Learning Objectives

• To be able to understand how to improve on the end of unit exam on Anxiety disorders

Do Now: Consider your response to the following question ‘What is

the difference between an experimental design and an

experimental method in Psychology?’

Starter

• Discussion ‘What is the difference between experimental design and experimental methods in Psychology?’

• Name 3 methods

• Name 3 types of experimental design

Introduction

• You want to investigate the effectiveness of systematic de-sensitisation in comparison to a control treatment (sitting in a room with a therapist and talking) on patients with a phobia of dogs

• You will explore how you would do this using each form of experimental design (matched pairs, independent measures, repeated measures)

Experimental Design: Phobia of Dogs

• Matched Pairs – match people for how afraid they are of the dogs using some physiological measure e.g. heart rate response to a picture of a dog, put one of the pair matched for their fear in the control group and one of them in the experimental (SD) group

• Independent measures – get a group of people who have a phobia of dogs and randomly put half into the control group and half into the experimental group

• Repeated measures – get a group of people who have a phobia of dogs and first give them the control treatment, then measure the effect it has on their phobia (possibly through some physiological measurement of their anxiety response), next, give them the experimental treatment and measure the effect it has on them

Main: examination feedback

• You will need a highlighter

• You will highlight your work according to where you picked up marks

• You will add any improvements to your work as we progress through each question

Main: Examination Feedback

2. Explain what is meant by a phobia (2 marks)• Up to 2 marks for a description of features of a

phobia. Likely points:• An extreme fear of an object / situation / activity• An irrational fear or fear which is

disproportionate to the danger• A fear that leads to avoidance• A fear that is maladaptive or disruptive to

everyday life• 1 mark for any of the above. Max of 1 mark if no

reference to ‘fear’

A researcher wanted to investigate the effectiveness of a cognitive therapy as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children. Before the therapy started, the mothers of 10 children with obsessive-compulsive disorder each rated the anxiety of their child. They used a rating scale of 1–10, where 1 meant not at all anxious and 10 meant extremely anxious. Each child then attended a programme of therapy. At the end of the programme, each mother rated her child again, using the same anxiety scale. The scores for each child before and after therapy were used to calculate a median anxiety rating. The data are shown in Table 1 below.

3. (a) Identify two symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder. (2 marks)

• [AO1 = 2]

AO1 Up to 2 marks for description of both obsessions – recurrent/persistent

thoughts/ideas/images/impulses and compulsions – repetitive behaviours/ritual

acts/behaviour that reduces anxiety.

Accept physiological symptoms of anxiety.

• (b)Name and outline the experimental design used in this study. (2 marks)

• [AO3 = 2]• AO3 1 mark for naming repeated measures design.• 1 further mark for an elaboration of repeated measures design.• Possible answers: Repeated measures design means that the same

participants are used in both conditions of the study.• If the answer is related to the study described: This means that the

children whose anxiety ratings are taken in the before therapy condition are the same children as those who provide the anxiety ratings for the after therapy condition.

• (c)Explain one advantage of this experimental design. (2 marks)• [AO3 = 2]• AO3 Up to 2 marks for an explanation of one advantage of using

repeated measures design.• The advantage of repeated measures design (in this study) is that

there will be no participant variables (1) so any differences in performance (the median anxiety ratings before and after therapy) are more likely to be due to the manipulated variables/variables under test (therapy programme) than other variables so the validity of the results is increased.

• Answers based on the idea that fewer participants are required than in other designs are relevant.

• Note:• If the answer to 20 is incorrect full credit can be awarded for 21 if

the advantage given matches the experimental design identified in the answer to 20.

• (d)Explain what the median ratings in Table 1 indicate about the effectiveness of the cognitive therapy programme.

• Up to 2 marks for a brief explanation of what the results indicate.

• As the median anxiety ratings have decreased (1) since the therapy programme that would seem to indicate the programme was effective in reducing the anxiety (1).

• Accept other plausible explanations of the difference in the medians.

• 1. Describe how systematic desensitisation might be used to treat a specific phobia such as a phobia of spiders. Evaluate the use of systematic desensitisation to treat phobias.

• (10 marks)• [AO1 = 5 AO2 = 5]• AO1 Up to 5 marks for description of systematic

desensitisation. Programme includes relaxation training for patient, description of construction of hierarchy of anxieties with example, gradual exposure from least to most frightening stage with relaxation replacing fear as the response. Pairing of feared object with pleasant stimulus. Can be carried out in vivo or imagined.

• Credit description of relevant evidence up to 2 marks.

• 1. Describe how systematic desensitisation might be used to treat a specific phobia such as a phobia of spiders. Evaluate the use of systematic desensitisation to treat phobias.

• (10 marks)

• AO2 Up to 5 marks for discussion of the effectiveness of systematic desensitisation. Application of knowledge of the programme to specific phobia. Analysis of how programme works – based on premise that fear and relaxation cannot exist together – they are competing emotions. Evaluation of the programme including support from studies and comparison with the other treatments such as VRET – cheaper, easier and equally effective. Limitations of the therapy – cannot be applied to generalised social phobia. Works well in therapeutic situation but may not always generalise to everyday life situations. Credit use of relevant evidence up to 2 marks.

POINT – EVIDENCE - EXPLAIN

The majority of people are still failing to elaborate on A02 points!

Plenary

• What have you learnt today?