phobias

• The DSM's (diagnostic and statistical manual) categories of phobias are; specific (object/situation), social anxiety (social phobia) and agoraphobia (outside/public place).
• The DSM 5 diagnoses phobias as follows:

  • marked as a persistant fear (had for six months)
  • exposure to the phobic stimulus produces rapid anxiety
  • the fear is excessive
  • the phobic stimulus is avoided or responded to with great anxiety
  • phobic reactions interfere significantly with working/social life
• One behavioural characteristic of phobias is panic. An individual may respond to a phobic stimulus with panic, which includes; crying, screaming or running away. However, children may show different behaviours like; clinging, freezing or throwing a tantrum.
• Another behavioural characteristic of phobias is avoidance. A phobic individual may go to a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with their phobic stimulus - this can make daily life difficult. This can interfere with their work, education or social life.
• The last behavioural characteristic of phobias is endurance. This is when a sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to have high levels of anxiety (this may be due to an unavoidable situation, like flying).
• An emotional characteristic of phobias is anxiety. Anxiety is an unpleasant state of arousal which prevents the sufferer from relaxing, making it difficult to experience any positive emotions. This can be long term whilst fear is an immediate response.
• Another emotional characteristic of phobias is an unreasonable emotional response. These are experienced in relation to a phobic stimulus and may include strong emotions in respoonse to something harmless.
• One cognitive characteristic of phobias is selective attention. This is where an individual is unable to look away from a phobic stimulus. This is because keeping our attention on something dangerous gives us a chance to react quickly to a threat.
• Another cognitive characteristic of phobias is irrational beliefs. An individual may hold irrational beliefs in relation to a phobic stimulus. These beliefs increases pressure on the individual and how they act in certain situations.
• The last cognitive characteristic of phobias is cognitive distortions. This means that the perception of a phobic stimulus may be distorted. For example, ophidiophobics may see snakes as alien and aggressive-looking.
• Mowrer believed that phobias can be explained by classical conditioning (association) and are maintained by operant conditioning (consequence).
• Classical conditioning;

  • we associate something we don't initially fear, a neutral stimulus, with something that already triggers a fear response, UCS + UCR
• Operant conditioning;

  • takes place when behaviour is reinforced (rewarded/punished)
  • reinforcement increases the frequency of a behaviour
  • when avoiding a phobic stimulus, we escape the fear which reinforces avoidance (the phobia is maintained)
• Strengths of Mowrer's explanation:

  • treatments - gives us a wider understanding of how we can treat phobias since we know how they're created
  • supporting evidence - Little Albert experiment demonstrated how a stimulus can be conditioned into a phobia
  • good explanatory power
• Limitations of Mowrer's explanation:

  • incomplete explanation - not everyone has suffered a traumatic event will aquire a phobia
  • ignores biological explanations and cognitive factors
• Systematic desensitisation (Wolpe 1958) is a form of counter-conditioning which follows these steps;

  • The client builds a hierarchy of all anxiety arousing stimuli (holding spider)
  • The client is trained in relaxation techniques (muscle relaxation)
  • The client works through the hierarchy while using relaxation techniques
  • The client confronts their real fear (presented with real spider)
• Weaknesses of systematic desensitisation;

  • treats the symptom, not the cause (symptom substitution)
  • not all phobias are able to be treated (fear of death)
  • less effective in treating complex behaviours - suggests they cannot be explained by behaviourist theories
• Strengths of systematic desensitisation;

  • may offer possible therapies for people with learning difficulties - lack of ability for cognitive therapies/flooding
  • relatively quick treatment - requires less time from a patient rather than CBT
  • supporting evidence (Gilroy et al): treated 42 patients with agnorphobia using three SD sessions. when examined the SD group were more fearful than the control group.
• Flooding is an inescapable exposure to a stimulus until the fear/anxiety disappears. The fear response isn't maintained since the body cannot physically maintain high levels of anxiety meaning a new association is formed. Previous fear = relaxation.
• Limitations of flooding:

  • not suitable for certain medical conditions - learning disabilities
  • treats symptoms not cause - leads to symptom substitution
  • ethics - highly stressful, may not realise the extent of flooding when giving consent & if they withdraw, it won't work
  • doesn't work for all phobias - social phobias have cognitive aspects and other phobias cannot be flooded (death)
• Strengths of flooding:

  • is a quick process - quicker than SD, is also cost effective (because it is quick)
  • research support (Ougrin 2011): flooding is comparable to other treatments like SD and cognitive therapies, but it is significantly quicker