Characteristics of Phobias and treatment

• Phobias


  Characterised by extreme, irrational fear and anxiety, triggered by an object, place or situation. The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus. This fear can be disruptive to everyday life/ is maladaptive. The DSM classifies a phobia as an anxiety disorder.
• Phobias are a group of mental disorders characterized by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living.
• Depression is a mood disorder where an individual feels sad and/or lacks interest in their usual activities. Further characteristics include irrational negative thoughts, raised or lowered activity levels and difficulties with concentration, sleeping and eating.
• Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is an anxiety disorder where anxiety arises from both obsession (persistent thoughts) and compulsions (behaviours that are repeated over and over again). Compulsions are a response to obsessions and the person believes the compulsions will reduce anxiety.
• Behavioural


  Ways in which people act
• Emotional


  Ways in which people feel
• Cognitive


  Ways in which people think
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)


  Neutral stimulus that becomes associated with the unconditioned stimulus and triggers the conditioned response
• Unconditioned responses (UCR)


  Response that is not learnt and is instinctive, such as fear
• Conditioned response (CR)


  Response which has been learnt through association
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)


  Objects and events that naturally cause the unconditioned response
• Neutral stimulus (NS)


  Stimulus that would not normally cause any reaction
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)


  Neutral stimuli that become conditioned stimuli because they trigger a learnt response
• Stage 1: Prior to learning

  1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

  2. Unconditioned response (UCR)
• Stage 2: During learning

  1. Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

  2. Neutral stimulus (NS)

  3. Unconditioned response (UCR)
• Stage 3: After learning


  1. Conditioned stimulus (CS)

  2. Conditioned response (CR)
• Operant conditioning


  Theory proposed by Skinner that explains how behaviour is influenced by the consequences of our actions
• Operant conditioning and phobias

  • Maladaptive behaviour (phobia) is reinforced because avoiding the stimulus/event reduces the fear and is rewarding
  • If the person with the phobia has a severe fear response and gets lots of attention for it, this is rewarding and will lead to maintaining the phobia
  • Facing the stimulus/event is a punishment as the person experiences a fear response
• The behavioural explanation can be tested scientifically because it lends itself to empirical study
• People with phobias often do recall a specific incident when their phobia appeared
• This theory doesn't take into account individual differences in people
• This theory doesn't explain why people have phobias where they have never experienced the actual object
• Systematic Desensitisation


  1. Anxiety Hierarchy

  2. Relaxation

  3. Exposure
• Flooding Technique


  1. Immediately expose client to extremely fear-provoking situation

  2. Client is overwhelmed with fear and anxiety

  3. Client is prevented from avoiding the fear

  4. Reaction is so severe that the response is exhausted and the fear starts to diminish

  5. Patient learns that the phobic stimulus is harmless
• Systematic desensitisation is effective in the treatment of specific phobias
• Systematic desensitisation is suitable for a diverse range of patients
• Systematic desensitisation may not be effective beyond the clinical session in which it has been learned
• Flooding is as effective as other treatments for phobias
• Flooding has a wealth of supporting research for its effectiveness
• Flooding is less effective for some types of phobias, such as complex phobias with cognitive aspects
• Behavioural therapies can be very traumatic and highly upsetting for the patient
• Behavioural characteristics of phobias

  • Panic
  • Avoidance
  • Endurance
• Panic


  A phobic person may panic in response to the phobic stimulus. Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away. Children may react slightly different, for example by freezing, clinging or having a tantrum.
• Avoidance


  Unless the sufferer is making a conscious effort to face their fear they tend to make a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus. This can make it hard to go about everyday life. E.g. if someone has a fear of public toilets, they may limit the time they spend outside the home in relation to how long they can last without a toilet. This can interfere with work, education or their social life.
• Endurance


  The alternative to avoidance is endurance, in which a sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety. This may be unavoidable in some situations, for example for a person who has an extreme fear of flying.
• Phobias: A group of mental disorders characterized by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus or group of stimuli. The anxiety interferes with normal living.
• Psychological disorders


  • Phobias
  • Depression
  • Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Characteristics of psychological disorders

  • Behavioural
  • Emotional
  • Cognitive
• Emotional characteristics of phobias

  • Anxiety
  • Fear
  • Emotional responses are unreasonable
• Anxiety


  Phobias are classed as anxiety disorders. They involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear. Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal. This prevents the sufferer relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion. Anxiety can be long term.