Phobias

• what are specific phobias and give examples:

  • phobia of a specific object or thing, such as an animal, body part or situation
  • sufferers avoid situations where these stimuli may occur
• what is social anxiety?

  • phobia of a social situation such as public speaking
  • this leads to avoidance of social situations and can negatively affect people's quality of life
• what is agoraphobia?

  • sufferers are anxious when in a situation they cannot easily leave (e.g crowds, open spaces)
  • They will avoid these situations and are extremely anxious if anticipating them
• behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  • panic
  • avoidance
  • endurance
• Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias - Panic

  • a person with a phobia may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus
  • may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away
  • children may react differently, e.g freezing, clinging or throwing a tantrum
• Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias - Avoidance

  • unless someone makes a conscious effort to face their fear they tend to go to alot of effort to prevent coming into contact with their phobic stimulus
  • this can make it harder to go about daily life, interfering with things like work, education and social life
• Behavioural Characteristics of Phobias - Endurance

  • the alternative response to avoidance
  • occurs when person chooses to remain in presence of phobic stimulus
  • e.g a person with arachnophobia choosing to remain in the room with a spider to keep an eye on it
• What are the emotional characteristics of a phobia?

  • anxiety
  • fear
  • unreasonable response
• emotional characteristics of a phobia - anxiety

  • phobias are anxiety disorders
  • so they involve an emotional response of anxiety - an unpleasant state of high arousal
  • this prevents a person from relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion
• emotional characteristics of a phobia - fear

  • fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response when encountering a phobic stimulus
  • it is usually more intense and experienced for a shorter period of time than anxiety which is more constant and comes from thinking and anticipating the phobic stimulus
• emotional characteristics of a phobia - unreasonable responses

  • the anxiety and fear experienced when coming into contact with a phobic stimulus is much greater than normal and disproportionate to any threat posed
• what are the cognitive characteristics of a phobia?

  • selective attention
  • irrational beliefs
  • cognitive distortions
• cognitive characteristics of a phobia - selective attention

  • if a person sees a phobic stimulus its hard to look away from it and concentrate on anything else
  • this is useful if the threat is dangerous as we can quickly react to the threat but useless if the fear is irrational
• cognitive characteristics of a phobia - irrational beliefs

  • a person with a phobia may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to the phobic stimulus i.e thoughts that can't be easily explained and have no basis in reality
  • e.g social phobias can include thoughts like 'I must always sound intelligent' which can increase pressure on the person to perform well in social situations
• cognitive characteristics of a phobia - cognitive distortions

  • the perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic
• What is the Two Process Theory?

  • explains that through some experience we associate an object with fear (classical conditioning) and then we avoid that object which maintains the phobia (operant conditioning)