PAPER ONE: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
TOPIC: Phobias treatments
A01:
Systematic Densensitisation:
- Developed by Wolpe to gradually reduce phobia anxiety through the principle of
classical conditioning
- Patients learn in stages to replace fear responses with feelings of calm and
relaxation
- This is achieved by learning a new response of the phobic stimulus = counter
conditioning
3 processes involved:
1. Anxiety Hierarchy
- Put together by the patient and therapist
- List of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged in order
from least to most frightening
- Patient also provides a score to each situation to help the therapist measure the
depth of their fear
2. Relaxation
- Therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible
- Involves breathing exercises, mental imagery techniques, meditation
- Can also be achieved through drugs (Valium)
3. Exposure
- Patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state
- Starts at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy and if the patient can stay relaxed in the
presence of the lower levels of the phobic stimulus, they move up
- Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high on the
anxiety hierarchy
A03:
X - Symptom substitution
- This is where one phobia disappears, but another may form in its place
- Suggests that SD is not effective in removing phobias as one is simply replaced with
another
✓ - Patients prefer it to flooding
- Doesn’t cause the same degree of trauma
- Suggests SD is an appropriate treatment for phobias
✓ - Research support for the effectiveness of SD
- Gilroy et al found that at 3 months and 33 months after SD for arachnophobia, p’s
were less fearful than the control group
- Shows SD is helpful in reducing anxiety in specific phobias and the effect is long
lasting
A01:
Flooding:
- Patients go straight to the top of the hierarchy and imagine/have direct contact with
their phobias (immediate exposure)
, - Patients can’t make their usual avoidance responses so anxiety peaks at a high level
that can’t be maintained and eventually decreases due to extinction or exhaustion
- This treatment stops a phobia quickly as the patient learns that the stimulus is
harmless
- This is extinction = a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned
stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned response
- Not unethical as patients give fully informed consent
A03:
✓ - As effective as other treatments
- Studies comparing flooding to other treatments have found it is effective and quicker
than alternatives
- Means patients are free of their symptoms as soon as possible and makes it cheaper
also
X - Less effective for social phobias
- Social phobias have cognitive aspects, doesn’t just experience anxiety but also
thinks unpleasant thoughts
- This type of phobia may benefit from cognitive therapies as they tackle irrational
thinking
X - Highly traumatic
- Not unethical as patients give fully informed consent, however they are often
unwilling to see it through to the end of the treatment
- Means treatment is not effective and therefore time and money are wasted
, PAPER ONE: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
TOPIC: Phobias explanation
A01:
- Mowrer proposed the 2 process model based on the behavioural approach to
phobias:
- Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning
- Phobias are maintained through operant conditioning
KEY STUDY: WATSON & RAYNER
Before conditioning:
- When Albert played with a white rat, a loud noise was made. The noise (UCS) = fear
(UCR)
During conditioning:
- The rat (NS) didn’t create fear until paired with the loud noise
After conditioning:
- Albert showed a fear response (CR) every time he came into contact with the rat
(now CS)
- Extinction = a conditioned association begins to fade if not reinforced
- Generalisation = conditioned associations can widen beyond the specific stimuli
presented (Albert’s fear of white rats was generalised to other white furry objects)
Maintaining phobias:
- When an individual avoids their phobic stimulus, they are maintaining it through
negative reinforcement
- Avoiding a phobic stimulus is desirable as we don’t experience the unpleasantness of
the phobia
- When we avoid it, we escape the fear and anxiety we would’ve suffered if we
remained there
- This reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour, maintaining the
phobia
A03:
X - Doesn’t acknowledge cognitive factors
- 2 process model explains maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance, but we
know phobias also have a cognitive element
- 2 process model doesn’t address the cognitive element
X - The acquisition of phobias in incomplete
- There are some aspects of phobia behaviour that need further explaining, we acquire
phobias of things that were a danger in our evolutionary past. This is biological
preparedness = we are innately prepared to fear things more than others
- Problem for the 2 process model as it shows there is more to acquiring phobias that
classical conditioning
X - Environmentally reductionist
- Some phobias do appear following a bad experience that can be seen as a result of
conditioning, however sometimes people have a bad experience and don’t develop a
