Chapter 13: Specific Phobia Part 2

Question 1

Describe cognitive models in relation to biological contributing factors of specific phobias?

Answer 1

• Focus on how the individual processes info about the phobic stimulus and related events.
• According to these models, people can actually create their own problems (and symptoms) by the way they interpret objects or situation.

Question 2

What do cognitive models examine?

Answer 2

People with phobias’ thoughts, perceptions, memories, beliefs, attitudes, biases, appraisals, expectations, and other cognitive processes.

Question 3

What is a cognitive bias in relation to specific phobias? What is it also called and why?

Answer 3

A cognitive tendency to think in a way that involves errors of judgment and faulty decision-making.

• People with a specific phobia often have one or more cognitive biases.
• Is sometimes referred to as a cognitive distortion because a cognitive bias involves mistaken thinking.

Question 4

What may the biased or distorted mode thinking in cognitive bias be a result of?

Answer 4

May be due to limitations in the cognitive abilities of the individual involved, underlying motivational factors or because info has been misinterpreted according to one’s personal likes, dislikes, and experiences in order to adapt to a specific situation.

Question 5

What is memory bias and what does it often result in?

Answer 5

The distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on the recollection of previous experiences. -Often, this results in what is commonly called ‘selective memory’.

Question 6

List the 2 types of memory bias:

Answer 6

• Consistency bias

- Change bias

Question 7

What is consistency bias? Give an example:

Answer 7

Memories of past experiences are distorted through reconstruction to fit in with what is presently known or believed.
Eg. Current fears of specific objects or situations influence memory reconstruction of those objects or situations in ways that incorporate those fears.

Question 8

What is change bias and what can it lead to?

Answer 8

Whenever 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.

Question 9

Give 2 examples of memory bias:

Answer 9

• A person with a phobia of horses will tend to remember the one and only time they were chased by a horse, but forget all of the other times when horses showed no response to their presence.
• Someone with a spider phobia will tend to reconstruct their memory of the past experience with a spider in a way that describes it as bigger, faster or more frightening than it actually was.

Question 10

What is catastrophic thinking, what happens when it occurs?

Answer 10

A thinking style which involves overestimating, exaggerating or magnifying an object or situation and predicting the worst possible outcome.

• When catastrophic thinking occurs, individuals experience heightened feelings of helplessness and grossly underestimate their ability to cope with the situation.
• Catastrophic thinking can maintain a fear or anxiety response and therefore contribute to the development and perpetuation of a specific phobia.

Question 11

How may catastrophic thinking affect individuals with a specific phobia?

Answer 11

A person with a specific phobia may assume that they will go crazy, lose control or die if exposed to a relevant phobic stimulus.

Question 12

List the 2 types of cognitive models:

Answer 12

• Memory bias

- Catastrophic thinking

Question 13

Give 3 examples of catastrophic thinking:

Answer 13

• Dog phobia: Any dog they encounter will attack them and leave them with permanent facial disfigurement
• Fear of driving: If they get into a car they will definitely have a crash and die
• Spider phobia: They may think that it would be completely unmanageable to have a spider touch them

Question 14

List 2 social factors that may contribute to the development of a phobia and perpetuate its occurrence:

Answer 14

• Specific environmental triggers

- Stigma around seeking treatment

Question 15

How can phobias develop due to specific environmental triggers?

Answer 15

Developing a specific phobia after a direct negative experience with an object or situation.

Question 16

How can phobias be perpetuated due to stigma around seeking treatment?

Answer 16

Embarrassment or shame about symptoms and concerns about being negatively judged by others may discourage people with a phobia from seeking.

Question 17

Describe 2 ways phobias can develop due to specific environmental triggers:

Answer 17

• Parental modelling: Observation of parents or other role models reacting fearfully to a phobic stimulus may contribute to the development of a phobia.
• Transmission of threat: Where information from another source e.g. media, internet, television, friends, school contributes to the development of a phobia.

Question 18

What are evidence-based treatments?

Answer 18

Treatments that have been found to be effective on the basis of valid and reliable research studies.

Question 19

List 2 biological evidence-based treatments of specific phobias and their subtypes:

Answer 19

• Use of benzodiazepine agents

- Relaxation techniques (Breathing retraining, Exercise)

Question 20

List 2 psychological evidence-based treatments of specific phobias:

Answer 20

• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

- Systematic Desensitisation

Question 21

List 3 social evidence-based treatments of specific phobias:

Answer 21

• Psychoeducation for families and supporters
• Challenging unrealistic or anxious thoughts
• Not encouraging avoidance behaviours

Question 22

What is systematic desensitisation (what is its goal and what does it utilise)?

Answer 22

Aims to replace an anxiety response with a relaxation response when an individual with a specific phobia encounters a fear stimulus.

• It is a commonly used gradual exposure technique.
• The goal of this treatment is to help an individual cope with fearful objects or situations rather than avoid or escape them.
• Utilises classical conditioning by unlearning the connection between anxiety and an object or situation and reassociating feelings of relaxation with that object or situation.

Question 23

Describe the 4 steps of systematic desensitisation:

Answer 23

1. Teach the individual a relaxation technique to decrease the physiological symptoms.
   Eg. Breathing retraining, progressive muscle relaxation or visualisation.
2. Create a fear hierarchy which is a list of feared objects or situations, ranked from least to most anxiety-producing. Usually 10 15 situations.
   Eg. Snake fear hierarchy
3. Gradual systematic pairing of items in the hierarchy with relaxation by working towards the most feared item. At every step, the individual is encouraged to relax with no advancement to the next step until relaxation is achieved.
4. Continuation until relaxation is made in relation to the most feared stimuli in the fear hierarchy.

Question 24

What are benzodiazepines? What are they commonly referred to as and why, and what effect do they have?

Answer 24

Are a group of drugs (‘agents’) that work on the CNS, acting selectively on GABA receptors in the brain to increase GABA’s inhibitory effects and make post-synaptic neurons resistant to excitation.

• Have both anti-anxiety and sleep-inducing properties. They are commonly referred to as sedatives, mild tranquilisers or depressants because they slow down CNS activity.
• Generally, they relieve symptoms of anxiety by reducing physiological arousal and promoting relaxation. However, they also induce drowsiness, can be highly addictive and their long-term use is not recommended.

Question 25

How do drugs and other medications generally work?

Answer 25

Either by stimulating a neurotransmitter’s activity (called agonists) or by inhibiting a neurotransmitter’s activity (called antagonists).

Question 26

Describe how benzodiazepines are GABA agonists:

Answer 26

• Means they stimulate activity at the site of a postsynaptic neuron where GABA is received from a presynaptic neuron.
• Benzodiazepines have inhibitory effects on postsynaptic neurons throughout the brain and reduce the symptoms of anxiety by initiating GABA’s inhibitory effects.
• When a benzodiazepine attaches to a GABA receptor, it changes the shape of the receptor to make it more receptive to the activity of GABA and consequently more resistant to excitation.
• Reducing the excitability of neurons reduces the communication between neurons and therefore, has a calming effect on many of the functions of the brain.
• If there is no GABA at a receptor on a postsynaptic neuron, a benzodiazepine has little effect on the neuron. If GABA is present, then the benzodiazepine will usually amplify the impact of GABA.