Topic D Why do we have phobias?

Transcription

1 Topic D Why do we have phobias? Topic Notes Understand Revised Causes of phobias including: 1) the evolutionary explanation of preparedness 2) Social Learning Theory (modelling and vicarious reinforcement) 3) classical/pavlovian conditioning (association and generalisation) The nature-nurture debate in relation to understanding phobias The following terms and their use when referring to methodology: 1) questionnaire 2) open-ended and closed questions 3) rank scales (eg Likert style questions) 4) standardised instructions 5) response bias 6) social desirability. Questionnaires as a research method including evaluation Ethical issues of laboratory experiments using animals including social isolation, number and choice of species Practical issues of laboratory experiments using animals including three practical issues The aims, procedures and findings (results and/or conclusions) and evaluation of 1) Cover-Jones (1924) The case of Little Peter 2) Bennett-Levy and Marteau (1984) Fear of animals. What is prepared? Flooding and systematic desensitisation as therapies used to treat phobias The ethics of flooding and systematic desensitisation as therapies used to treat phobias, including the guidelines of distress and right to withdraw The role of a clinical psychologist including: 1) who they might work for 2) what they do 3) skills required 4) qualifications required 5) chartered status 6) what they might do to help a person with phobias. Cultural issues in the development of phobias using Heinrichs et al, (2005) Cultural differences in perceived social norms and social anxiety. 1

2 Glossary Terms Definition anxiety A state of fear or worry association The link between the neutral stimulus and the unconditioned stimulus that makes the neutral stimulus causes the same response. classical A learning process which builds up an association between two stimuli conditioning through repeated pairings. closed questions Simple question with few possible answers collectivist Describes a culture that encourages group dependence, cooperation and group identity, e.g. Japan. People rely on each other to achieve together. custom A longstanding practice of a particular group of people distressing When a person is suffering physically or psychologically, they may feel harm, embarrassment or pain extinction The loss of a classically conditioned response when the conditioned stimulus is repeated many times without the unconditioned stimulus. generalisation When a conditioned response is produced to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus. hierarchy of fears A list of fears that are arranged from most to least feared individualistic Describes a culture that encourages independence, personal achievement, competition and individuality, e.g. the USA Likert style Question using statements with five choices from strongly agree to questions strongly disagree. open-ended Question with few possible answers questions phobia An intense fear that prevents normal living in some way preparedness The tendency to learn some associations more easily, quickly and permanently than others. questionnaires A research method using written questions response bias The patterns that participants fall into when answering a questionnaire, for example always saying yes or trying to guess the aim right to withdraw The ability of a person to remove himself or herself from the situation social desirability When participants give the answers they think will be acceptable to other bias people, to make themselves look better social isolation Refers to a complete or near-complete lack of contact with society for members of a social species. It is not the same as loneliness rooted in temporary lack of contact with others social norm A behaviour or belief that is expected and accepted in a particular culture standardised Guidance for participants that is the same for everyone instructions systematic A therapy that is used for specific phobias and involves pairing relaxation desensitisation with the phobic object rather than fear vicarious Learning through the positive consequences of other people s actions reinforcement rather than firsthand we are more likely to copy if they are rewarded. 2

3 The evolutionary explanation of preparedness According to the theory of evolution, some behaviour is adaptive because they can help an animal to survive. Animals that respond with fear to dangerous situations such as deep water or fire are more likely to be injury-free and stay alive. In early evolution, humans who avoided getting hurt or killed (was afraid of danger) would be able to survive and have more children. They would pass on their fear to their children. This is how natural selection works. This can be used to explain why we are scared of dangerous objects and situations. Some phobia is related to what was harmful in our evolutionary past. Spiders were potentially harmful in our past. We have been genetically pre-programmed to be easily conditioned to fear spiders as a result of this. The genetic predisposition has been passed down through generations through the genes. Evolution has made us more scared of things that are different to humans (generic). Ancestors were scared of dangerous things and this is a hang up today. Re-write the above outline of evolutionary explanation of phobias. Evaluation of the evolutionary explanation of phobias The idea of preparedness can explain why some phobias, such as phobias of spiders, are common. The preparedness theory can also explain why we do not easily learn fears of modern things that are potentially dangerous, such as electric sockets or knives. It cannot explain modern phobias, such as Amaxophobia (fear of riding in a car). Because cars were not in our evolutionary past. We have not developed a preparedness for cars.. This would not affect survival and be passed down through our genes because they were not there. 3

