Lesson 5 - The behavioural emotional and cognitive characteristics of phobias Flashcards
What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias (actions)?
- Avoidance
- Endurance (freeze/faint)
- Disruption of functioning
- Panic
Avoidance
A behavioural characteristic of phobias
- The response is to avoid the object or situation that evokes a fear response.
- This could interfere with a person’s daily life, like not going outside because of a fear of social interaction
Endurance
A behavioural characteristic of phobias
- Usually the normal stress response is fight/flight. But in situations where a person is faced with a phobic object, the person might freeze or faint instead. This is so the object e.g a snake thinks the person is ‘dead’.
Disruption of function
A behavioural characteristic of phobias
- Anxiety and endurance created by the phobia might be so extreme so this could interfere with the person’s ability to function socially or at work
Panic
A behavioural characteristic of phobias
- The person might panic, which manifests itself as crying, screaming, vomiting or running away/freezing.
What are the emotional characteristics of phobias (feeling)?
- Fear
- Panic and anxiety
- General emotions
Fear
An emotional characteristic of phobias
- Persistent and unreasonable fear might be present when confronted with the stimuli. These feelings have the potential to be long lasting and may be immediate. They may have worries of death if they come into contact with the object.
Panic and anxiety
An emotional characteristic of phobias
- The person might feel highly anxious and experience unpleasant negative feelings when faced with the phobic object/situation.
Emotions (general)
An emotional characteristic of phobias
- Out of proportion and very strong emotions cued by the presence of the object/situation. For example, someone with the fear of the colour yellow might fear death and danger, but this is very much out of proportion.
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias (thinking)?
- Irrational thinking
- Insight
- Cognitive distortions
- Selective attention
Irrational thinking
A cognitive characteristic of phobias
- They may have irrational thoughts and they will resist rational arguments against their way of thinking, e.g someone may argue that ‘flying is the safest form of transport’ but they would not listen
Insight
A cognitive characteristic of phobias
- The person knows themselves that their thinking and fears are unreasonable and excessive. However they still find it difficult to feel safe around the object. For example, someone might know that it’s silly to fear the colour yellow, but they cannot help it.
Cognitive distortions
A cognitive characteristic of phobias
- They may have an altered perception of their phobic object. for example, they might view snakes as aggressive aliens (seen them in a negative way)
Selective attention
A cognitive characteristic of phobias
- When the person encounters the phobic object, they cannot look away and they are fixated on it. They ignore everything else around them.
