Psychology 2014

[#J.Procrastinator]

Hi everyone!
I just have a quick question for my folio learning SAC.
One of the activities is a video of a woman overcoming her fear of birds and feathers. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMZ5o2uruXY
I was wondering whether this classifies as gradual exposure or flooding? My teacher can't tell me and all my friends have different answers!

Thanks in advance!

Hi there!

I would go with flooding as she is brought into direct contact with the CS( Conditioned stimulus), that being feathers. We see that she is exposed to her fear directly and by the end of the video, she realises that the feather is actually quite harmless.

I can see why it might also be considered as graduated exposure since the psychologist doesn't straight away make her touch the feather but instead, gradually exposes her to the anxiety producing stimulus. He introduces to her the feather at a distance, but as time elapses he brings the CS closer and closer to her.

HOWEVER, while graduated exposure and flooding may seem very similar there are slight differences to be noted. The reason why I believe the technique the psychologist performs sways more towards flooding rather than graduated exposure is because graduated exposure involves gradually introducing the client to similar stimuli to the CS. However in this case she is brought into direct contact with her fear.

I'm pretty curious to see what others think? 

[S33667]

I'm positive that it's flooding.

Graduated Exposure involves pairing the fear-inducing stimulus with relaxation techniques through repeated associations. Whilst she's exposed to the feather in increments, there's no evidence that any form of relaxation techniques are being paired (e.g. meditation, deep breathing, etc).

According to my notes, flooding involves bringing the client into direct contact  with the anxiety -- or fear-producing stimulus -- and keeping them in contact with it until the conditioned response is extinguished. If this video was a demonstration of graduated exposure, it's more than likely that the therapist would use multiple sessions to extinguish the response - not go all the way in the one session. I'd also argue that it's flooding because we can see that her fear reaches a peak - to the point that she is in tears and shaking - and then begins to drop, which allows her to control her fear (seen through her decision of the feather being brought closer).

So yeah, I'm 100% sure that it's flooding.

[sparkatrine]

thanks everyone! I put flooding down on my SAC so fingers crossed!

[StupidProdigy]

Has anyone done many ( if any) practice exams so far this year?? I need to get into gear haha!

[more_vanilla]

Has anyone done many ( if any) practice exams so far this year?? I need to get into gear haha!

I've done a few...untimed...and open book.
Hahaha better than nothing I guess

[AngelWings]

Has anyone done many ( if any) practice exams so far this year?? I need to get into gear haha!

If you don't have time to do a practise exam, just try single questions, Checkpoints, A+ Notes... whatever resource you love using that are related to what you're covering now. If you can get only five single minutes (e.g. a bus ride home), take it out and do it then, even if it's the shortest multiple choice question in the paper.

I'd suggest not doing full VCAA exam papers until you hit the end of Term 3. Try other practise exams like TSSM in the meantime.

[Michael Scofield]

What exactly is an annotated folio of practical activities?

[AngelWings]

What exactly is an annotated folio of practical activities?

Well, it's actually just a bunch of notes combining both the theoretical and practical work you do.
So... in a series of weeks, you will go to class and they'll make you do a bunch of experiments (harmless ones), write notes on it, parts of ERAs and questions and it counts for a significant portion of your Unit 4 marks.
So something like:
- writing the alphabet backwards as fast as possible and doing sums in between turns to observe how fast we learn.
- popping balloons to associate blinking and certain nonsense words.
- observing the SPE (Serial Positioning Effect) in action when given a list of nonsense words.
and writing notes on these results is possible.

[Solarah]

How did you guys go on your most recent SACs? (the short answer part, not the folio).
I got 41 out of 50, which I'm pretty proud of

[JackSonSmith]

Is response cost and negative punishment the same thing?

[Politics]

Is response cost and negative punishment the same thing?

We were told they were by our teacher

[Solarah]

I'm pretty sure response cost is just the personal cost or disadvantage that comes with negative punishment. Like, the negative punishment takes away something, and that thing being taken away is a mental cost (or I think a token economy cost)
eg: Sally misbehaves and her toy is taken away. This is a response cost, so Sally becomes very sad and this is a personal cost to her.

[StupidProdigy]

Yes! Exact same thing. It is just removing a pleasant stimulus to reinforce the desired behaviour!

Is response cost and negative punishment the same thing?

[StupidProdigy]

Also does anyone know what the best mental illness to choose for my sac??? phobia, mood disorder, addictive disorder or schizophrenia? By 'best' I mean easiest to find resources for and score well on the sac on Thanks anyone

[anna.xo]

Also does anyone know what the best mental illness to choose for my sac??? phobia, mood disorder, addictive disorder or schizophrenia? By 'best' I mean easiest to find resources for and score well on the sac on Thanks anyone

Doesn't your school just pick one and that's the one you have to go with ?