Phobias

• how can phobias be defined?

  pathological anxiety disorder which involve irrational anxiety or fear that is directed towards a particular object or situation
• what 3 kinds of phobias are there?

  • specific phobia
  • social phobia
  • agoraphobia
• what are examples of a social phobia?

  fear of public speaking, eating in public, meeting new people
• what are examples of a specific phobia?

  fear of spiders, clowns, snakes, heights
• what is agoraphobia?

  fear of crowded places and fear of having a panic attack and no one helping them in public
• what is classical conditioning with phobias?

  learning through association.

  new stimulus is repeatedly paired with another stimulus and a new response which was once paired with the old stimulus is for the new one
• how can classical conditioning be linked to phobias?

  classical conditioning can create phobias in people (acquisition) like little albert
• how can operant conditioning be applied to phobias?

  its learning through consequences of own behaviour so every time the phobic situation is avoided the anxiety levels drop which reinforce the avoidance - negative punishment
• does operant conditioning help maintain or acquire a phobia?

  maintain a phobia
• how does social learning theory apply to phobias?

  SLT - new behaviours are learnt through observing and learning through others.

  can be applied - if we see someone struggle and avoid a phobic situation then we are likely to imitate the behaviour
• what may we experience with Social learning theory being applied to phobias?

  vicarious reinforcement when we see others feel better avoiding a phobias situation
• does social learning theory maintain or acquire a phobia or both?

  both