psychpathology - phobias

• specific phobia meaning

  phobia of an object of situation e.g. spiders, flying

  (this is the most common phobia)
• agoraphobia meaning

  the fear of being trapped in a public place where escape may be difficult is "fear of an open marketplace"
• social phobia meaning

  • extreme shyness
  • extreme fear of social situations
  • panic attacks
• cognitive characteristics of phobias

  • irrational thought is at the root of all phobias. you are not capable of thinking rationally about your fear
  • selective attention is given to a feared object and we are hyper alert of its presence. once we know it is there, we can't focus on anything else
  • awareness that the fear is irrational
• behavioural characteristics of phobias

  • phobic situations are avoided
  • this avoidance can significantly impact the individuals life
  • a panic reaction is experienced (crying, screaming etc)
• emotional characteristics of phobias

  a marked persistent fear (anxiety) that is excessive and irrational
• two process model - classical conditioning

  fears are acquired when an individual associates a neutral stimulus with a fear response
• two process model - operant conditioning

  whereby avoiding the phobic stimulus is reinforcing and rewarding because it relieves anxiety
• A03 to classical conditioning

  Watson and Rayner sought to provide experimental evidence that fears could be learnt through classical conditioning.

  11 month old Albert showed fear when an unconditioned stimulus caused an unconditioned response. this means he had induced a phobia through classical conditioning
• A03 to operant conditioning

  Munjack investigated driving phobias. only 1/2 of participants had actually experienced a car accident. half of those in the control group had also experienced a car accident
• A03 to operant conditioning

  diathesis stress model - the idea that we may be born with some sort of biological predisposition to make us more vulnerable to developing a phobia but it depends on if our environment brings it out.
• treatment of phobias - systematic desensitisation 


  this is the idea that 2 incompatible emotional states cannot exist at the same time

  • the aim is to replace anxiety with relaxation
  • this is done by re-teaching the individual to associate the feared object by being relaxed.
  • therapist makes a hierarchy of anxiety provoking situations where they start with the least - most
  • relaxations techniques are taught to complete at every stage before moving on.
• A03 of systematic desensitisation

  • success rates from meta-analysis are to be around 75%
  • phobias of injections have a success rate from SD at around 90%
  • research shows that relapse is common
  • Burke et al - SD and medication are the best treatment of phobias
  • evolutionary psychologists - says that you cannot cure phobias because there is a link to survival.
  • psychodynamic psychologists claim that SD isn't successful because it never tackles the underlying cause
• treatment of phobias - flooding

  this is where the individual is exposed to the feared object in an intense, non-graded way

  • a patient is placed alone in their phobia situation and they must remain until anxiety decreases. emotional exhaustion sets in when the client realises they are safe
• A03 for flooding

  • the ethics of the techniques are questionable
  • clients can suffer from high blood pressure and so they can be at risk of heart attacks
  • it is a quick, inexpensive treatment
  • Curtis (1976) reported 12 patients successfully cured from their phobias through flooding in London