4 Social learning theory of phobias We imitate other people who have a phobia. These others are likely to be role models. If another person shows fear around an object/animal we learn vicariously to also fear the object. Mineka and Cook found that isolated monkeys could learn a fear of snakes from watching a wild monkey s response of fear. Mary Cover-Jones used SLT with Little Peter to help extinguish his phobia. Add more details to the above outline of the social learning theory of phobias. Are there other key terms of SLT that you can use in your outline? Evaluation of the social learning theory of phobias The social learning theory of phobias has been supported by research evidence. Mineka et al. (1984) found that their laboratory monkeys that had grown up in the wild were afraid of snakes. The ones born in captivity were not afraid. Mineka et al thought that the wild-born monkeys had learned their fear by observing adults in the wild. The lab-born monkeys then watched a wild-born monkey reacting to each object. They learned to fear snakes but not the other objects. This shows that monkeys could learn to be afraid of any objects. The social learning theory of phobias ignores the nature explanations of phobias. The idea of preparedness supports the nature side of the debate. It suggests there is a genetic influence on the kinds of things we learn to fear. Bennett-Levy and Marteau showed that people are afraid of animals with certain characteristics. These could be the ones that our genes make us likely to fear. So people seem more often to fear stimuli that have been prepared by evolution. Slater and shield (1969) found that identical twins were more similar in their phobias than non-identical ones. This supports the nature side of the debate. 4

5 Classical/Pavlovian conditioning theory of phobias The classical conditioning theory of phobias suggests that we are conditioned to associate an object or a situation with fear and this is why phobias are developed. For example, give an animal a shock when they see a balloon or produce a loud noise when an animal is playing with a ball in the garden. Continue shocking the animal in the presence of a balloon until a fear response is maintained. In another word, continue presenting a loud noise in the garden until fear response is consistent with balloon exposure. Ensure the balloon and shock are presented together. Control the garden environment so that other no other noise or factor affects the conditioning. So the animal would have associated the fear with the balloon and is now scared of it. Before developing the fear, the balloon is the NS; the shock is the UCS that causes fear; the balloon is associated with the shock and becomes the CS; the balloon CS eventually causes fear as the CR; Answer the following question using the information above. Angharrad has a phobia of cats. Her teacher explained that she may have developed her fear through the process of classical conditioning. Using your knowledge of classical conditioning, describe how Angharrad s teacher may have explained how she developed her fear of cats. Classical conditioning theory has been supported by research evidence. Watson and Rayner (1920) produced a phobia in little boy called Albert. Each time a white rat was shown to Albert, a loud noise was made with steel bar behind him. The noise frightened him and he associated his fear with the rat. Albert s dear generalised to other white, fluffy things such as cotton wool and a Father Christmas mask. Classical conditioning theory was based on animal studies (Pavlov research on dogs). We might ask to what extent that findings from animals can be generalised to humans because humans are different from animals in many ways. Using an example to demonstrate humans are different from animals. 5

6 The nature-nurture debate in relation to understanding phobias Arguments for the nature side Arguments for the nurture side of the debate of the debate Preparedness explains that some Social learning theory says we learn phobias by observing objects or animals are more others with phobias. Role models such as parents we identify likely to become phobias over with are modelled. If we see a role model frightened of an others; this is due to our object we learn vicariously and avoid the object too. Cook evolutionary past. The objects and Mineka showed how monkeys model wild monkeys fear that we are more ready to response to snakes. Leib et al. (2000) found that children develop phobias of are likely to were more likely to have a social phobia if their parents did, have caused us harm in our past, so the children may have imitated their behaviour. such as snakes, spiders, fire, deep water, and lightning. This Classical conditioning can explain how we learn a phobia suggests that we have a through association of the object with a fear response. biological or innate readiness for Bennet-Levy and Marteau show how we are more ready to certain phobias. This supports fear certain animals that we perceive as ugly and slimy. the nature side of the debate. Watson and Raynor conditioned Little Albert s fear of a We have a genetic inbuilt white rat which supports the idea that phobias are learned. preparedness to fear danger. This supports the nurture side of the debate. Phobias running in families could be either nature or nurture. We may learn a phobia through imitation or there could be a genetic link. Define the following terms Terms Open-ended questions Definition Closed questions Rank scales questions Likert style questions Response bias Social desirability 6

7 Questionnaire as a research method Definition Evaluation Allow for informed consent and the right to withdraw. Questionnaire can give information and ask if people are happy to continue, they are good ethically as they can easily get informed consent and the right to withdraw can be printed on the front of the questionnaire. Collect large amount of data in a short space of time. Elaborate this point. When participants fill in a questionnaire they sometimes fall into patterns of answering. This is called a response bias. This will dead to low validity and reliability. Social desirability biases may exit. Elaborate this point. 7

