Phobias - A2 Psychology

Anxiety is?

-> Fear that has negative impact on life

-> Imagined threats

-> e.g. Phobia - 67% have this.

DSM-V diagnosis manual;                         ICD-10 Diagnosis manual;

-> Clear + persistant                                  -> Anxiety focused on one thing

-> Unreasonable                                        -> Concerns on individual symptoms

-> Immediate anxiety

-> 6+ months

-> Disrupts life

                        Conclusion-> Specific disorder on fear

Affective disorder is?

-> Intense change to basic mood

-> Low mood

-> e.g. Depression - 20% of people experience this

DSM-V diagnosis manual;                    ICD-10 Diagnosis manual;

-> Loss of interest                               -> Mild = 2/3 symptoms

-> Weight loss                                     -> Moderate = 4+ symptoms

-> Insomnia                                         -> Severe =several symptomswith low self esteem and guilt

-> Worthless + depressed

-> At least 5 symptoms

                        Conclusion-> Disorder related to a low mood.

Psychotic is?

-> Delusions + Hallucinations

-> Withdrawal from society

-> e.g. Schizophrenia - 1% of society have this

DSM-V diagnosis manual;                                               ICD-10 Diagnosis manual;

One of these:                                                                    -> Paranoid - 'out to get you'

-> Delusions/Hallucinations/Disorganised speech          -> Hebephrenic - Disorganised, shallow        

And one of these:                                                                 and self obsessed        

-> Negative/ Disorganised                                               -> Catonic - Lack of mobility ('waxy')

-> No drugs/no major mood changes

                   Conclusion-> Lack of ability to seperate reality from positive symptoms

Reliability;

-> Can question if consistent

e.g. Pontozovsky - diagnosis changed from admission to release + Nicholls - different practitioners made different diagnosis of 81 children with eating disorders

Validity;

-> Characteristics should lead to diagnosis

e.g. Rosenhan + Ford and Widiger- biased on basis of gender

Behavioural?

-> Blank Slates   -> Phobia = learning inappropriate responses

-> Classical conditioning (CC)

Watson + Raynor

• 9 month old Albert - reaction to steel bar = cry and jump
• 5 Pairings led to phobia of white rat
• Scared of other white objects e.g. rabbit

-> Phobias can be explained via behaviourism

-> Phobia can be learned via CC and phobia gets stronger with time.

Cognitive?

-> Irrational procces = Disorders 

-> Clarke and Wells - Social phobics - thinking inwardly creating neg self processing

Mulkens

• Social situation - Objective and subjective blushing measures
• Subjective measures (SR) higher than objective

-> Negative view of stimulus = phobia

Biological?

-> Brain, chemicals + genes

-> Predisposed to fear for survival

Ohman

• Snakes/houses/faces
• Paired with electric shock
• Body temperature higher with snakes

-> Evolution

Reductionist       -> e.g Behaviourist- learning + Cognitive - thinking

Ethics - Pop       -> e.g Watson et al - create fear + Mulken - embarrassing situation

Practical Apps   -> e.g. CBT

Knowledge        -> e.g. Conditioning + Evolution

Nature               -> e.g. Biological + Cognitive

Nurture             -> e.g. Behavioural

Low EV            -> e.g. Ohman - shocks

Behavioural?

-> Can unlearn phobias

-> Systematic desensitisation

Mcgrath

• 9 Year old Lucy
  
• Fear of specific loud noises
• Balloons 7/10 to 3/10 and Party poppers 9/10 to 3/10

Cognitive?

->CBT - Cognitive (thinking) with Behavioural (Learning) therapy

-> Identify irrational thoughts and learn to make them positive

Heimburg

• CBT more improved than placebo
• Pretest, post test and 3-6 month follow ups

Biological?

-> Medication is used to reduce symptoms

-> due to brain, chemicals and genetics

Leibowitz

• Phenelzine/Atenolol/Placebo
• 8 weeks course
• Phenelzine most effective (anti-depressent) 
• reduced social anxiety

Effective-> e.g. Mcgrath + Heimburg

Longterm effective -> e.g. Mcgrath + Heimburg

Ethics - Deception -> e.g. Heimburg - Placebo + Leibowitz - phenelzine only one group

Sample - Limited -> e.g. Mcgrath - Lucy + Heimburg - only social phobics

Validity - Low -> e.g.Mcgrath + Leibowitz = could lie.