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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this lecture, we think about behavioural explanations and treatments for phobias, focusing in particular on: (i) unpairing links to reduce phobic reactions; (ii) basic methods of unlearning links, such as simply telling someone that there isn’t one; (iii) systematic desensitisation as a method of working up to the ‘full’ phobia, to desensitise the recipient; (iv) mental flooding, whereby the recipient is ‘thrown in the deep end’ with their fear to demonstrate the irrationality of their phobia.

Course

In this course, Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya (University of Birmingham) explores the concepts of abnormality, phobias, and psychopathy. In the first lecture, we define abnormality and discuss how social norms, adequate functioning, harm to others, and statistical prevalence play a role in understanding it as a concept. In the second lecture, we consider the characteristics of phobias and how we define them as abnormal. In the third lecture, we look at learning explanations for the acquisition of phobias. Next, we think about behavioural explanations and treatments. In the fifth lecture, we discuss how psychopathy presents itself as an expression of abnormality across a breadth of social interactions, and how that can be reflected in language. The sixth and final lecture summarises the content from the course and reflects on how this can inform our understanding of these concepts going forward.

Lecturer

Dr Ayoub Bouguettaya is a lecturer in the School of Psychology at the University of Birmingham. Dr Bouguettaya’s research interests are in social psychology and how knowledge from that field can be applied to others, particularly health, including how we can apply social identity theory to societal problems, as well as investigating the different perspectives one might take on those issues. Some of Dr Bouguettaya’s recent publications include 'The relationship between gambling advertising and gambling attitudes, intentions and behaviours: a critical and meta-analytic review' (2020) and 'The Effect of a Food Addiction Explanation Model for Weight Control and Obesity on Weight Stigma' (2020).