assessment 8

• internal working model

  bowlby argues that the child forms a 'mental representation' (schema) of their early attachment relationship with their primary caregiver. this acts as a model for what future relationships are like and a future relationship will mirror them. if the child is raised by a loving primary caregiver who responds to their needs, they are likely to have a secure attachment and view relationships as positive and have more successful later relationships. however, if their first relationship is with a caregiver who is unresponsive to their needs they are more likely to have an insecure attachment and more problems in forming relationships (negative) and may not behave appropriately when they are in them e.g. arguing more. this mental representation of early attachment influences the nature of all their later childhood and adult relationships but also their relationship with their own children
• influence of internal working model on childhood relationships

  attachment type is linked to the quality of peer relationships in later childhood. if a child has a secure attachment to their primary caregiver, they are more likely to have better quality relationships with their peers. however if they have an insecure attachment to their primary caregiver, they are more likely to have difficulties in making friends. smith et al (1998) found that this early attachment could predict bullying behaviour with insecure-avoidant children being most likely to be victims of bullying and insecure-resistant child being most likely to be the bully
• influence of internal working model on adult romantic relationships

  research has shown that the internal working model can also influence adult relationships. Hazen and Shaver created a questionnaire (the love quiz) which was printed in newspapers to study a person's adult attachment and their attachment in early childhood. they found: 56% of participants were securely attached as children. they were most likely to have positive and longer lasting romantic relationships with partners they felt they could trust. 25% were seen as insecure-avoidant as children and these people reported more feelings of jealousy and feared intimacy (closeness). finally, 19% were classified as insecure-resistant as children and these people fear being abandoned and can put too much pressure on their partner.

  they concluded that the patterns of attachment behaviour are reflected in adult romantic relationships
• influence of internal working model on relationships with own children

  an internal working model affects the ability to form a good relationship with their own children. people base their parenting style on their internal working model, so attachment tends to be passed on through family generations. bailey et al (2007) found that mothers tended to have the same attachment style with their child as they did with their own mother
• research to support the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (harlow)

  research to support the influence of early attachments on later relationships was conducted by harlow, harlow separated monkeys from their mothers at birth and raised them in cages, they therefore had no early attachments. harlow found that the monkey's found it very difficult to form relationships with other monkeys when they were older, for example they were timid and easily bullied, they had diffulty mating and females were inadequate mothers. this supports the influence of early attachment on later relationships because it demonstrates that having a negative early attachment can lead to negative relationships later with peers, partners and own children. discussion: however, critics would argue that harlow's research may not be representative of humans as humans are more emotionally complex than animals, for example they may actively choose to try and have positive relationships despite their negative eary attachment experiences, limiting the support the research provides for the influence of early attachment on later relationships
• research to contradict the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (deterministic)

  the influence of early attachment on later relationships can be criticised for being deterministic. the theory states that our behavior (later relationships) is controlled and determined by early relationships, for example negative early attachments will lead to a person having negative attachments with peers/ partners/ their own children. however, this neglects the role of free will and choice an individual has. for example a person may choose to have a different type of relationship with their peers/partner/own child to what they experienced from their parents. therefore limiting the research into the influence of early attachment on later relationships
• research to contradict the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationships (socially sensitive)

  bowlby's theory and research in to the relationship between early attachment and later attachment could be argued to be socially sensitive. this is because it suggests that later childhood and adult relationship success and quality of their parenting are solely due to a person's early childhood attachment. it blames the parents for their relationship failures, which could have a damaging effect on these relationships. this therefore raises ethical issues when explaining the influence of early attachment on later relationships
• research to contradict the influence of early attachment on childhood and adult relationship (retrospective data)

  research into the relationship between early attachment and later relationships is based on retrospective data. as the participants often have to think back to their early attachments. this is a weakness because it relies on individuals accurately recalling their early attachment, however memory has been found to be inaccurate. therefore this lowers the internal validity of research in to the influence of early attachments on later relationships
• introduction

  standard police interviews often revolved around the interviewer, rather than the witness. the interviewer did most of the talking and often asked short, closed questions and witnesses were discouraged from adding extra information

  
  

  fisher and geiselman (1992) developed the cognitive interview, it is a technique used by police to interview witnesses after they have seen a crime or accident to help facilitate the most accurate and detailed memory possible
• four techniques

  recall everything, context reinstatement, recall in reverse, recall from changed perspective
• recall everything

  the witness is asked to report all details of the event even it seems trivial, this may improve the accuracy of ewt because it might act as a trigger to a memory
• context reinstatement

  the witness is asked to mentally place themselves back at the scene of the event and imagine the environment, such as the weather and what they could see, and their emotions. this could improve the accuracy of ewt because it may act as a trigger to a memory (context/state reinstatement) by acting as an external cue
• recall in reverse

