9a Flashcards
Biopsychosocial approach
Holistic indescribable framework for understanding humans in terms of psychological social and biological factors
Biological factors
Internal, genetic or physiological based factors
Psychological factors
Internal factors relating to an individual mental processes including their cognition affect attitude and beliefs
Social factors
External factors relating to an individuals interaction with others and the external environment, including their relationship and community involvement
Biopsychosocial factors that contribute to specific phobias
Bio:
GABA dysfunction
LTP
Psycho:
Classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Cognitive bias ( memory bias and catastrophic thinking)
Social:
Specific environmental triggers
Stigma
GABA dysfunction
Insufficient neural transmission or reception of gaba in the body low production or insufficient transmission across neural synapse.
- may cause fff anxiety response to activated more easily then someone with adequate GABA levels
- recurrent stress responses to a specific stimuli can lead to the development of phobia
Long term potentiation
- strength association between neural signals involved in percieving stimulus and neural signals involved in activating a fear response
- through repeated coactivation signals involved in percieving a phobic stimulus more readily triggers activation of neural signals responsible for fear response
- more it occurs stronger the association and therefore phobia
Classical conditioning
- specific phobias are precipitated by classical conditioning, as phobias are learnt and therefore can be developed through cc
- modal of learning which organisms learn through involuntary association between two or more stimuli
- increases susceptibility to and contributing to the occurrence of specific phobias
( conditioned stimuli is also known as phobic stimuli, conditioned response also known as phobic response)
Can classical conditioning precipitate a phobia without repeated pairing
Yes research suggests if experience is highly traumatic one scan be conditioned to experience a fear response after one pairing of the neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus.
Operant conditioning
- learning through association between behaviour and consequence
- perpetuates phobias
- one will phobia generally avoids phobia negatively reinforcing it through avoidance strengthening or mainting the phobic response over time
- avoidance more likely to continue and prevent recovery through this cycle
(Avoiding fear is the consequence)
Cognitive bias
- predisposition to think about and process information in a certain way
-memory bias is cognitive bias caused by inaccurate or exaggerated memory
(Phobia often caused by traumatic event people may remember the traumatic event as extremely significantly or harmful impacting present cognition about related stimulus) - Catastrophic thinking is type of cognitive bias in which the stimuli or event is predicted to be far worse then actually is
(Contributing to phobia by making stimuli seem worthy of extreme fear and anxiety)
Specific environmental triggers
Stimuli or event in a persons environment evoking an extreme fear response leading to development of a phobia
- direct confrontation with a traumatic stimulus or event
- observing another have a direct confrontation with a traumatic event or stimulus
- learning about a potentially dangerous or traumatic event or stimulus indirectly (learning or indirect confrontation)
Stigma
- leavings a phobia untreated can contribute to the development and maintanence of specific phobia, often people won’t seek help due to embarrassment worry or fear
- feeling of shame or disgrace due to characteristic that differentes one from other
- seeking help can be difficult due to phobias involving some degree of irrational fear
- may feel like phobia is too embarrassing or insignificant to seek professional help or as though they are unusual or isolated from society in some way for doing so
Perpetuating
Factors Inhibit persons recovery from a specific phobia
Precipitating
Factors increasing susceptibility to and contributing to the occurrence of developing a specific phobia