furry objects
• how is the little albert study unethical

  it caused psychological damage to little albert long term
• what is generalization and some examples of other white furry objects

  extending the fear of the conditioned stimulus to other stimulus objects or situations, little albert extended the fear of rats to other white furry objects such as rabbits, fur coats and Santa's beard
• how can operant conditioning be used to maintain phobias

  when avoidance responses are made the fear response is reduced, reinforcing the avoidance response making it more likely to happen again so the phobia continues as the suffer is constantly making reinforcing avoidance responses and avoiding the thing they are scared of which explains how phobia are reinforced, when avoidance response is stopped the fear reduced
• what is an example of operant conditioning maintaining the phobia

  if a person has a phobia of the dark then they might sleep with the light on every night which is negatively reinforcing their behaviour and continuing their phobia of the dark
• what is an example of negative reinforcement

  you keep the light on to not experience unpleasant anxiety fearing
• which is the approach used for an explanation phobias

  behavioural
• what are some strengths of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias

  • the two-process model explains how phobias can be maintained over time and this is important for the development of effective therapies because it explains why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus so they cannot negatively reinforce themselves by avoiding the feared stimulus
  • reductionism is not always a weakness because from a single explanation a simple treatment can be devised, this simple treatment is called systematic desensitization and is the treatment you need to learn for phobias
• what are some weaknesses of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias

  • a weakness of the behavioural approach is that it has been criticized for being too reductionist
  • there is evidence to suggest that not everyone with a phobia develops avoidance responses some people with agoraphobia will leave their home in the presence of certain people because these people are trusted and are safe
• what is meant by reductionist

  psychologist reducing behaviour to 1 single simple explanation
• what is biological preparedness

  our ancestors adapted to those things that put you in danger and threaten survival
• why do people not having a avoidance response go against the two-process model

  it is not developed through classical or operant conditioning
• what is a strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (PEEL) (explanatory power)

  P - a strength of the two process approach is that it has good explanatory power

  E - the two-process model went beyond Watson and Raynor's simple classical conditioning explanation of phobias

  E - the two-process model also explains how phobias are maintained using positive or negative reinforcement

  L - therefore it has good explanatory power as it not only explains phobias but also how they are maintained
• what is a limitation of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias (PEEL) (alternate explanation)

  P - a limitation is that there are alternative explanations for avoidance behaviour

  E - with more complex phobias such as agoraphobia there is evidence to suggest that some avoidance behaviour is motivated by more positive feelings of safety

  E - this explains why someone with agoraphobia may be able to leave the house with certain people as they are safe and trusted

  L - this is a problem for the two-process model which suggests that avoidance is motivated by anxiety reduction