Characteristics of Phobias

• behavioural characteristics of phobias

  • panic - people may panic in the prescience of phobic stimulus causing crying, screaming or running away.
  • avoidance - suffered go to a lot of effort to avoid the phobic stimulus e.g people with fear of spiders may refuse to go in a room with a spider in
  • endurance - sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety. may be unavoidable e.g a person who has a fear of flying on planes
• emotional characteristics of phobias

  • anxiety - high state of arousal preventing sufferer from relaxing making it difficult for them to feel positive emotions
  • unreasonable fear - the emotional responses we experience to the phobic stimulus go beyond reasonable e.g fear of a tiny spider could have a massive emotional response.
• cognitive characteristics of phobias

  • selective attention, is the sufferer can see the phobic stimulus they find it hard to look away
  • irrational beliefs - sufferer has an incorrect perception as to what the danger posed actually is
  • cognitive distortions - perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted e.g people who are afraid of snakes me see all snakes as alien and aggressive