PHOBIAS

• a phobia is..


  a constant irrational fear of a person object or place. it is an irrational panic response in which the fear is greater than the threat posed and it interferes with day to day life
• what are the three behavioural characteristics of a phobia

  avoidance, panic, endurance
• what are the 2 emotional characteristics of a phobia

  anxiety, unreasonable responses
• what are the three cognitive characteristics of a phobia

  selective attention, irrational beliefs, cognitive distortion
• TWO PROCESS MODEL
• who proposed the 2 process model

  Hobart Mowrer (1960)
• classical conditioning


  associating a neutral stimulus with a bad experience = fear
• operant conditioning


  maintains phobia
• how does operant conditioning maintain the phobia

  Through negative reinforcement.

  when avoidance response occurs the fear is reduced negatively reinforcing the avoidance so it happens again
• a strength of this theory

  explanatory power helps develop effective treatments
• Reductionism strength and limitation?

  :( - reductionist, ignores bio explanations

  :) - however a simple explanation = a simple treatment
• why isn't this applicable to agoraphobics?

  because they dont use avoidance responses
• systematic desensitization


  A type of exposure therapy that associates a pleasant relaxed state with gradually increasing phobic stimuli
• what is counter conditioning


  making a new association between the phobic stimulus + relaxation
• what are the 4 stages of systematic desensitisation

  - taught relaxation techniques

  - create a fear hierarchy - least to most

  - exposed to phobic stimulus (in vivo/ covert)

  - repeat at each stage
• what is covert desensitisation


  imagine
• what is in vivo desensitisation

  A real life situation
• is it effective


  :) 50% effective which is 25% more than other treatments

  :( however if it was fully effective it would be 100%
• 2 limitations of this method

  - techniques developed may not transfer to real life

  - expensive, time consuming
• flooding

  patients are exposed to large amounts of their feared stimulus they cant maintain a panic state so they eventually calm down and relax
• 2 strengths

  - effective, Wolpe put a girl in a car and drove her around for 4 hours to extinguish fear of cars

  - quick + cost effective
• 2 limitations


  - more ethical issues than SD, protection from harm

  - not applicable to agoraphobics