phobias

• DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual)


  A type of system for classifying and diagnosing mental health problems
• Types of phobias


  • Specific phobia
  • Social anxiety/phobia
  • Agoraphobia
• Specific phobia


  Phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part, or a situation such as flying of having an injection
• Social anxiety/phobia


  Phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet
• Agoraphobia

  Phobia of being outside or in a public place
• Behavioural approach to phobias

  • Emphasises on the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour
  • Focuses on behaviour and key aspects of phobias (panic, avoidance and endurance)
  • Geared towards explaining these aspects rather than the cognitive and emotional aspects of phobias
• Two-process model


  Phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and continue by operant conditioning
• Behavioural characteristics of phobias

  • Panic
  • Avoidance
  • Endurance
• Panic

  Involves a range of behaviours including crying, screaming, running away in the presence of the phobic stimulus. Children may react slightly differently e.g- freezing, clinging or having a tantrum.
• Avoidance

  Going into a lot of effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobic stimulus (unless making a conscious effort to face their fear)
• Endurance

  When the person chooses to remain in the presence of the phobic stimulus (to keep an eye on it rather than running away)
• Emotional characteristics of phobias

  • Anxiety
  • Fear
• Anxiety

  An unpleasant state of high arousal. Prevents a person from relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion. It can be long term.
• Fear

  The immediate and extremely unpleasant response we experience when we encounter or think about a phobic stimulus. Usually more intense but for shorter periods than anxiety
• The emotional response to phobias is unreasonable: the anxiety and fear is disproportionate to any threat posed
• Cognitive responses to phobias

  • Selective attention to stimulus
  • Irrational beliefs
  • Cognitive distortion
• Selective attention to stimulus


  A person would only focus on the stimulus. This would give them the best chance to react quickly to a threat, but is not useful when the fear is irrational.
• Irrational beliefs


  A person may hold unreasonable thoughts in relation to phobic stimuli. Eg- social phobias can involve beliefs like 'I must always sound intelligent'. Increases the pressure on the person to perform well in social situations
• Cognitive distortion


  The perceptions of a person with a phobia may be inaccurate and unrealistic
• Two-process model


  An explanation for the onset and persistence of disorders that create anxiety such as phobias. Classical conditioning for onset, operant conditioning for persistence
• Phobias are maintained by avoidance of the phobic stimulus
• Acquisition by classical conditioning

  Learning to associate something we don't have a fear of (neutral response) with something that already triggers a fear response (unconditioned stimulus). Responses tend to decline over time
• The Little Albert Experiment

  • Researchers made a loud noise whenever the rat was presented to albert, scaring him
  • Rat became a learned or conditioned stimulus that produces conditioned response when paired with noise
• Maintenance by operant conditioning


  Phobias are long lasting and Mowrer has explained that this is a result of operant conditioning.
• Systematic desensitisation


  1. Drawing a hierarchy of anxiety-provoking responses/situations of phobic stimulus

  2. Teaching the person to relax while they work through

  3. Exposure to phobic stimulus while in a relaxed state
• Reciprocal inhibition


  It is impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time
• Flooding

  1. Exposing the person to an extreme form of phobic stimulus in order to reduce anxiety

  2. Takes place across a small number of long therapy sessions

  3. No gradual build up like systematic desensitisation
• Flooding stops phobic responses very quickly as a learned response is extinguished when the conditioned stimulus is encountered without the unconditioned stimulus, no longer producing the conditioned response (fear)