Phobias

• Phobia: An irrational fear of an object or situation
• Behavioural: How we act
• Cognitive: How we think
• Emotional: How we feel
• What are all phobias categorised by?

  Excessive fear and anxiety
• What are phobias triggered by?

  An object, place or situation
• What are the three categories of phobia recognised by the DSM-5?

  Specific phobia

  Social phobia

  Agoraphobia
• What is a specific phobia?

  Phobia of an object (an animal/body part) or a situation (flying or having an injection)
• Specific phobia: Phobia of an object (an animal/body part) or a situation (flying or having an injection)
• What is a social phobia?

  Phobia of a social situation (public speaking or a public toilet)
• Social phobia: Phobia of a social situation (public speaking or a public toilet
• What is agoraphobia?

  Phobia of being outside or in a public place
• Agoraphobia: Phobia of being outside or in a public place
• Panic


  A person with a phobia may panic in response to the presence of a phobic stimulus
• What behaviours can panic involve?

  Crying, screaming or running away
• What are the three behavioural characteristics of phobias?

  Panic, avoidance, endurance
• Panic

  A person with a phobia may panic in response to the phobic stimulus
• Avoidance

  Unless the person is making a conscious effort to face their fear they tend to go to a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobic stimulus
• Endurance

  This occurs when the person chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus
• What are the three emotional characteristics of phobias?

  Anxiety, fear, emotional response is unreasonable
• Anxiety

  An unpleasant state of high arousal that prevents a person relaxing and it makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion - anxiety can be long term
• Fear

  The intermediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobic stimulus - more intense than anxiety but short term
• What are the three cognitive characteristics of phobias?

  Selective attention to the phobic stimulus, irrational beliefs, cognitive distortions
• Emotional response is unreasonable

  Anxiety or fear is much greater than is 'normal' and disproportionate to any threat posed
• Selective attention to the phobic stimulus

  If a person can see the phobic stimulus it's hard to look away from it. Keeping our attention on something dangerous gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat, but is not useful when the fear is irrational
• Irrational beliefs

  A person with a phobia may hold unfounded thoughts in relation to phobic stimuli, this belief increases the pressure on the person to perform well in social situations
• Cognitive distortions

  The perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic