OCR Health and Clincial Psychology

Watson and Raynor

Classical conditioning used to induce fear

Aim: To see if it is possible yo induce fear of a previously unfeared object, through classical conditioning

Methodology: Lab expriment

Procedure: Steel bar hit above his head several times when rat was present, this was done as he was reaching for the rat. He jumped and feel forward. After two presentations given a week of then rat presented alone, then three more presentation with rat and the loud noise; finally rat presented alone, this produced fear reaction: cried, turned left and crawling quickly away from rat. Other stimuli presented i.e. rabbit, santa claus mask , dog and cotton wool(showed less negativity towards) but all stimuli provoked negative responses. It is possible for fear to be induced using classical conditioning

Didn't test if you could reverse learning

Genetics

Aim: Schizophrenia, research into genetic transmission

Methodology: Family and twin studies

Review studies

711 participants adoption studies, 210 monozygotic twins (identical) and 319 dizygotic twins (non-identical)

Procedure: Concordance rates between adopted children and monozygotic twins. Comparing biological parents and siblings of adopted parents and siblings in adopted studies.Findings: Increased level of schizophrenia in adopted children with biological parent who has schizophrenia. Siblings showed higher concordance rate (19.2%), dysfuntional beahviour largely due to biology but some interaction with environment

Beck et al.,

Understanding cognitive distortoins in depressed people.

Methodology: Clinical Interviews with patients undergoing therapy

50 participants diagnosed with depression, 18-48 years, middle or upper class at least average intelligence

IMD(Independent Measures Design) compared with 31 non-depressed patients undergoing psychotherapy, matched for age, gender, sex and social posisiton

Face-to-face interviews thoughts before sessions, spontaneous thoughts during interview. Some kept diaris of thoughts and brought these also. Findings: Certain thoghts appeared in depressed and not the non-depressed that didn't appear in the depressed i.e. Low-self esteem, low- self worth, self-blame and desire to escape

Mcgrath-Systematic desensitisation

Methodology: Case study 9-year old girl Lucy

Had a fear of loud noises including party poppers, balloons popping etc

Taught to pair fear with relaxation techniques i.e. imagining herself at home playing with her toys on her bed

Gradually he ablity to cope increased over time

Results: At 10th session fear thermometer had gone down from 7/10 for balloons popping to 3/10 9/10 to 3/10 for party poppers

Graddually increased abiltity to cope

After 7 sessions able to pop balloons

Karp and Frank

Compare drug treatment with combined treatment

Review article

Concerntrated on depressed women

IMD

Adding psychological treatments to biological treatment didn't increase effectiveness

Shows effectiveness of drug treatment on depression

Beck et al.,

Comparing cognitive therapy with combined therapy

Laboratory controlled experiment

IMD

44 participants dianosed with depression moderate-severe

Patients assessed usind self-reports Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scalin and Rasking Scale

12 weeks either given 100 Impramine tablets given by doctor for 20mins each week or 1-hour cognitive therapy session 2x a week

CT 78% improvement, Drug 20% CT 5% drop out rate, Drug 32%

Affective (mood) disorder

DSM-IV

Persistent unreasonable fear

Exposure provokes anxiety response

Phobia disrupts normal lives

ICD-10

Respons anxiety, restricted to phobic object

Phobic situation avoided wherever possible

DSM-IV

Delusions, hallucinations

Disorganised speech and behaviour

ICD-10

Persistent delusions& hallucinations

Trance like beahviour, apathy

DSM-IV

Depressed mood most of the day

Less pleasure in most activities,insomania,tiredness,guilt,thoughts of death

ICD-10

Depressed mood

Less intrest and enjoyment,more tired, guilt and unworthiness and pessimism

Lewinsohn et al.,  (Seligman learned helplessness model)

Compare the amount of positive reinforcement recieved by depressed and non-depressed particpants

Longitudinal, Self-report of pleasant activities on pleasant events schedule and self-rating of depression using depression adjective checklist

30 Ps diagnosed w/depression, a disorder othe than depression and 'normal' controls

Natural experiment Ps asked to check mood daily using depression adjective checklist icludeded emotions: happy,sad,blue,active and lucky. Asked to complete pleasant activities rating scale 320 activities i.e. talking about sports, yoga or meditating. Significant positive correlations between mood rating and pleasant activities

Biological Ohman. Biological preparedness

Cognitive DiNardo excessive worry in GAD patients

Behavioural Classical conditioning Watson & Raynor

Gottesman & Shields

Biological- Karp & Frank

Biological- Lebowitz, Phenelzine effective in treating social phobia

Cognitive- Ost & Westling CBT/Relaxation

Behavioural- Mcgrath, Systematic desensitisation, Case study Lucy and the loud noise