phobias

• phobia?

  an irrational fear of an object or situation
• behavioural? 


  ways in which people act
• emotional?

  related to a persons feelings or mood
• cognitive ?

  refers to the process of knowing including thinking reasoning remembering and believing
• specific phobia? 


  phobia of an object or situation
• social anxiety (social phobia) ?


  phobia of a social situation
• agoraphobia?

  phobia of being outside or in a public place
• behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  panic - crying, screaming or running away.

  avoidance - person goes to a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with phobia

  endurance - person chooses to remain in the presence of phobic stimulus
• cognitive characteristics oh phobias?

  selective attention to phobic stimulus - hard to look away from it, keeping our attention on something really dangerous gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat.

  irrational beliefs - may hold unfolded thoughts of phobic stimulus.

  cognitive distortions - perceptions of a person with phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic
• emotional characteristics of phobias?

  anxiety - unpleasant state of high arousal. prevents a person relaxing and makes it difficult to experience any positive emotions.

  fear - immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about phobic stimulus.

  emotional response is unreasonable - anxiety or fear is much greater than is normal and disproportionate to any threat posed