Psychopathology - Phobias

• What is a phobia?

  An irrational fear off an abject or situation

  Extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus
• What does the DSM recognize as the following categories of phobia?

  Specific phobia - phobia of an object or situation

  Social anxiety - phobia of a social situation

  Agoraphobia - phobia of being outside or in a public place
• What are the 3 characteristics of phobia explored?

  Behavioural

  Emotional

  Cognitive
• What do behavioural characteristics of phobia refer to?

  The ways in which people act in response to the phobia
• What are the 3 behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  Panic - In response to phobic stimulus - involves a range of behaviours including crying & screaming.

  Avoidance - Go to efforts to prevent coming into contact with phobic stimulus. Can make daily life hard interfering with work, education and social life.

  Endurance - alternative to avoidance. Occurs when the person chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus to keep an eye on it, for example.
• What do emotional characteristics of phobias refer to?

  The feelings or mood a person is in in response to the phobic stimulus
• What are the 3 emotional characteristics of phobias?

  • Anxiety - phobias are classed as anxiety disorders (unpleasant state of high arousal). Prevents relaxing and makes it difficult to experience positive emotion
  • Fear - immediate unpleasant response when encountering phobic stimulus. Intense and shorter than anxiety
  • Emotional response is unreasonable - anxiety or fear is not normal and is disproportionate to any threat posed.
• What do cognitive characteristics of phobias refer to?

  Refers to how people process information including thinking, reasoning and believing
• What are the 3 cognitive characteristics of phobias?

  • Selective attention to phobic stimulus - keeping attention on phobic stimulus so we have good chance to react quickly to threat
  • Irrational beliefs - can hold unfounded thoughts which can’t be explained and don’t have a basis in reality. Increases pressure on person
  • Cognitive distortions - perceptions of someone with phobia can be inaccurate and unrealistic
• What is an example of a specific phobia?

  Arachnophobia - spiders