The Persistence of Phobias
The Persistence of Phobias: Causes and Treatment
Can the behavioral analysis also offer an account of persistence, a defining feature of phobias?
Classical Conditioning & Phobia
After fear is classically conditioned in the laboratory by
pairing a tone a fewtimes with shock, extinction will occur rapidly when the
tone is presented without the shock. Within ten or twenty presentations of
the tone without shock, fear will always disappear. Even when shock is extremely
painful, fear of the tone will extinguish in no more than forty trials
(Annau and Kamin, 1961). Phobias, on the other hand, are very robust.
They seem to resist extinction; some persist for a lifetime. How can a model
based on an ephemeral phenomenon, classical fear conditioning, capture
phobias that last and last?
An extinction trial in fear conditioning occurs when the fear-evoking signal
is presented to the subject, but the traumatic event no longer follows.
For example, a rat is put into the box in which it has received shocks. A
fear-evoking tone that has been paired with shock comes on but no shock is
presented. The rat can do nothing to escape the tone and is exposed to the
fact that the tone no longer predicts shock. Because the rat cannot escape, it
reality tests and finds out that the trauma no longer follows the signal.
Under these conditions, fear extinguishes rapidly.
In contrast, phobics rarely test the reality of their fears. When the phobic
object is around, they rarely sit there waiting to be passively exposed to an
extinction trial. Rather, they run away as quickly as possible. For example,
Anna would avoid cats as best she could, but if she did happen across a cat,
she would flee as fast as she could. She would not reality test by staying in the
presence of the cat and finding out what would happen.
Phobias involve Avoidance and Escape
Since phobias involve avoidance and escape from the phobic object, does
fear of a signal that has been paired with trauma extinguish under the parallei
laboratory conditions when the subject avoids the trauma by fleeing from
the signal as soon as he is permitted to do so? Consider a rat in an avoidance
procedure: a tone comes on, and at the end of ten seconds shock occurs.
Remember that the tone equals the phobic object, and the shock equals the
traumatic event that originally conditioned the phobia. If the rat jumps onto
a platform before the ten seconds are up, the tone will go off and shock will
not occur. Soon the rat learns to jump up, and does so in less that two seconds
on every trial. When extinction begins, the shock is disconnected (the
phobic object no longer signals trauma).
Now the rat under goes one hundred trials in which he jumps up after two seconds of tone, the tone goes off promptly, but shock never occurs. If the rat's fear of the two-second tone
is measured behaviorally or physiologically, fear has extinguished. But is the
rat still afraid of the longer ten-second tone? Remember that he has not reality
tested: he has not remained on the grid floor for ten seconds and has not
found out that shock is no longer delivered. When tested with the full tensecond
tone, the rat shows great fear. Escaping the signal and avoiding the
trauma has protected the fear of the signal from extinction (Baum, 1969;
Seligman and Johnston, 1973).
Now consider the social phobic who no longer goes to parties because he
was humiliated when he once vomited at a party. He avoids parties altogether,
and if he must attend one, he escapes as quickly as he can. He is
afraid that if the finds himselfat a party (CS-the signal), he will again throw
up (US-the trauma) and be publicly humiliated (UR-the reaction). His
fear does not extinguish because he does not allow himself to be exposed to
extinction trials-being at a party and finding out that he does not throw up
and is not humiliated. He does not test the reality of the fact that parties (CS)
no longer lead to vomiting (US) and humiliation (UR). The ability to avoid
and escape the phobic object protects fear of the phobic object from being
extinguished, just as allowing a rat to avoid reality testing protects fear from
extinguishing.
The behavioral analysis can thus account for the persistence of phobias.
Most importantly, it makes direct predictions about therapy; those procedures
that extinguish fear conditioning in the laboratory should also cure
phobias.
Can the behavioral analysis also offer an account of persistence, a defining feature of phobias?
Classical Conditioning & Phobia
After fear is classically conditioned in the laboratory by
pairing a tone a fewtimes with shock, extinction will occur rapidly when the
tone is presented without the shock. Within ten or twenty presentations of
the tone without shock, fear will always disappear. Even when shock is extremely
painful, fear of the tone will extinguish in no more than forty trials
(Annau and Kamin, 1961). Phobias, on the other hand, are very robust.
They seem to resist extinction; some persist for a lifetime. How can a model
based on an ephemeral phenomenon, classical fear conditioning, capture
phobias that last and last?
An extinction trial in fear conditioning occurs when the fear-evoking signal
is presented to the subject, but the traumatic event no longer follows.
For example, a rat is put into the box in which it has received shocks. A
fear-evoking tone that has been paired with shock comes on but no shock is
presented. The rat can do nothing to escape the tone and is exposed to the
fact that the tone no longer predicts shock. Because the rat cannot escape, it
reality tests and finds out that the trauma no longer follows the signal.
Under these conditions, fear extinguishes rapidly.
In contrast, phobics rarely test the reality of their fears. When the phobic
object is around, they rarely sit there waiting to be passively exposed to an
extinction trial. Rather, they run away as quickly as possible. For example,
Anna would avoid cats as best she could, but if she did happen across a cat,
she would flee as fast as she could. She would not reality test by staying in the
presence of the cat and finding out what would happen.
Phobias involve Avoidance and Escape
Since phobias involve avoidance and escape from the phobic object, does
fear of a signal that has been paired with trauma extinguish under the parallei
laboratory conditions when the subject avoids the trauma by fleeing from
the signal as soon as he is permitted to do so? Consider a rat in an avoidance
procedure: a tone comes on, and at the end of ten seconds shock occurs.
Remember that the tone equals the phobic object, and the shock equals the
traumatic event that originally conditioned the phobia. If the rat jumps onto
a platform before the ten seconds are up, the tone will go off and shock will
not occur. Soon the rat learns to jump up, and does so in less that two seconds
on every trial. When extinction begins, the shock is disconnected (the
phobic object no longer signals trauma).
Now the rat under goes one hundred trials in which he jumps up after two seconds of tone, the tone goes off promptly, but shock never occurs. If the rat's fear of the two-second tone
is measured behaviorally or physiologically, fear has extinguished. But is the
rat still afraid of the longer ten-second tone? Remember that he has not reality
tested: he has not remained on the grid floor for ten seconds and has not
found out that shock is no longer delivered. When tested with the full tensecond
tone, the rat shows great fear. Escaping the signal and avoiding the
trauma has protected the fear of the signal from extinction (Baum, 1969;
Seligman and Johnston, 1973).
Now consider the social phobic who no longer goes to parties because he
was humiliated when he once vomited at a party. He avoids parties altogether,
and if he must attend one, he escapes as quickly as he can. He is
afraid that if the finds himselfat a party (CS-the signal), he will again throw
up (US-the trauma) and be publicly humiliated (UR-the reaction). His
fear does not extinguish because he does not allow himself to be exposed to
extinction trials-being at a party and finding out that he does not throw up
and is not humiliated. He does not test the reality of the fact that parties (CS)
no longer lead to vomiting (US) and humiliation (UR). The ability to avoid
and escape the phobic object protects fear of the phobic object from being
extinguished, just as allowing a rat to avoid reality testing protects fear from
extinguishing.
The behavioral analysis can thus account for the persistence of phobias.
Most importantly, it makes direct predictions about therapy; those procedures
that extinguish fear conditioning in the laboratory should also cure
phobias.
More at:
http://social-anxiety-treatment-cure.weebly.com/
Of course you know the treatment method I recommend!
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END
http://social-anxiety-treatment-cure.weebly.com/
Of course you know the treatment method I recommend!
http://theliberatormethod.com/Welcome.html
END