  the witness is asked to report what happened in a different chronological order, for example from the end of the crime to the start. this is said to improve the accuracy of ewt as it may prevent witnesses reporting what they expected to happen (schema) rather than what actually happened. moreover, it also prevents dishonesty, as it is harder to lie when having to reverse a story
• recall from changed perspective

  the witness is asked to recall the incident from another person's perspective who witnessed the crime e.g. another witness or the perpetrator. this is said to improve the accuracy of ewt as it may prevent witnesses reporting what they expected to happen (schema) rather than what actually happened
• research to support cognitive interview (fisher)

  research to support the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in improving the accuracy of ewt was conducted by fisher. he reported the results of 50 laboratory experiments that compared the cognitive interview and the standard interview. in these studies participants were shown a film of a staged crime. they were then given either a cognitive interview or standard interview. participants who received the cognitive interview recalled between 25%-100% more correct information than through the standard interview. he concluded that the cognitive interview is more effective than the standard interview for participants recalling information. therefore this supports the effectiveness of the cognitive interview as a way of improving the accuracy of eyewitness testimony
• research to support cognitive interview (kohnken et al)

  research to support the cognitive interview as a method for improving the accuracy of ewt was a meta analysis conducted by kohnken et al (1999). they combined data from 55 studies comparing the ci with the standard police interview. the ci gave an average 41% increase in accurate information compared with the standard interview. this suggests the ci is an effective technique in helping witness recall accurate ewt
• research to contradict cognitive interview (kohnken discussion)

  kohnken et al (1999) also found an increase in the amount of inaccurate information recalled by participants, with a 61% increase of incorrect information reported in a cognitive interview compared to a standard interview. these are known as false positives this is a weakness when using the cognitive interview as despite seeming like more information has been collected, the information could be incorrect, reducing the effectiveness of the cognitive interview in improving the accuracy of ewt
• research to contradict cognitive interview (time consuming)

  a weakness of the cognitive interview is that it is time consuming to use, this is because it requires specialist for police interviewers before they can conduct the ci. moreover, time is needed in order to establish a rapport with the witness and to allow them to relax. this is a weakness because it may mean that the ci is not used effectively due to time constraints during training or the actual interview, thus limiting the effectiveness of the ci in improving the accuracy of ewt
• phobia definition

  phobias are when you experience extreme fear or anxiety activated by an object (spider), place (lift) or situation (crowds) (1). the fears of the phobic stimulus is irrational and often out of proportion to any real danger
• behavioural characteristics

  avoidance of the feared object - making a conscious effort to avoid coming in contact with their phobic stimulus

  panic - crying, shaking, screaming or running away from the phobic stimulus. alternatively, freezing or fainting
• cognitive characteristics

  persistent irrational beliefs - about the phobic stimulus e.g. a spider will harm you

  selective attention - keeping attention on the phobic stimulus and finding it difficult to look away in case of 'danger
• emotional characteristics

  anxiety - exposure to the phobic stimulus causes worry or distress

  fear - exposure to the phobic stimulus causes terror
• behavioural approach (introduction)

  the behavioural approach suggests that phobias are a learned behaviour. mowrer argues that phobias are initially learnt through classical conditioning then maintained through operant conditioning. this is called the two-process model
• behavioural approach (classical conditioning)


  classical conditioning involves learning to associate something of which we initially have no fear of (a neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus). this fear response is triggered every time they see or think about the feared object

  watson and raynor conditioned 9 month old little albert to have a fear of rats
• watson and raynor

  at the beginning of the experiment, 'little albert', was not afraid of rats (ns). whenever the rat (ns) was presented to albert the researchers made a loud, frightening noise (ucs) by banging an iron bar close to albert's ear. the noise caused the unconditioned response of fear in albert. through repetition of pairing the rat with the loud bang, albert learned to associate them together. the rat then became a conditioned stimulus and caused the conditioned response of fear in little albert, whenever he saw the rat (this fear then generalised to similar objects such as a fur coat and the beard on a santa claus mask)
• maintenance by operant conditioning

  responses acquired by classical conditioning usually tend to decline over time. however, phobias are often long lasting. mowrer has explained this as the result of operant conditioning. operant conditioning takes place when our behaviour is reinforced (rewarded) or punished. reinforcement tends to increase the frequency of a behaviour. this is true of both negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement. in the case of negative reinforcement an individual avoids a situation that is unpleasant. such a behaviour results in a desirable consequence, which means the behaviour will be repeated. mowrer suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have suffered if we had remained there. this reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour and so the phobia is maintained
• research to contradict the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias (environmental reductionism)

  the behaviourist approach to explaining a phobia can be criticised for environmental reductionism. it reduces the complex human behaviour of phobias down to simple basic units of learning phobias through stimulus response associations between a neutral stimulus and a fear response and maintaining a phobia through reinforcements. this neglects a holistic approach, which would take in to account how a person's culture and social context would influence phobias. for example, the phobia taijin kyofusho is relative to the culture of japan, which is the extreme fear of displeasing others. therefore, the behavioural explanation (two-process model) of phobias may lack validity, as it does not allow us to understand the behaviour in context
• research to contradict the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias (alternative explanation)

  one alternative explanation that could be considered when explaining phobias is the evolutionary explanation. this would argue that we are born with certain phobias because the feared stimulus would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past and has therefore been passed down through generations as a survival advantage. unlike the behaviourist approach, this could explain why a person may have a phobia of a snake, even if they have never encountered one as they would have been dangerous in our evolutionary past. therefore, the behavioural approach cannot be seen as a solde explanation of phobias
• research to support the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias (practical applications)

