Phobias

• Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder that is characterized by an irrational fear of a specific object or situation.
• What are phobias?

  A type of anxiety disorder
• Anxiety is an emotion all people experience and is a natural response to potentially dangerous stimuli.
• What is anxiety?

  An emotion all people experience and is a natural to potentially dangerous stimuli.
• Phobias are characterised by uncontrollable, extreme and irrational behaviour, enduring these fears evokes high anxiety levels that are out of proportion to any actual risk.
• Phobias are the most common form of mental disorder
• DSM-5 recognises three types of phobias:

  • Specific phobia
  • Social phobia
  • Agoraphobia
• What are specific phobias?

  Where sufferers are anxious in the presence of a particular object or specific situation
• Specific phobias are the most common category of phobia
• What is the most common category of phobia?

  Specific phobias
• What are social phobias?

  Sufferers have an inappropriate level of anxiety in social situations, this results in avoidance of these situations that can have a detrimental effect on their quality of life
• What can trigger social phobias?

  Social situations, such as performances, interactions or even just thinking about situations
• What is agoraphobia?


  Sufferers are anxious when they leave home or a safe place and are in a situation that they cannot easily leave, such as crowds.
• Agoraphobia is the least common category of phobia
• What is the least common category of phobias?

  Agoraphobia
• What are the three types of phobic symptoms?

  Cognitive, behavioural and emotional
• Phobic symptoms can be categorised into three sections: cognitive, behavioural and emotional
• Cognitive symptoms are how the individual thinks about the phobic stimulus
• What are cognitive symptoms?


  How an individual thinks about the phobic stimulus
• What are some examples of cognitive symptoms of phobias?

  Selective attention to the phobic stimulus and irrational beliefs
• What is selective attention to phobic stimuli (cognitive symptom)?

  Once the sufferer can see the phobic stimulus, it is hard to look away from it, and although keeping attention on a dangerous stimulus is a good thing (increases the chances of reacting to it), it is not as useful if the fear is irrational
• What are irrational beliefs (cognitive symptoms)?

  A phobic may hold irrational beliefs in relation to the phobic stimuli and although the individual may recognise that their fear is unreasonable, they are resistant to rational perspectives offered by others
• What are behavioural symptoms?

  How an individual acts in response to a stimulus
• Behavioural symptoms are how an individual acts in response to a stimulus
• What are some examples of behavioural symptoms?

  Panic, avoidance, endurance
• What is panic (behavioural symptom)?

  In response to the presence of the phobic stimulus, the individual may have a range of behaviours including crying and screaming, and children may have a tantrum or freeze
• What is avoidance (behavioural symptom)?

  As confrontation with the feared object or situation would cause an anxiety response, efforts are made to avoid it to reduce the chances of anxiety occurring, this may be so extreme that it interferes with everyday functioning.
• What are some symptoms of an anxiety response?

  Rapid heartbeat, sweating, and shortness of breath
• What is endurance (behavioural symptom)?

  The alternative to avoidance, in which the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety, in some cases this may be unavoidable
• What are emotional symptoms?

  How a person feels about the stimulus
• Emotional symptoms are how a person feels about the stimulus
• What are some examples of emotional symptoms?

  Anxiety, fear and unreasonable responses
• Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high arousal, the individual cannot relax and this makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion
• What is anxiety?


  An unpleasant state of high arousal
• What are anxiety and fear (emotional symptoms)?

  Phobias are classed as anxiety disorders and therefore involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear, where anxiety is an unpleasant state where an individual couldn’t relax and fear would be the immediate and unpleasant response the individual feels
• Fear would be the immediate and extremely unpleasant response individuals experience when they encounter or think about the phobic stimulus
• What are unreasonable responses (emotional symptoms)?

  Emotional responses that go beyond what is reasonable and is disproportionate to the danger posed by the phobic object
• The behaviour approach proposes that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and are maintained through operant conditioning, this is referred to as the two process model
• Who was the two process model made by?

  Mowe
• What is the two process model?

  The explanation that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning