GCSE Psychology

Topic D: Why do we

have phobias?

Revision Booklet

(Grades A/A*)

Topic Summary Sheet

Explaining the

question:

Why do we have

phobias?

a) causes of phobias including: - the evolutionary explanation of preparedness - Social Learning Theory (modelling and vicarious

reinforcement) - Classical conditioning (association and generalisation)

b) the nature nurture debate in relation to understanding phobias

Investigating the

question:

Questionnaires

Laboratory

experiments using

animals

You will be assessed on your understanding of:

a) the following terms: - questionnaire - open ended and closed questions - rank scales (Likert scales) - standardised instructions - response bias - social desirability

b) questionnaires as a research method including evaluation

c) ethical issues of lab experiments using animals including social

isolation, number and choice of species

d) practical issues of laboratory experiments using animals including three practical issues

Studies:

i) Cover – Jones (1924) The case of Little Peter

ii) Bennett – Levy and Marteau (1984) Fear of Animals. What is

prepared?

Why psychology

matters:

Treating phobias

a) Flooding and systematic desensitisation as therapies used to treat phobias

b) Ethical issues in flooding and systematic desensitisation, including the ethical guidelines of distress and right to withdraw.

c) The role of a clinical psychologist including:

- who they might work for - what they do - skills required - qualifications required

- chartered status - what they might do to help a person with phobias

Exploring the

question further:

Cultural issues in the development of phobias.

Topic D: Why do we have phobias?

Glossary

Classical

conditoning:________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Association:________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Generalisation:_____________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Phobia:____________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Extinction:_________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Vicarious

reinforcement:______________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Modelling:_________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Preparedness:______________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Questionnaires

Questionnaire:______________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Open ended

question:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Closed

question:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Likert – style

question:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Rank style

question:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Standardised

instructions:________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Response

bias:______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Social desirability

bias:______________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Treating phobias

Anxiety:___________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Hierarchy of

fears:_____________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Distressing:________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Right to

withdraw:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Cultural differences in fears

Custom:___________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Tradition:__________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Social

norm:_____________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Collectivist:________________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Individualistic:______________________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________________________________

Evaluating Studies

When evaluating a study (e.g. Jones, Bennett-Levy & Marteau, Heinrichs)

remember you can use GRAVE to help you.

Generalisability – can we generalise the results of this study to the target

population? Were there lots of participants, was it representative?

Reliability – Can this study be easily replicated? Would we get the same results

again? How good are the controls?

Application – Do the findings of this study suggest any practical applications? Are the findings useful/helpful to society in any way? Validity – Was the study conducted in a natural or artificial setting? Are the results true to real life? Ethics – Has this study breached any of the ethical guidelines? Did participants give consent, have the right to withdraw, were they protected, were the results kept confidential?

Reminder: DO NOT use GRAVE when evaluating a theory.

Classical Conditioning and Phobias (pg 130-131)

Classical conditioning is

Use the following key terms to label how a phobia of snake may occur:

neutral stimulus unconditioned stimulus conditioned stimulus

unconditioned response conditioned response

Before Conditioning:

Snake No effect

Loud noise Fear

During Conditioning:

Snake + Loud noise Fear

After Conditioning:

Snake Fear

What does one trial learning mean and how does this relate to phobias?

Generalisation is

Extinction is

Social Learning Theory and Phobias (pg132-133)

How can social learning theory explain phobias?

Describe two pieces of evidence that have shown animals can gain a phobia through SLT:

Try to come up with at least 2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of this explanation of phobias:

Strengths of the Theory Weaknesses of the Theory

Phobias and Preparedness (pg 134-135)

Evolution has ‘prepared’ us to be afraid of things that are

This theory is based on nature/nurture?

Because evolution has prepared us to fear these things we make an association between

fear and that object much quicker than non-prepared stimuli. Stimuli that have been

prepared tend to be ____________________ to early humans.

Examples include:

Early humans who were afraid of stimuli that were dangerous to them would have avoided

that stimuli and therefore

The Nature-Nurture Debate (pg 136-137)

Nature is (make reference to phobias):

Nurture is (make reference to phobias):

Theories of Phobias based on Nature Theories of Phobias based on Nurture

List some evidence that phobias are a result of nature:

List some evidence that phobias are a result of nurture:

Why is it difficult to determine if a phobia is a result of nature or nurture?

Questionnaires (pg 138-141)

Questionnaires are:

Standardised instructions are:

They can include the following 4 types of questions:

Type of Question Definition Example

Open-ended

Closed

Likert-style

Rank-style

Evaluating Questionnaires: (include social desirability and response bias)

Strengths Weaknesses

Using Animals in Experiments (pg 142-145)

Ethical Issues: What ethical issues do psychologists have to consider when using animals

in research?

Practical Issues: Describe the practical strengths and weaknesses of using animals in

psychological experiments.