8 Ethical issues of laboratory experiments using animals The 1 st ethical issue - Social isolation Animals such as dogs, rats and monkeys are social animals, being on their own could cause distress, so time alone should be kept to a minimum. The 2 nd ethical issue - Number of animals used in an experiment Number of animals used in an experiment it is often important to use several animals to be sure that the result is typical rather than a one off, however, researchers have to use as few animals as possible. The 3 rd ethical issue - Choice of species used in an experiment Choice of species used in an experiment different species of animal find different things distressing. A social animal would find isolation more unpleasant than a species that normally lived alone. Researchers should choose species that will be the least distressed from being experimented on. Practical issues of laboratory experiments using animals The 1 st practical issue - Animals are simpler than human Animals are simpler than human - the behaviour of animals is often simpler than human behaviour. This means they can help us to understand why humans react the way they do, as the behaviour of animals is easier to explain. The 2 nd practical issue - They are interesting and can be beneficial They are interesting and can be beneficial We like to know what animals do because it is interesting. Research into animal behaviour can help animals as well. For example, by finding out about play or feeding behaviour we can develop ways to stop animals in zoos getting bored. The 3 rd practical issue - Their environment can be controlled Their environment can be controlled some controls that can be used with animals that can t be used with humans, for example, Harry Harlow s experiment on monkeys. 8

9 Cover-Jones (1924) The case of Little Peter Aims To investigate whether a phobia in a little boy could be deconditioned and whether this would generalise to other objects I.V. The two techniques: classical conditioning and social learning D.V. The boy s progress measured by a tolerance series Procedure A two and ten months old boy who developed phobia rats Classical conditioning and social learning theories were used in this experiment A tolerance series was used to measure the boy s progress in the experiment There were 45 sessions in total Findings 1) The changes in the boy s behaviour were not steady or continuous or equally spaced in time 2) The boy s behaviour worsened, e.g. when he was scratched by the rabbit 3) Other children acted as role models which helped the boy move closer to the rabbit 4) The boy also lost his fear of cotton, the coat, and feathers 5) The boy accepted new animals such as frogs, worms and a mouse Conclusions Both classical conditioning and social learning helped to de-condition the boy s phobia. The de-conditioning also reduced generalised fears and helped the boy to cope with new animals. Evaluation Jones made detailed observations over a long period. These show the boy s progress thoroughly, so the changes can be seen clearly. Jones asked other people to order the tolerance series so avoided being biased herself - The gaps between sessions were variable, so progress could be due to time rather than the de-conditioning - Classical conditioning and social learning techniques, as well as other people who made the boy feel confident were used. This makes it difficult to tell which was most effective. 9

10 Bennett-Levy and Marteau (1984) Fear of animals. What is prepared? Unit 2 Topic D PHOBIAS Aims To find out 1) whether humans are biologically prepared to fear animals; 2) whether this is related to specific characteristics of particularly dangerous animals, e.g. move quickly and suddenly, look very different from people Procedure Research method used: Bennett-Levy and Marteau used two questionnaires. Both asked questions about the same 29 animals. 1) Questionnaire 1 asked about fear of animals and how close the person would like to get to them. Fear scale: 1-3 (1 = not afraid, 3 = very afraid) Nearness scale: 1-5 (1 = enjoy picking it up, 5 = move further away than 2 meters 2) Questionnaire 2 measured how the participants felt about each animal. They rated each species on a three-point scale (1 = not, 2 = quite, 3 = very ) for: Ugliness Sliminess How speedy they were How suddenly they moved Participants: 64 people (30 men and 34 women) answered questionnaire 1 and 49 (24 men and 25 women) answered questionnaire 2. Findings 1) Participants rated rats, cockroaches, jellyfish, spiders as most feared and most ugly 2) The spider was seen as most ugly and slimy 3) The findings did not vary between males and females when rating ugliness, sliminess 4) Females were less likely to pick up or approach 10 of the species than males eg jelly fish and slug 5) Participants were more fearful of ugly, slimy and sudden animals Conclusions They concluded that we are more prepared to learn phobias of some animals (slimy, ugly, and sudden) than others even if they were harmless. This is evidence for preparedness as animals that possess these characteristics were likely to be harmful in our evolutionary past. Evaluation The findings apply to both genders, because both men and women were used. There phobias are different. Different participants answered the two questionnaires. This helped to make sure they didn t know what the study was about. - The participants were told the animals were not dangerous but many still thought that rats were harmful, so the instruction was not very successful. - The questionnaires only asked about six characteristics of animals which make animals scary. There are other characteristics that make animals scary as well which should have been added to the questionnaire. 10

