Phobias

• Specific phobias 


  these include animal phobias and situational type phobias
• Social phobias


  an excessive fear of social situation, for example eating in public or

  going into a public lavatory
• Agoraphobia

  this is a fear of public places. It is thought to be the most serious of all phobias. Many people with agoraphobia are also prone to panic attacks when they go into public places.
• Behavioural characteristics


  Panic, avoidance, endurance
• Emotional characteristics


  Emotional responses are inappropriate to the situation, anxiety
• Cognitive characteristics


  decrease in concentration, irrational beliefs
• Two-Process Model


  This states that phobias are acquired (learned in the first place) by classical

  conditioning and then continue (maintained) because of operant conditioning.
• Little Albert


  Whenever the rat was presented they made a loud, frightening

  noise by banging an iron bar close to Albert’s ear. Eventually Albert became frightened

  when he saw a rat even without the noise.
• Maintenance by Operant Conditioning


  operant

  conditioning maintains the phobia through negative reinforcement.
• Two process strength


  Implications for therapy - Once a patient is prevented from practicing their avoidance behaviour the behaviour ceases to be reinforced and so it declines.
• Two Process Limitation


  An incomplete explanation of phobias - suggested

  preparedness theory to explain why some phobias are more readily acquired than others. This theory proposes that humans have been ‘prepared’ by evolution to be fearful of things which in our distant past were a danger to survival
• Systematic Desensitisation


  Relaxation, Anxiety Heirarchy, Gradual Exposure - impossible to be afraid and relaxed at the same time
• Effectiveness of SD


  in vivo exposure is more successful than ones using pictures or imagining the feared stimulus

  (in vitro).
• Appropriateness of SD


  It is more preferable to flooding for many clients - less traumatic because of the more gentle step by step approach
• Flooding


  The aim of flooding is to expose the sufferer to the phobic object or situation for an extended period of time in a safe and controlled environment - exhaustion of phobic response
• Effectiveness of Flooding


  It is less effective for social phobia – although flooding is highly effective for treating simple phobias it appears to be less effective for more complex phobias, cognitive aspect
• Appropriateness of Flooding 


  Can be traumatic - a cost-benefit

  analysis is carried out before engaging with flooding as it can be psychologically harmful