biopsychosocial approach - specific phobia Flashcards
specific phobia
- an anxiety disorder characterised by a marked and persistent fear or anxiety abt a specfifc object or situation
- almost always triggers immediate fear or anxiety and is avoided or endured wtih intense fear/anxiety
phobias generally fall into 5 catergories
natural environement, animals, mutilation/medical treatment and situations
what are some biological factors
anticipatory anxiety, GABA disfunction, long term potentiation
anticipatory anxiety
- worry about the possibility of being exposed to a phobic stimulus in the future
- consistent of somatic symptoms of tension
GABA dysfunction
ppl with low levels of GABA are more vulnerable to anxiety
- their flight or fight or freeze response ma also be more easily trigged by a variety of stimuli
- thus makes them more inclined to develop a specific phobia compared to ppl with normal level of GABA
long term potentiaiton
- Neurons and the connections between them change in response to experience, which occurs at neural synapses and enables learning an memory.
- therefore contributes to the development and maintenance of any type of specific phobia that is experience-based.
psychological factors
precipitation by classical conditioning
perpetuationby operant conditioning
behavioural models
precipitation by classical conditioning
- Classical conditioning involves the association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response.
- This principle has been used to explain the development of phobias, where neutral stimuli become associated with fear-inducing events, leading to excessive and irrational fears.(CR)
- ucs: phobia
-ns: why you’re afraid of the stimulus/event - ucr; you’re afraid
-cs: phobia
Perpetuation By Operant Conditioning:
- After classical conditioning establishes a phobia, operant conditioning can perpetuate it.
- The act of avoidance becomes reinforced, contributing to continued phobic responses. Additionally, operant conditioning can also play a role in phobia acquisition.
- Overall, operant conditioning maintains and sometimes even initiates phobic behaviors through negative and positive reinforcement processes.
- always negatively reinforced ( you avoid the experience negative, which reinforced the undesirded behaviour of fear)
Behavioural Models:
According tobehaviouralmodels,phobias are learned throughexperience and may be acquired ,maintained or modified byenvironmental consequences, such asreinforcement and punishment.
types of biases
cognitive bias, memory bias, consistency bias, change bias, catastrophic thinking
cognitive bias
- tendency to think in a way that involves errors of judgments and faulty decision-making
- can distorted thinking and make someone more vulnerable to experiencing fear/ anxiety in response to a phobic stimulus
memory bias
refers to the distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs and feelings on the recollection of previous experiences.
- commonly referred to as selective memory
consistenecy bias
Consistency bias occurs when memories of past experiences are distorted through reconstruction to fit in with what is presently known or believed.
change bias
occurs when we recall a past experience, we exaggerate the difference between what we knew or felt then and what we currently know or feel, which can lead our phobic fears to grow over time, disproportionately from what they are in reality.
