Therapies Based on Pavlovian Conditioning Principles
John B. Watson Founder of Behaviorism. Strongly inspired by Pavlov’s work. Studied reflexes and emotional conditioning.
Watson & Rayner: Fear Conditioning Watson and his graduate student Rosalie Rayner conducted one of the most influential (albeit unethical) studies in psychology—the creation of a rat phobia in a 2 year old child known as Little Albert.
Watson & Rayner
Little Albert Before conditioning, Albert showed no fear of rats. In fact, Albert was rather fearless, showing no fear of burning paper, scary masks, or dozens of other stimuli that Watson used in search of a natural fear-inducing US.
Little Albert Watson discovered that Albert would startle and scream and cry when a steel rod was struck with a hammer (loud noise). So with this discovery, Watson now had a natural USUR pair. Noise Fear Next step, following Pavlov’s work, was to present a previously neutral stimulus (a rat) just before the US.
Little Albert With repeated rat : noise pairings, the rat alone eventually produced fear in Albert. US (noise) UR (fear) CS (rat) : US (noise) UR (fear) CS (rat) CR (fear)
The fear of rats eventually generalized to other furry objects, from toy animals to men with beards. The first experimentally created phobia.
The first behavioral treatment of a phobia Mary Cover Jones Mother of Behavior Therapies Jones was also a graduate student in Watson’s lab. Her famous case study was Peter, a 3 yr. old boy with a phobic fear of rabbits. Exposed Peter to a rabbit, first at great distance, then closer with each trial, until Peter could finally hold the rabbit. During exposure, Peter was given milk and crackers to calm him. First use of systematic desensitization.
Counterconditioning
Watson and Rayner showed that emotional reactions to stimuli could be conditioned. Cook showed that conditioned emotions could be counterconditioned. Counterconditioning: The use of Pavlovian conditioning to undo the adverse effects of earlier conditioning.
Exposure Therapy
Based exclusively on the principle of extinction. Present the CS without the US. Patients are exposed to feared objects or situations. Exposure can be real (in vivo) or imagined or virtual (Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy). The key is to make sure the feared event doesn’t occur.
If you expose a patient to bees (her fear),
Exposure Therapy: Necessary Factors
Anxiety must be present at first, and attention paid to the feared object. Fairly long or repeated exposure often required before fear subsides. Graduated exposure (hierarchy) often used.
Fear of heights: start with a step ladder, move eventually to a mountain top or bridge.
VRET
Rothbaum (1995) was the first to use virtual reality technology in an experiment to provide exposure to the feared stimulus She had people with a fear of heights wear a helmet that presented computer simulated scenes:
walking on foot bridges & outdoor balconies, and riding up a glass elevator (up to 50 floors high)
Resulted in a marked reduction in fear of heights (but equal to subjects exposed to the actual heights)
Flooding
Abandons the hierarchy of exposure Patient is directly exposed to the most stressful stimulus until anxiety subsides No opportunity for avoidance or escape Like jumping into a pool of cold water rather than one step at a time.
Disadvantages of Flooding
Anxiety provoking Less room for error: Patient might flee, with phobia intensified, and fleeing reinforced.
Systematic Desensitization
Individuals with phobias are gradually exposed to anxiety-provoking situation or objects in small increments (exposure), while at the same time practicing relaxation skills.
Treating Phobias Systematic Desensitization (Joseph Wolpe, 1958)
Train person to fall into deep relaxation (progressive muscle relaxation, or meditation) Create hierarchy of fear eliciting stimuli
from least to most strong example of stimulus
Gradually (from least to most) pair each item of hierarchy with relaxation
without producing fear (because of deep relaxation) Combines counterconditioning and extinction
A possible fear hierarchy A fear hierarchy for a public speaking phobia: Someone asks you to give a speech in two months Writing the speech a month before Rehearsing the speech a week before The morning of the speech Reciting the speech while dressing Approaching the auditorium Walking up to the podium Giving the speech For each step, the patient must imagine the scene in as much detail as possible. When distress arises, signal the therapist. Begin relaxation.
Systematic Desensitization
Get client in a relaxed state Present first item on hierarchy If no anxiety is signaled, present item a second time. After two presentations without anxiety move to next item If anxiety is signaled, return to relaxation. Present item again. If anxiety still occurs go back to earlier step or reconstruct hierarchy. Continue up the hierarchy until all items can be imagined without anxiety
In-Vivo Desensitization
Instead of imagining a situation, the client actually confronts gradually more anxiety producing stimuli
Aversion Therapy
Mainly used to treat unwanted or maladaptive attractions:
Additions: alcohol, cigarettes, etc.
Paraphilias: fetishes, pedophilia, etc.
Aversion Therapy to Treat Alcohol Abuse
Alcohol is paired with a chemical that causes nausea and vomiting. Person should learn to associate alcohol with nausea. Kassin, Essentials of Psychology - ©2004 Prentice Hall Publishing
Aversion Therapy
Conditioned stimulus is paired with a stimulus that elicits a negative response
Children (CS) Sexual Arousal (CR) (Shock) US Pain (UR) Children: Shock Pain Children Discomfort/Anxiety
Conditioned Immune Responses Conditioned immunosuppression
Ader & Cohen (1975) study with rats CS (Sweet water)→US (drug) = UR (immunosuppression – immune system produces less antibodies) Tested by injecting foreign cells, then giving half the rats the CS (sweet water) and half the rats plain water (no CS) Rats given the CS showed a CR of immunosuppression resulting in fewer antibodies to the foreign cells than rats given plain water
Conditioned Immune Responses
Conditioned Enhancement of the Human Immune System
Kirschbaum et al. (1994) CS (sweet sherbet) : US (adrenaline) UR (enhanced natural killer cell activity) Following this pairing in human subjects, the CS elicited a CR (increased natural killer cell activity)
Enhancement of the immune system is harder to get; results are inconsistent.
Advertising
Pair products with stimuli that elicit positive emotions (e.g., a form of second-order conditioning) Stuart et al. (1987) showed a series of slides to college students that contained neutral scenes, pleasant scenes, and various products
Experimental group = Brand L toothpaste was presented several times and always followed by pleasant scenes Control group = Brand L toothpaste was always followed by neutral scenes
Afterwards she found that Experimental students rated Brand L significantly more