Phobias

• Phobias - A group of mental disorders characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to a particular stimulus, interfering with normal living
• Categories of Phobia:

  • Specific Phobia
  • Social Phobia (social anxiety)
  • Agoraphobia
• Specific Phobia - phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part, or a situation
• Social phobia (social anxiety) - phobia of a social situation such as public speaking
• Agoraphobia - phobia of being outside or in a public space
• Characteristics of Phobias:

  • Emotional - Anxiety, fear, unreasonable responses
  • Behavioural - Panic, avoidance, endurance
  • Cognitive - irrational beliefs, distortions, selective attention
• Behaviourist approach to explaining Phobias:

  • Classical conditioning
  • Operant conditioning
  • Social Learning Theory
  • Two Process Model
• Classical Conditioning (Initiation) - phobias originate from the association between a neutral stimulus (attention) and a new stimulus (fear).
• Operant Conditioning (Maintenance): The phobia comes from the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated if they're rewarded eg. calmness for avoiding "phobia"
• Social Learning theory: Phobias may be acquired from modelling behaviours from others eg. mum being scared of spiders
• Two Process Model (Mowrer 1947): accounts for operant/classical conditioning as a process of acquiring a phobia. it states that classical is how the form and operant is how they continue.
• Behaviourist Approach to Treating Phobias:

  • Systematic Desensitisation
  • Flooding
• Systematic Desensitisation (Wolpe 1958): A form of exposure therapy that involves gradually exposing a patient to the phobic stimulus, counterconditioning it with a new conditioned stimulus
• Covert Desensitisation - contact is achieved by imagining scenarios with the phobia eg. imagining yourself in room with a spider
• In Vivo Desensitisation - involves physical contact with the phobic stimulus - eg. being in a room with a spider
• Systematic Desensitisation process:

  • An anxiety hierarchy is constructed between the client and the therapist
  • The patient is trained with relaxation techniques to tackle anxiety
  • The patient is gradually exposed to the phobic stimulus whilst practising relaxation techniques to overcome anxiety, the individual then moves to the next stage once COMPLETELY relaxed
• Flooding: Exposure therapy where the patient is placed face to face with the phobic stimulus without any prior preparation