Practical Strengths Practical Weaknesses

Jones (1924) pg 146-147

Aim:

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusion:

Strengths Weaknesses

Bennett-Levy and Marteau (1984) pg 148-149

Aim:

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusion:

Strengths Weaknesses

Heinrichs et al (2005) pg 160-161

Aim:

Procedure:

Results:

Conclusion:

Strengths Weaknesses

How to treat Phobias (pg150-153)

You need to know about two ways to treat phobias: flooding and systematic desensitization

How does flooding work?

Problems with Flooding Good things about Flooding

Ethical Considerations

Does it cause distress? If so how much and why?

Do people have the right to withdraw from the treatment? Explain why.

How does systematic desensitization work?

Problems with Systematic Desensitizaton Good things about Systematic Desensitization

Ethical Considerations

Does it cause distress? If so how much and why?

Do people have the right to withdraw from the treatment? Explain why.

Clinical Psychologist (pg 154-159)

What they do: Who do they work for:

Treatments they offer:

Skills and Qualifications needed:

What is Chartered status?

Topic D Exam Questions

Multiple Choice

1) Carl noticed that his classmates were discussing their answers with each other after completing a questionnaire. He overheard many of them claiming they would have felt silly if they had been honest about a fear of cats or dogs. None of them wanted to be laughed at by other classmates, so they lied and said they were scared of snakes instead. This is an example of:

A: response bias

B: generalisability

C: social desirability

D: demand characteristics

2) Carl decided to conduct a follow up investigation about fear of spiders. Which one of the following examples would be most unethical for Carl to conduct?

A: An interview with parents to find out if his classmates were scared of spiders

when they were young.

B: Asking classmates to rate their fear when given photographs of different spiders

to judge.

C: Showing his classmates real spiders and measuring how nervous they become

when holding them.

D: Conducting a questionnaire on the brothers and sisters of his classmates to see if

they were phobic too.

3) Mary Cover – Jones (1924) was introduced to a small child called little Peter. She was asked to treat his fear of rabbits. Cover – Jones used a treatment called:

A: psychoanalysis

B: flooding

C: anger management

D: systematic desensitisation

4) Heinrichs et al studied individualistic and collectivist cultures. Which one of the following would be true of a collectivist culture? People are encouraged to:

A: achieve personal gain

B: work on their own

C: cooperate with others

D: compete against others

5) The findings of Heinrich’s et al’s study support: A: nature as an explanation of fear

B: nurture as an explanation of fear.

6) A Likert / ranked style question is better than a yes / no question because: A: quantative data is easier to analyse

B: it is not open to researcher bias

C: it gioves more choice when answering

D: participants can write anything they want to

Short answer questions

1) Carl found that most of his classmates were scared of snakes but not scared of the other animals he asked about. Explain this finding using the evolutionary theory of preparedness. (2)

2) Bennett – Levy and Marteau (1984) carried out a study that supports the evolutionary theory of preparedness. Describe the result and /or conclusions of this study. (2)

3) Describe the social learning theory as an explanation of phobias. (3)

4) Describe how Little Peter’s phobia was treated in the study by Mary Cover – Jone (1924) (3)

5) Outline one strength of the treatment used to treat Little Peter’s phobia (2)

6) Cover – Jones called the child ‘Little Peter’ even though this was not actually his real name. This is a good example of which ethical guideline? (1)

7) Evaluate the case study of Little Peter (Cover – Jones, 1924) in terms of its generalisability (2)

8) Pavlov used dogs in his experiments to test classical conditioning. Outline ethical reasons for using animals in lab experiments (2)

9) Describe what is meant by ‘social anxiety’. Give an example of social anxiety in your answer (2)

10) According to Heinrich et al’s study, explain why individualistic and collectivist cultures differ with regards to social anxiety (2)

11) Using your kn9owledge of classical conditioning, describe how a researcher might train an animal to develop a phobia of balloons (3)

12) Outline one practical reason for using animals rather than humans in lab experiments (2)

13) Evaluate the use of animals in lab experiments in terms of ethics (3)

14) Write an open-ended question that could be used in a questionnaire on phobias (1)

15) Write a likert / ranked style question that could be used in a questionnaire on phobias (1)

16) Write a closed question, other than a Likert / ranked style question, that could be used in a questionnaire on phobias (1)

17) State one phobia that the evolutionary theory of preparedness cannot explain (1)

18) Outline why the evolutionary theory of preparedness cannot explain the phobia you have stated in question 17. (2)

19) Jeremy had a phobia of water and was scared to go swimming with his friends. There was a swimming competition at school and Jeremy wanted to take part. He decided to have

therapy to treat his phobia of water. Describe how flooding therapy could be used to treat Jeremy’s phobia of water (3)

20) Name one therapy other than flooding that can be used for the treatment of phobias (1)

21) Explain why the therapy you have named in question 20 might be more ethical than flooding (2)

Extended answer questions:

1) Using the nature – nurture debate, explain why people might have phobias (5)

2) Describe Jones’ study and evaluate it in terms of strengths and weaknesses. (10)

3) Describe one way you can treat a phobia. (5)

4) Evaluate this treatment by considering the strengths and weaknesses and comparing it to another treatment. (6)