lesson5: the behavioural, emotional and cognitive characteristics

Question 1

definition of phobia:

Answer 1

Is a mental disorder when a person experiences excessive, distressing and persistent fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation

Question 2

what are the 4 behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 2

1) avoidance
2) endurance (freeze/faint)
3) disruption of functioning
4) Panic

Question 3

what are the 3 emotional characteristics of phobias?

Answer 3

1) fear
2) panic and anxiety
3) emotions

Question 4

what are the 4 cognitive characteristics of phobias

Answer 4

1) irrational
2) insight
3) cognitive distortions
4) selective attention

Question 5

what is avoidance?(behavioural)

Answer 5

• it is carried out to avoid the unpleasant consequence of exposure to the phobic stimulus
• it is negatively reinforced
• avoidance severely impacts the patients’ ability to continue with their day to day life, this is because people will avoid places where they might see the phobic object

Question 6

what is endurance?(behavioural)

Answer 6

• fight/flight response
• occurs when the patient remains exposed to the phobic stimulus for an extended period of time
• freezing is so the predator might think the person is ‘dead’ so leave them alone
• the person might endure the phobic object but freeze still

Question 7

what is disruption of functioning? (behavioural)

Answer 7

-anxiety and avoidance created by the phobia might be so extreme, that this could interfere with he persons’ ability to function socially or at work

Question 8

what is panic?(behavioural)

Answer 8

• the person might suffer from heightened physiological arousal upon exposure to the stimulus
• they might show behavioural characteristics such as crying, screaming, vomiting or running away

Question 9

what is fear? (emotional)

Answer 9

• persistent, excessive and unreasonable fear will be felt in the presence of the stimulus (long lasting)
• fear response is immediate
• they have feelings of terror and worry about death if they come into contact with their phobic stimulus

Question 10

what is panic and anxiety? (emotional)

Answer 10

• highly anxious
• experience negative feelings when faced with the phobic situation
• worry a great deal

Question 11

what is emotions?(emotional)

Answer 11

• strong emotions are cued by the presence of the object, and that is out of proportion when the danger is exposed
  for example: screaming uncontrollably when a person sees a small spider 20m away

Question 12

what is irrational (congintive)?

Answer 12

• the person will think in irrational manner about their phobia, and they will resist rational arguments that counter it
  for example a person who has aerophobia will not listen to the fact that flying is the safest form of transport

Question 13

what is insight (cognitive)?

Answer 13

• the person will know that their fear is unreasonable, but they still find it difficult not to fear the object

Question 14

what is cognitive distortions (cognitive)?

Answer 14

• the person will have a distorted perception of the stimulus for instance they will view snakes as aliens and aggressive

Question 15

What is selective attention?

Answer 15

When the person encounters the phobic stimulus, they cannot look away and they focus all of their attention on it. They will ignore everything else around them and just focus on the phobic situation