  The behavioural approach to explaining phobia (two-process model) has practical applications. It suggests that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and can be unlearnt through classical conditioning. this theory has been used to create the treatment; systematic desensitisation. this works by teaching a patient relaxation techniques and gradually exposing them to their phobic stimulus so they can learn to associate it with relaxation, rather than fear and extinguish the phobia. this helps to treat people in the real world and therefore the behavioural approach (two-process model) of explaining phobias is a significant part of applied psychology
• research to support the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias (ad de jongh)

  research to support the behaviourist explanation comes from a study by ad de jongh et al (2006) who found that 73% of people with a fear of dental treatment had experienced a traumatic experience, mostly involving dentistry. this can be compared to a control group of people with low dental anxiety where only 21% had experienced a traumatic event. this confirms that the association between stimulus (dentistry) and an unconditioned response (pain) leads to the development of a phobia, supporting the behaviourist explanation of phobias.

  DISCUSSION:

  however, it is important to note that not all bad experiences lead to phobias, for example in the study by ad de jongh described above, 21% of people had a traumatic experience involving dentistry and did not develop a phobia. moreover, some people have phobias of stimuli they have never encountered or had a bad experience with, e.g. a snake. this suggests that explanations other than behaviourist should be considered when explaining phobias
• two behavioural approaches to treating phobias

  systematic desensitisation and flooding
• systematic desensitization (relaxation)

  the patient is taught how to relax using muscle relaxation techniques or breathing exercises (the idea is that the patient puts the these techniques in to practice when exposed to the phobia)
• systematic desensitization (hierarchy of anxiety)

  the patient then works with the therapist to make a graded scale starting with stimuli that scares them least to those that scare them most e.g. if they are scared of wasps. a picture of a wasp would be low on the scale and being locked with a wasp in a room would be the highest on the scale
• systematic desensitization (gradual exposure)

  the client is then gradually exposed, first to the least fear situation (at the bottom of the hierarchy), they may feel anxious but are encouraged to put the relaxation techniques into practice. this is known as reciprocal inhibition - the concept whereby two incompatible states of mind cannot co-exist at the same time e.g. anxiety and relaxation

  
  

  once they are relaxed, they are then exposed to the next stage of the hierarchy. this is a gradual process and the client only moves beyond each stage once they are relaxed
• systematic desensitization (complete treatment)

  the patient completes treatment when they are desensitised and are able to move through the hierarchy without anxiety
• systematic desensitization (vitro)

  completing the treatment can be done in vivo (real life) or in vitro (imagination) due to circumstances
• research to support systematic desensitisation (high control)

  systematic desensitization could be seen as a more appropriate behavioural therapy for patients due to high control as patients create their own hierarchy of anxiety with the therapist and are gradually exposed to feared objects and only move on to the next stage of hierarchy once relaxed. unlike other behaviourist treatments e.g. flooding which can be traumatic as patients are immediately exposed to their most feared situation which can cause high anxiety levels. this means that patients often prefer systematic desensitisation and this is reflected in low refusal (saying no to treatment) rates and low attrition (drop out) rates. therefore, suggesting systematic desensitization is an appropriate treatment for phobias
• research to support systematic desensitisation (gilroy et al)


  rts the effectiveness of sd as a treatment for phobias was conducted by gilroy et al (2003). they followed up 42 people who had sd for a spider phobia in three 45 minute sessions. at both three and 33 months later, the sd group were less fearful than a control group treated by relaxation with no exposure. thus suggesting sd is an effective way to treat phobias
• research to support systematic desensitisation (klosko)

  research to support the effectiveness of sd as a treatment for phobias was conducted by klosko. he found that 87% of patients who had panic attacks were panic free after having sd compared to 37% that were given drug treatment. therefore, suggesting systematic desensitisation is an effective treatment for phobias

  
  

  DISCUSSION: however, despite the high percentage of patients being panic free, it could be argued that systematic desensitization may not be appropriate for all patients (explaining the 13% that were not panic free after treatment) as it requires motivation and commitment from patients. patients must attend sessions over a period of time due to the gradual exposure, in addition they are exposed to anxiety provoking situations, this may make some patients stop therapy. therefore limiting the appropriateness of systematic desensitisation as a treatment for phobias
• flooding aim

  to use classical conditioning to unlearn a maladaptive behavioural response to a phobic stimulus (feared situation or object)