Lesson 5: The Behavioural, Emotional And Cognitive Characteristics Of Phobias

Question 1

What are the behavioural characteristics of phobias? (Actions) (DEAP)

Answer 1

• Avoidance: Avoid the object. Can interfere with daily life and can cause distress
• Endurance (Freeze/Faint): Flight or flight is only fight. If they freeze, they think the phobic object will leave them alone
• Disruption of Functioning: Anxiety and Avoidance may be extreme, causing interference in functioning in social/occupational life
• Panic: Panic consists of crying, screaming, vomiting, running away or freezing

Question 2

What are the emotional characteristics of phobias? (Feelings)

Answer 2

• Fear: persistent, excessive and unreasonable immediate fear which is long-lasting; may worry about death.
• Panic/Anxiety: highly anxious, unpleasant negative feelings, worry
• Emotions: strong emotions, out of proportion to actual danger

Question 3

What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias? (Thinking) (IISC)

Answer 3

• Irrational: thinking in a rational manner, resisting rational argumentsj
• Insight: knows that fear is excessive or unreasonable, finds it difficult not to fear
• Cognitive Distortions: distorted perception of stimulus e.g. snakes as aliens and aggressive
• Selective Attention: when encountering the phobic stimulus, they cannot look away and focus all attention on it; they ignore everything else