Lesson 5 - Characteristics of Phobias Flashcards
What is a phobia?
A phobia is a mental disorder that is characterised by high levels of anxiety in response to a stimulus. The anxiety interferes with normal living, and can cause irrational fears.
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Avoidance,
Endurance (Freeze / faint),
Disruption of functioning,
Panic.
What is avoidance? (Behavioural)
When faced with the object that creates fear, their natural response is to avoid the object or situation. This can interfere with a daily life, as if for example someone with arachnophobia found a spider at their desk, they would no longer be able to work.
What is endurance? (Behavioural)
When a person is stressed, their bodily response is fight/flight. However, someone with a phobia might freeze or faint instead. This comes from the idea of “playing dead” in the wild.
What is disruption of functioning? (Behavioural)
This is when the anxiety and avoidance created by the phobia are so extreme that it will interfere with a person’s ability to function socially or at work.
What is panic? (Behavioural)
The person with the phobia may just panic in the presence of the stimulus. They may show characteristics of crying, screaming, vomiting, running away or even freezing.
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
Fear,
Panic and Anxiety,
General strong emotions.
What is fear? (Emotional)
This is persistent and unreasonable fear that is felt in the presence of the stimulus. The fear response may be immediate, and they may have feelings of terror and fear death when they come into contact with their phobic object.
What is panic and anxiety? (Emotional)
The person will feel highly anxious and experience unpleasant negative feelings when faced with the phobic situation.
What are general strong emotions? (Emotional)
Strong emotions are cued by the presence or anticipation of the phobic object/situation, and these are out of proportion to the actual danger that is posed. This may be someone screaming uncontrollably when they see a small spider 20 metres away.
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Irrationality,
Insight,
Cognitive distortions,
Selective attention
What is irrationality? (Cognitive)
The person will think in an irrational manner about their phobia, and they will resist rational arguments that counter it. For example, someone who is scared of butterflies would not listen to the fact that “Butterflies cannot cause you harm”.
What is insight? (Cognitive)
The person will know that their fear is excessive or unreasonable, but they still find it difficult not to fear the object. For example, “I know it is silly to fear butterflies, but I cannot help it”.
What are cognitive distortions? (Cognitive)
The person will have a distorted perception of the stimulus, e.g. they may view snakes as alien and highly aggressive (see them in a negative way).
