L5: The Behavioural, Emotional And Cognitive Characteristics Of Phobias

Question 1

What are the 4 behavioural (actions) characteristics of phobias + explanation?

Answer 1

1. Avoidance: avoiding object or situation, interfering with their normal life.
2. Endurance (freeze/faint) : bodily response of freezing or fainting
3. Disruption of functioning: coukd interfere with someone’s ability to function socially or at work in extreme cases
4. Panic: crying, screaming, vomiting, running away, hyperventilating

Question 2

3 emotional (feelings) characteristics of phobias + explanations

Answer 2

1. Fear: excessive fear and long lasting
2. Panic and anxiety: developing unpleasant feelings and worrying
3. Emotions in general: very strong fear eg. Screaming uncontrollably

Question 3

4 cognitive (thinking) characteristics of phobias + explanations

Answer 3

1. Irrational: resisting arguments
2. Insight: they will know their fear is unreasonable but cannot do anything about it
3. Cognitive distortions: they might view some objects in very negative ways e.g. someone afraid of snakes seeing them as aliens.
4. Selective attention: they cannot look away and focus all their attention on it