phobias characteristics

• behavioural characteristics

  • panic:
  • may involve a range of behaviours, such as: crying, screaming or running away from the phobic stimulus
  • avoidance:
  • considerable effort to prevent contact with the phobic stimulus. this can make it hard to go about everyday life
  • endurance:
  • an alternative behaviour to avoidance. involves remaining with the phobic stimulus and continuing to experience anxiety
• emotional characteristics:

  • anxiety:
  • an unpleasant state of high arousal. prevents an individual relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience positive emotion
  • fear:
  • the immediate response we experience when we encounter of think about a phobic stimulus
  • emotional response is unreasonable:
  • disproportionate to the threat posed, eg a person with arachnophobia will have a strong emotional response to a tiny spider
• cognitive characteristics:

  • selective attention to the phobic stimulus:
  • a person with a phobia finds it hard to look away from the phobic stimulus
  • irrational beliefs:
  • phobias may involve beliefs, eg 'if I blush people will think I'm weak'
  • cognitive distortions:
  • unrealistic thinking, eg belly buttons appear ugly