This was a question from a trial exam I did where it gave a scenario of an experiment that was performed
Susan is a psychologist working in a clinic that helps patients who want to overcome various phobias.
She decides to investigate which treatment is most effective in dealing with animal phobias.
Susan explains the purpose of the research and what participants will be expected to do. Thirty patients who display phobic responses to spiders volunteer to take part.
Susan first shows the participants a two minute clip of a person handling large spiders and after the viewing she asks the participants to rate their score (Score 1) on an “Anxiety Scale” where 0 is very relaxed, 50 is calm but on guard and 100 is terrified. After this she matches the participants in threes, according to their anxiety rating score and randomly allocates them to treatment conditions A or B or C.
Group A is then shown a series of increasingly frightening photographs and models of spiders, whilst Susan leads them through a relaxation process as they view each picture. Group B are shown the same pictures and models but they are asked to state the thoughts and beliefs that cause their anxiety and Susan shows them how these unhelpful beliefs are causing their anxiety and can be replaced with more helpful thoughts such as “That spider is big and ugly but it will not hurt a person”.
Group C listens to relaxing music with no spider-related stimuli.
And it goes on to describe results, etc..
It asks:
Question 28
Susan’s participants, when experiencing their phobic responses, will show high levels of
A.GABA and dopamine
B.adrenaline and noradrenaline
C.dopamine and adrenaline
D.GABA and adrenaline
The answer is D, but can someone explain to me the reasoning behind it, my thoughts were that phobias arise as the result of low GABA levels?
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