Phobias

Question 1

What is a phobia?

Answer 1

An irrational fear of an object or situation

Question 2

What are behavioural characteristics?

Answer 2

Ways in which people act

Question 3

What are emotional characteristics?

Answer 3

Ways in which people feel

Question 4

What are cognitive characteristics?

Answer 4

The process of thinking - knowing, perceiving, believing

Question 5

What are all phobias characterised by?

Answer 5

Excessive fear and anxiety, triggered by an object, place, or situation

Question 6

Why are phobias irrational?

Answer 6

The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus

Question 7

What are the three types of phobia?

Answer 7

1) Specific phobia
2) Social anxiety (social phobia)
3) Agoraphobia

Question 8

What is specific phobia?

Answer 8

Phobia of an object (e.g. animal) or a situation (e.g. flying)

Question 9

What is social anxiety?

Answer 9

Phobia of a social situation, e.g. public speaking

Question 10

What is agoraphobia?

Answer 10

Phobia of being outside or in a public place

Question 11

How do we respond to phobias?

Answer 11

By feeling high levels of anxiety and trying to escape

Question 12

What are the three behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 12

Panic, avoidance, and endurance

Question 13

What is panic?

Answer 13

A response to the presence of a phobic stimulus

Question 14

What are common behaviours of panic in adults and children?

Answer 14

Adults - crying, screaming, running away
Children - freezing, clinging, tantrums

Question 15

What is avoidance?

Answer 15

Putting in a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus

Question 16

Why can avoidance make it hard to go about daily life?

Answer 16

Avoiding certain situations can interfere with work. education, and social life

Question 17

What is endurance?

Answer 17

The alternative to avoidance - remaining in the presence of the phobic stimulus while continuing to experience high anxiety levels

Question 18

What is the main emotional characteristic of phobias?

Answer 18

Anxiety - phobias are anxiety disorders

Question 19

What is anxiety?

Answer 19

An unpleasant state of high arousal

Question 20

Why are phobias classed as anxiety disorders?

Answer 20

They involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear

Question 21

What is the difference between anxiety and fear?

Answer 21

Anxiety is more long-term and prevents someone relaxing and experiencing positive emotion
Fear is the immediate and extremely unpleasant response when we encounter a phobic stimulus

Question 22

Why are emotional responses to phobias unreasonable?

Answer 22

Phobias involve very strong responses to mostly harmless things, which is widely disproportionate to the danger posed

Question 23

Why do phobias cause cognitive symptoms?

Answer 23

People with phobias process information about phobic stimuli differently from other objects or situations

Question 24

What are the three cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Answer 24

1) Selective attention to the phobic stimulus
2) Irrational beliefs
3) Cognitive distortions

Question 25

Why do phobias cause selective attention?

Answer 25

Seeing the phobic stimulus makes it hard to look away - paying attention when seeing something dangerous is good to give us a chance of reacting quickly to threat, but it is not useful when fear is irrational

Question 26

Why is selective attention bad?

Answer 26

It makes it hard to pay attention to other things and concentrate

Question 27

What are irrational beliefs?

Answer 27

Illogical ideas about the phobic stimuli, making it seem more justified and scary, and increases pressure

Question 28

What are cognitive distortions?

Answer 28

Distorted perceptions of the phobic stimulus that make it seem more scary