Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Explanations of Anxiety Disorders - Coggle Diagram
Explanations of Anxiety Disorders
Behavioural (classical conditioning) - Watson & Rayner
Harmless stimulus + frightening experience = phobia
Case study - Little Albert, 11 months boy
Before Conditioning
Little Albert was shown different stimuli (white rat, rabbit, dog, monkey, cotton wool, etc.) and he reacted normally. Later, they placed a metal bar and struck it with a hammer, which made him cry.
During Conditioning
When Albert was shown the rat, he began to reach for it. But then the hammer was struck against the rod which made him cry. This was repeated over a week.
After Conditioning
Eventually Albert only had to see the rat to start crying or moving away from it. This fear was also generalised (stimulus generalisation) to other things (eg: rabbit, fluffy coat, etc).
Procedure
UCS (Steel bar hitting hammer) = UCR (Fearful crying and avoidance)
UCS (Steel bar hitting hammer) + NS (White rat) = UCR (Fearful crying and avoidance)
CS (White rat) = CR (Fearful crying and avoidance)
Psychoanalytical (Freud)
Id
Based on pleasure principle
Seeks immediate gratification
Instinctive/impulsive behaviour
Ego
Based on reality principle
Mediates between the id and superego
Allows, rational delayed gratification
Superego
Based on morality principle
Pushes towards socially acceptable behaviour
Freud suggested that phobias are defence mechanisms against anxiety
This happens when there is unresolved conflict between the id and ego
Usually when the id is denied or repressed
The ego uses displacement to replace the anxiety with something else
Little Hans had a fear of his father, so he displaced his fear unto horses as a coping mechanism
When children under the age of 5 don't know how to deal with aa traumatic experience, they push it into their subconscious. Eg: Little Albert (Austrian boy case study)
At 3 years
Little Hans developed an interest in his widdler. This angered his mother and she threatened to cut it (developed fear of castration).
Hans’ younger sister was born and he felt abandoned by his mother. He also developed a fear of the bath because he wished his mum would drop his sister in it.
Hans witnessed a horse fall and die on the street (developed fear of white horses with black nosebands). Also generalised this to carts and buses.
Hans’ father thought it was because horses had large penises
At 3 1/2 years
Hans’ father wrote about the fantasies to Freud to help explain them
That his mother showed him her widdle (having relationship with mum).
That he had taken a smaller crumpled giraffe away from a taller giraffe (taking mum away).
That the plumber replaced Hans’ behind and his penis with larger ones (being like father).
That Hans was the father of his own children with his mother and that his father was their grandfather (having his mum but allowing his dad to live).
At 5 years
Hans’ father didn’t allow Hans to sleep with them anymore, which caused conflicts.
Hans’ phobias lessened when he reached 5.
Freud explained the fantasies through the Oedipus complex. (Boys want sexual relationships with their mums and see their dads as rivals). - Electra complex for girls
Hans’ father explained the dreams to him in order to resolve the phobia. He explained that Hans had a fear of his father (glasses and moustache), which he displaced unto horses (black binders and muzzles) instead.
Biological (Ost)
This explanation suggests that we are genetically set up to avoid any stimuli in the environment which may pose a threat to survival
It can be passed on in our DNA through generations to help our survival
Procedure
Sample
59 injection phobic participants
81 blood phobic participants
Participants underwent a screening interview
They completed a self-report questionnaire on the history and nature of their phobia
Blood phobic participants underwent a behavioural test: participants were shown a 30 minute silent colour video of surgery being performed. The experimenter noted their gaze direction and if participants looked away or stopped the video using a remote then the test was stopped
Injection phobic participants did a 20-step test that involved cleaning a fingertip to performing a fingertip prick. Participants had to say whether they were okay to do the test, if not then the test was ended.
Measures
Maximal performance (how long they watched the video)
Fainting behaviour (0 = no fainting and 4 = fainting)
Self-rating of anxiety (0 = not anxious at all and 10 = extremely anxious)
Questionnaire of their thoughts during the test
Blood pressure and heart rate was monitored
Results
Family history
50% of blood phobics and 27% of injection phobics had one or more parents with the same fear
21% of blood phobics had at least 1 sibling with haemophobia
70% of blood phobics and 56% of injection phobics had a history of fainting when exposed to their phobia
The mean number of fainting instances for the blood phobic group was 10.8 and 7.7 in the injection phobic group
Cognitive (Di Nardo et. al)
The origin of phobia involve an individual's thought processes.
Maladaptive thinking, so people perceive their phobias as a great threat even though it doesn’t actually cause much danger.
They may have negative self-beliefs, like they wouldn't be able to cope if exposed to their phobias
Procedure
Sample
37 female psychology college students
14 dog-fearful
21 dog non-fearful
Aim
To compare fearful and non-fearful participants’ expectations of physical harm and fear if they were to see a dog
To test whether conditioning events involving dogs were more common in cynophobes or non-cynophobes
Participants were chosen by rating themselves highly fearful of dogs and reported anxiety in the live behavioural test, or they rated themselves and non-fearful of dogs and they reported little to no anxiety when with a dog in the behavioral test
Structured interviews of each participant were conducted in order to find the origin of the phobia
Results
56% of the fearful group had conditioning events (ie: upsetting or painful encounters with dogs)
66% of the non-fearful group had conditioning events
The anticipation of harm during an encounter with a dog was higher in the fearful group than the non-fearful group