Contributing Factors to a Specific Phobia Flashcards
What are the 3 types of biological contributing factors?
- GABA dysfunction
- role of the stress response (FFF response)
- long term potentiation
What does GABA dysfunction mean?
low levels of GABA
What does GABA do?
- primary inhibitory neurotransmitter
= prevents the firing of the postsynaptic neuron
How can GABA dysfunction lead to a specific phobia?
= low levels of GABA = increase in glutamate = increase in anxiety = can trigger a specific phobia
What happens to you when you have low levels of anxiety?
GABA is the calming agent to excitatory neurotransmitters
= not enough GABA to regulate anxiety
What is the stress response?
Fight, Flight and Freeze response
How does the FFF response work?
- provides us with a burst of energy to deal with a danger or threatening situation
= sympathetic NS = releases adrenalin and nonadrenalin into the bloodstream
What will happen to a person with a phobia of spiders in terms of their stress resposne?
will experience FFF response when seeing just an image of a spider
What happens to someone with a specific phobia?
trigger an involuntary response to the phobia
What are some symptoms of the FFF response for a phobia?
- elevated blood pressure
- increased heart rate
- sweating
- panic attack
What do most phobia reactions cause?
- increase in activity = sympathetic NS
- increased blood pressure + heart rate
What is long term potentiation?
strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons that allows them to communicate at a faster rate
How is long term potentiation linked to specific phobias?
- LTP is linked to learning and memory
- during learning = synaptic connections are strengthened = results are enhanced and transmission of info is strengthened
What is the experiment linked to long term potentiation and specific phobias?
Little Albert
= fear conditioning
What are the two types of psychological contributing factors?
- behaviour models
- cognitive bias
What is a behaviour model?
approach used to understand and treat mental disorders based on the roles of learning and experience
What are the two types of learning associated with the behaviour model and specific phobias?
- precipitation through classical conditioning
- perpetuation through operant conditioning
What do behaviour models suggest about specific phobias?
specific phobias are developed through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
How is the precipitation of classical conditioning linked to specific phobias?
produces specific phobias
What is an example/process of a dental phobia being produced through classical conditioning
NS = dentist produces no response
UCS = pain from needle produces fear to pain (UCR)
Dentist (NS) + pain from needles (USC) = fear of pain (CS)
Dentist (CS) produces fear of pain (CR)
What is the phobia and the fear in regards to classical conditioning terms?
phobia = conditioned/neutral nucleus fear = conditioned response
How is the perpetuation of operant conditioning linked to specific phobias?
phobias can be maintained through operant conditioning
How can operant conditioning maintain a specific phobia?
avoidance of a phobia = through negative reinforcement
exposure to punishment = strengthens the response of a phobia
What is a cognitive bias?
is the tendency to think in an irrational or incorrect way
What are the two types of cognitive bias?
- memory bias
- catastrophic thinking
What is memory bias?
when a person’s distorted thinking causes the retrieval of a memory to be incorrect or reconstructed
What is catastrophic thinking?
type of negative thinking that predicts the worst possible outcome and sees an event, object or thing as more threatening or dangerous than it actually is
What are the 2 types of social contributing factors?
- stigma around seeking treatment
- specific environmental triggers
What are specific environmental triggers?
development of a specific phobia after a negative experience has been associated with an event or object
What are the 3 types of specific environmental triggers?
- direct exposure to the event
- witnessing other people experience the event
- reading or hearing about the event
What are some examples of an environmental risk factor?
- parental loss or separation
- physical and sexual abuse
What is the stigma around seeking treatment?
- people do not want to seek treatment due to the stigma associated with their phobia
- phobias tend to be irrational = people don’t understand
= can prevent a person from seeking treatment
