phobias

• phobias are an anxiety disorder, irrational or disproportional fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared object or situation, and it is maladaptive and disruptive to everyday life.
• emotional characteristics of phobias:

  Emotional response of anxiety and fear

  unpleasant state of high arousal

  emotional response is disproportional to real threat
• Behavioral characteristics of phobias:

  Panic which includes screaming, crying, flight/fight or freeze

  Avoidance to the phobic stimulus, making it hard to go about daily life

  Endurance when in unavoidable situations, continuous and extreme anxiety
• Cognitive characteristics of phobias

  Selective attention to the phobic stimulus (cognitive distortion)

  Irrational thought processes that exaggerates the threat

  Failure to respond to rational arguments and the person knows their fear is excessive.
• the behavioral approach suggests that phobias are learnt behavior. Mower proposed the two process model based off this approach.
• classical conditioning- watson and rayder conditioned little albert to fear white rats. For a long time albert played with the rat with no fear, and then one day while playing the experimenters struck a metal bar with a hammer to his head. This was then repeated each time he reached for the rat. Overtime Albert developed an intense fear of white rats.
• operant conditioning- avoidance of the phobic object/situation is reinforced by the reduction of anxiety. avoidance maintains the fear and preserves the phobia but frequent contact may reveal it is harmless which leads to the extinction of the phobia. However, most people go to great lengths to avoid the object/situation. the two process theory argues that phobias are acquired through cc but maintained through oc.
• The behavioral approach to psychopathology is scientific and can be measured in an objective way. For example, Little Alberts phobia was clear for all to see and could be measured, the variables could also be manipulated and controlled to ensure that the phobia developed was as a result of a neutral stimulus being associated with an unconditioned stimulus. This explains the role of CC in the development of phobias. This is positive because it allows concepts such as CC to be demonstrated scientifically.
• The two process model can be criticized for being deterministic. For example the model suggests that when an individual experiences a traumatic event and uses this event to draw an association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned response, they will go on to develop a phobia. This is a weakness because this theory of phobia suggests that we are programmed by our environmental experiences and ignores the individuals free will.
• the behavioral approach for phobias can be criticized for being reductionist. For example the two process model suggests that complex mental disorders such as phobias are caused solely by our experiences of association, rewards and punishments. This is a problem because the behavioral approach to explaining phobias can be seen as too simplistic. It only explains all behavior through learning experiences as it ignores the role of other factors such as biology in the developments of abnormality and has no role for any genetic contributions.
• systematic desensitization was developed by Wolpe

  Step 1= clients are taught deep relaxation techniques

  Step 2= Client constructs a fear hierarchy and ranks their fear from lowest to highest

  step 3= In the presence of the therapist the client confronts each item in the list while in deep relaxation. They start with the least feared item and move when comfortable. This confrontation may be real or imagined. This continues until they reach the top of the list.
• Step 4= The client will cope with every level of hierarchy. They can stop or restart at a lower level.

  Step 5= If the systematic desensitization works, clients have been counter conditioned and they would have learnt a new response to a stimulus. They no longer associate the object or situation with fear.
• Research shows that systematic desensitization is an effective treatment of specific phobias. Mcgrath et al 75% of patients respond to SD. Also supported by Gilroy 42 patients with arachnophobia found that after 33 months they were less fearful, helping reduce anxiety in the phobia. This is positive because this therapy is effective at removing the symptoms of a phobia and these effects are long lasting.
• SD is a suitable treatment for a diverse range of patients. It is much well suited to some patients than flooding or other cognitive therapies. some sufferers have learning difficulties which may make it difficult for them to understand what is happening during flooding/cognitive therapies which may require reflection. This matters because it provides a treatment for different types of patients to help them with their phobia.
• SD are not effective for more complex phobias. Ohman et al suggested SD might not be effective in treating anxieties that have an underlying survival component e.g fear of heights. This is a problem because by only focusing on the removal of symptoms rather than identifying the underlying cause, a disorder may only be removed temporarily and may reoccur and often return worse.
• Flooding directly exposes the client to the object or situations they fear. It bits them hard. In theory exposing them repeatedly to the feared stimulus will allow them to see that there is no basis for their fear. If the therapy works this leads to the extinction of the therapy.
• Flooding works by having immediate exposure to the frightening situation and it stops the phobic response because you cant avoid it. The patient may become relaxed because they get exhausted by their own fear.
• one strength of flooding is that it is cost effective. It can be achieved in one session only and allows the patients to carry on with their own lives. it is a popular choice amongst sufferers.
• However, one problem is that it is less effective for some types of phobia. For example social phobias, like fear of public speaking, are known to be complex in nature. They are likely to involve cognitive factors. Ineffective for complex phobias as it only targets behavioural responses. Cognitive and behavioural treatment is most effective for complex phobias.
• One ethical issue that arises is that the treatment may be traumatic for patients, as it is inappropriate for patients lacking insight into the motives of the treatment. Therefore, arises issues with informed consent. Overall, it is unethical as it may cause harm, also ineffective as patients might walk out before treatment ends reinforcing their phobia.