eval

• AO3


  Assessment Objective 3
• There is empirical support to show how classical conditioning leads to the development of phobias
• Watson and Rayner (1920)


  • Used classical conditioning to create a phobia in an infant called Little Albert
  • Albert developed a phobia of a white rat when he learned to associate the rat with a loud noise
• The behaviorist approach adopts a limited in the origins of a phobia, as it overlooks the role of cognition
• Ignoring the role of cognition is problematic, as irrational thinking appears to be a key feature of phobias
• One weakness of in vitro systematic desensitization is that it relies on the client’s ability to be able to imagine the fearful situation. Some people cannot create a vivid image, and thus, systematic desensitization is not always effective (there are individual differences).

  Systematic desensitization is a slow process, taking, on average, 6-8 sessions. Although, research suggests that the longer the technique takes, the more effective it is.
• Tomarken et al. (1989)

  • Presented a series of slides of snake and neutral images (e.g., trees) to phobic and non-phobic participants
  • The phobics tended to overestimate the number of snake images presented
• In theory, anyone could develop a phobia of a potentially harmful object, although this does not always happen
• Despite the fact that most adults have either experienced, witnessed or heard about car accidents where another person is injured, the phobia of cars is virtually non-existent
• Biological preparedness


  Humans have a biological preparedness to develop certain phobias rather than others because they were adaptive (i.e., helpful) in our evolutionary past
• Seligman (1970)


  • Individuals that avoided snakes and high places would be more likely to survive long enough and pass on their genes than those who did not
• The idea of biological preparedness is further supported by Ost and Hugdahl (1981), who claims that nearly half of all people with phobias have never had an anxious experience with the object of their fear, and some have had no experience at all
• Systematic desensitization


  Highly effective where the problem is learned anxiety about specific objects/situations (e.g., phobias)
• Some snake phobics


  • Have never encountered a snake
• Systematic desensitization


  Not effective in treating serious mental disorders like depression and schizophrenia
• The cognitive approach criticizes the behavioral model as it does not take mental processes into account
• Studies have shown that neither relaxation nor hierarchies are necessary and that the important factor is just exposure to the feared object or situation
• Flooding


  May be more effective than systematic desensitization
• They argue that the thinking processes that occur between a stimulus and a response are responsible for the feeling component of the response
• Social phobias and agoraphobia

  Do not seem to show as much improvement with systematic desensitization
• Could it be that there are other causes for phobias than classical conditioning?
• If a fear of public speaking originates with poor social skills

  Then phobic reduction is more likely to be effective
• Rothbaum used SD with participants who were afraid of flying. Following treatment, 93% agreed to take a trial flight. It was found that anxiety levels were lower than those of a control group who had not received SD, and this improvement was maintained when they were followed up six months later.
• SD creates high levels of anxiety when patients are initially exposed, which raises ethical issues and so questions of appropriateness. It should be noted that virtual reality therapy does help resolve these issues.
• Flooding is rarely used, and if you are not careful, it can be dangerous. It is not an appropriate treatment for every phobia. It should be used with caution as some people can actually increase their fear after therapy, and it is not possible to predict when this will occur.
• Flooding therapy


  Therapy that intensifies anxiety to such a degree that the client is hospitalized
• Some people will not be able to tolerate the high levels of anxiety induced by the therapy and are, therefore, at risk of exiting the therapy before they are calm and relaxed
• An existing treatment before completion is likely to strengthen rather than weaken the phobia
• Applications of flooding therapy

  • Fear of water (forced to swim out of their depth)
  • Agoraphobia
• Flooding produces results as effective (sometimes even more so) as systematic desensitization
• Phobias are so persistent because the object is avoided in real life and is therefore not extinguished by the discovery that it is harmless