L5 - Phobias Flashcards
1
Q
What is fear?
A
- Basic emotion that involves activation of the flight/flight response of autonomic nervous system
- Functional value is an alarm response to escape imminent danger
- e.g cogn: I am going to die = physiological: strong sympathetic nervous system arousal = beh: string urge to flee
2
Q
What is anxiety?
A
- Complex blend of diffuse and unpleasant emotions and cognitions
- Functional value: helps to prepare and plan for possible threat or danger
- e.g C: negative mood and worry about future = P: somatic symptoms of tension, chronic over-arousal = B: avoidance of situations where there may be danger
3
Q
What is the adaptive value of anxiety?
A
- Has been selectively favoured in an evolutionary sense: organisms able to respond quickly to life threatening situations
- Allows us to learn to anticipate upcoming frightening events by mobilising resources
4
Q
When is anxiety a disorder?
A
- Must be chronic/severe
- Must be in response to things most people would not perceive as threatening
- Anxiety is an umbrella term to describe multiple different conditions characterised by unrealistic, irrational fears
- Highly comorbid with depression
- Females more likely to have it than men as they are free to express emotions = cultural reasoning
5
Q
What are the criteria for specific phobia?
A
- Marked fear/anxiety about a specific object
- Phobic object almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety
- Phobic object is actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety
- Fear/anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger
- Lasts for 6+months
- Causes significant distress or impairment in areas of functioning
- Not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder
6
Q
What are the phobia types?
A
- Animal
- Natural env
- Blood-injection-injury
- Situational
- Other
- Specific Phobias are underpinned by evolutionary preparedness
7
Q
What is the Psychoanalytic perspective?
A
- Phobias = defence against anxiety that stems from repressed impulses from the id
- Too dangerous to know the repressed id impulse
- Anxiety is replaced onto some external object or situation that has a symbolic relationship to the real object of anxiety
8
Q
Can anxiety behaviours be learned?
A
- Idea of Little Albert and classical conditioning where he was made to be scared of a white rat
- Only had one subject in experiment with no control
- No measurements
- Condition and response becomes the elicited anxiety response
9
Q
What is Mowrer’s two factor theory?
A
- Classical conditioning: appearance of the phobia
- e.g dog bites you, next time you see a dog, you experience anxiety
- Operant conditioning: maintaining the phobia
- e.g when you see the dog you feel anxiety so you avoid the dog so you have negative reinforcement (walking away from situation) but reinforces phobia towards dog = temporary reduction of anxiety
- Can be vicarious also
10
Q
What is vulnerability to fear conditioning?
A
- Familiarity with the object and nature of past experiences (past modelling experiences) = more vulnerable
- Conditioning experience per se e.g escapable vs inescapable and controllable vs uncontrollable = escalates feeling of threat around the situation
- Experiences after the conditioning experience: inflation effect e.g if someone comes up to you to strengthen perception of danger “oh my that was crazy”
11
Q
What is exposure therapy? (systematic desensitisation)
A
- Controlled exposure to stimuli or situations that elicit phobic fear
- Ppt modelling
- Virtual reality environments
12
Q
What is social phobia?
A
- Anxiety about social situations where individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others
- Think they will be negatively evaluated
- Social situation almost always provoke anxiety so are avoided or endured with intense fear/anxiety
- Again, out of proportion, lasts 6+ months and causes significant distress
13
Q
What is the behavioural perspective on Social Phobia?
A
- Classical conditioning = neutral social situation paired with negative outcome
- Can be vicarious
- Found close relationship between negative social encounter and onset of social phobia
14
Q
What is the cognitive perspective on social phobia?
A
- High standards for social performance = activates assumptions = perceived social danger
- Expectations of rejection and negative evaluations = detailed monitoring and observation of self = safety behaviours = explains lack of consequences from inadequate behaviour
- Feeling anxious = looking anxious = social failure or inadequacy = negative beliefs about the self
15
Q
How do we do CBT for Social Phobias?
A
- Exercises to manipulate focus of attention - self as social object
- Role play, video/audio feedback, cognitive restructuring, exposure and self-monitoring, and education
- Can use NICE guidelines - Consists of 14 sessions, 90 minutes and lasting 4 months e.g situation, prediction, experiment, outcome and what they learned
