Characteristics of Phobias

• Panic — the patient suffers from heightened physiological arousal upon exposure to the phobic stimulus, caused by the hypothalamus triggering increased levels of activity in the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
• Avoidance — avoidance behaviour is negatively reinforced (in classical conditioning terms) because it is carried out to avoid the unpleasant consequence of exposure to the phobic stimulus. Therefore, avoidance severely impacts the patient’s ability to continue with their day to day lives.
• Endurance — this occurs when the patient remains exposed to the phobic stimulus for an extended period of time, but also experiences heightened levels of anxiety during this time.
• Selective attention — this means that the patient remains focused on the phobic stimulus, even when it is causing them severe anxiety. This may be the result of irrational beliefs or cognitive distortions.
• Irrational beliefs — this may be the cause of unreasonable responses of anxiety towards the phobic stimulus, due to the patient’s incorrect perception as to what the danger posed actually is.
• They key emotional characteristics of a phobia, are fear, anxiety and an unreasonable emotional response.