phobia
TOPIC: Phobias treatments
A01:
Systematic Densensitisation:
- Developed by Wolpe to gradually reduce phobia anxiety through the principle of
classical conditioning
- Patients learn in stages to replace fear responses with feelings of calm and
relaxation
- This is achieved by learning a new response of the phobic stimulus = counter
conditioning
3 processes involved:
1. Anxiety Hierarchy
- Put together by the patient and therapist
- List of situations related to the phobic stimulus that provoke anxiety arranged in order
from least to most frightening
- Patient also provides a score to each situation to help the therapist measure the
depth of their fear
2. Relaxation
- Therapist teaches the patient to relax as deeply as possible
- Involves breathing exercises, mental imagery techniques, meditation
- Can also be achieved through drugs (Valium)
3. Exposure
- Patient is exposed to the phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state
- Starts at the bottom of the anxiety hierarchy and if the patient can stay relaxed in the
presence of the lower levels of the phobic stimulus, they move up
- Treatment is successful when the patient can stay relaxed in situations high on the
anxiety hierarchy
A03:
X - Symptom substitution
- This is where one phobia disappears, but another may form in its place
- Suggests that SD is not effective in removing phobias as one is simply replaced with
another
✓ - Patients prefer it to flooding
- Doesn’t cause the same degree of trauma
- Suggests SD is an appropriate treatment for phobias
✓ - Research support for the effectiveness of SD
- Gilroy et al found that at 3 months and 33 months after SD for arachnophobia, p’s
were less fearful than the control group
- Shows SD is helpful in reducing anxiety in specific phobias and the effect is long
lasting
A01:
Flooding:
- Patients go straight to the top of the hierarchy and imagine/have direct contact with
their phobias (immediate exposure)
, - Patients can’t make their usual avoidance responses so anxiety peaks at a high level
that can’t be maintained and eventually decreases due to extinction or exhaustion
- This treatment stops a phobia quickly as the patient learns that the stimulus is
harmless
- This is extinction = a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned
stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned response
- Not unethical as patients give fully informed consent
A03:
✓ - As effective as other treatments
- Studies comparing flooding to other treatments have found it is effective and quicker
than alternatives
- Means patients are free of their symptoms as soon as possible and makes it cheaper
also
X - Less effective for social phobias
- Social phobias have cognitive aspects, doesn’t just experience anxiety but also
thinks unpleasant thoughts
- This type of phobia may benefit from cognitive therapies as they tackle irrational
thinking
X - Highly traumatic
- Not unethical as patients give fully informed consent, however they are often
unwilling to see it through to the end of the treatment
- Means treatment is not effective and therefore time and money are wasted
, PAPER ONE: PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
TOPIC: Phobias explanation
A01:
- Mowrer proposed the 2 process model based on the behavioural approach to
phobias:
- Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning
- Phobias are maintained through operant conditioning
KEY STUDY: WATSON & RAYNER
Before conditioning:
- When Albert played with a white rat, a loud noise was made. The noise (UCS) = fear
(UCR)
During conditioning:
- The rat (NS) didn’t create fear until paired with the loud noise
After conditioning:
- Albert showed a fear response (CR) every time he came into contact with the rat
(now CS)
- Extinction = a conditioned association begins to fade if not reinforced
- Generalisation = conditioned associations can widen beyond the specific stimuli
presented (Albert’s fear of white rats was generalised to other white furry objects)
Maintaining phobias:
- When an individual avoids their phobic stimulus, they are maintaining it through
negative reinforcement
- Avoiding a phobic stimulus is desirable as we don’t experience the unpleasantness of
the phobia
- When we avoid it, we escape the fear and anxiety we would’ve suffered if we
remained there
- This reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance behaviour, maintaining the
phobia
A03:
X - Doesn’t acknowledge cognitive factors
- 2 process model explains maintenance of phobias in terms of avoidance, but we
know phobias also have a cognitive element
- 2 process model doesn’t address the cognitive element
X - The acquisition of phobias in incomplete
- There are some aspects of phobia behaviour that need further explaining, we acquire
phobias of things that were a danger in our evolutionary past. This is biological
preparedness = we are innately prepared to fear things more than others
- Problem for the 2 process model as it shows there is more to acquiring phobias that
classical conditioning
X - Environmentally reductionist
- Some phobias do appear following a bad experience that can be seen as a result of
conditioning, however sometimes people have a bad experience and don’t develop a
phobia