11 Flooding as a therapy used to treat phobias This is a treatment aiming to get people to associate their fear or phobia with relaxation (substitute the anxiety with relaxation) by forcing them into a non-escape fearful situation until their body naturally relax or calm down. A phobic object is deliberately forced onto the phobic, exposed to highest level of fear. For example, someone who fears heights is taken to the top of a building and made to look over; someone who fears cats is put in a room with a cat in it. The phobic is scared and anxious (for a while) eventually calms down and relaxes, becomes less anxious. The phobic learns to associate the object with calm and no fear. The phobic cannot escape the situation and is forced reality, locked in a room with their phobic object in it; You cannot react fearfully forever. Based on reciprocal inhibition; Re-write the above paragraph in your own words below. It has been proved effective and phobias can be treated in one go. (Elaborate this point) It is not always considered a very ethical treatment. (Elaborate this point) Causing distress - The patient becomes highly distressed by being directly exposed to their fear, so could be physically or psychologically harmed. The right to withdraw - They cannot escape the situation, so no right to withdraw and has to endure the fear. Causes high levels of physiological arousal that may cause physical or psychological harm. 11

12 Systematic desensitisation as a therapy used to treat phobias This is a treatment aiming to get people to associate their fear or phobia with relaxation (substitute the anxiety with relaxation) by gradually exposing the feared object or situation to them (work through a hierarchy of fears) until they overcome the most fearful form of the feared object or situation. A patient has to develop a hierarchy of fears with his therapist. This is a list of related situations which provoke mild to strong anxiety. The patient would be taught relaxation techniques. Relaxation techniques such as deep breathing. The patient would be presented with or have to imagine his least feared situation. Starting with a picture of a fearful object. He would relax before he moved up the hierarchy of fears. SD is based on classical conditioning. Patients would learn to associate relaxation with each step of his hierarchy. Re-write the above information in your own words. Adult clients have control over the course of the treatment and not the therapist. They draw up their own hierarchy which gives them a sense of control and control how they progress through it. It requires a trained therapy and involves several sessions, so it might be more costly than other treatment, such as flooding. Causing distress SD causes less distress than other treatments such as flooding. This is because the person has control over their exposure. They have to be relaxed before they continue which is ultimately up to the patient. Very little harm is caused. The treatment is gradual which causes less distress than flooding as not so immediately distressing. The right to withdraw - They have a right to withdraw, unlike flooding. As they are not forced into the reality of the situation without means of escape. 12

13 The role of a clinical psychologist including Who they might work for What they do Skills required Qualifications required Accreditation status What they might do to help a person with phobias Cognitive behavioural therapy the therapy uses the twin approach of treating thoughts ( cognition means thinking) and behaviour. It involves identifying negative automatic thoughts and trying to replace them with less negative thoughts. For example, if someone has a flying phobia, they may be shown figures on plane crashes, with reveal the low level of risk associated with flying. Systematic desensitisation - (describe this treatment here) 13

14 Heinrichs et al. (2005) Cultural differences in perceived social norms and social anxiety Aims To see if being brought up in different cultures affected social anxiety and fear of blushing I.V. Different cultures, such as collective culture and individualistic culture D.V. Anxiety level and blushing level measured by social anxiety and blushing questionnaire Procedure A total of 909 university students studying psychology were tested. They were from eight different universities in eight different countries. The students volunteered to take part in the study The students were divided into two groups: collectivist culture or individualistic culture The participants were given a short description of a social situation and asked to say how they would react. Their answers would be considered either a low social anxiety answer or a high social anxiety answer. The participants were also asked to complete a social anxiety questionnaire to measure their fear of social situations and interaction with others The participants were also asked to complete a blushing questionnaire to measure their fear of embarrassment (blushing is a bodily response to being embarrassed). Findings 1) Participants from collectivist cultures often responded to the descriptions in a way that showed high social anxiety. They gave answers that avoided public interaction or public speaking. These participants were also more fearful of blushing and scored higher on the social anxiety questionnaire compared with those from individualistic cultures 2) Japanese students gave the answers that showed highest social anxiety followed by students from Korea and the students from Germany gave answers that were considered as the lowest social anxiety. Conclusions Collectivist cultures show greater social anxiety and fear of blushing than individualist cultures. Evaluation This study supports the nurture side of the debate. This study explains that culture determines how we think and act; family and friends teach us these social norms so that we fit in. in this way culture can actually make us anxious or confident in social situations. Because this behaviour is a result of the people around us and the upbringing we have, it supports the nurture side of the debate. This study used 909 students from eight universities in eight different counties. (Elaborate this point.) - This study used questionnaires to measure social anxiety level and fear of embarrassment. (Elaborate this point using the term social desirability ). - The participants gave answers to a hypothetical situation. This might be different from how they actually act in a real situation. This will affect the validity of the study. 14