phobias Flashcards
what are the three types of phobias?
- agoraphobia: fear of being trapped in a public place where escape is difficult
- social phobia: fear of social situations
- specific phobia: fear of a specific object/situation
define phobia
type of anxiety disorder and is classed as an irrational fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared situation
what are the emotional characteristics of phobias?
- coupled with fear are feelings of panic and anxiety
- fear is marked and persistent and is likely to be excessive and unreasonable
what are the behavioural characteristics of phobias?
- avoidance
- freeze or faint, this stress response is often described as ‘fight or flight’ (and freeze)
what are the cognitive characteristics of phobias?
- these relate to thought processes
- the irrational nature of the persons thinking and resistance to rational arguments
- the recognition that their fear being excessive and unreasonable
what is the behavioural explanation of phobias?
- the two process model: phobias are formed through classical conditioning (association of neutral stimulus with unconditioned stimulus) and then maintained through operant conditioning
describe the little albert study
- little albert was not scared of furry white objects e.g white rat, cotton wool - so the white rat is. neutral stimulus.
- the white rat was paired with an unconditioned stimulus (a loud noise which scares the baby) which lead to a fear response from the baby - unconditioned response.
- the white rat is now the conditioned stimulus and a new fear has been created in the baby which is now the conditioned response.
what does operant conditioning explain?
why individuals continue to feel fearful or avoid their phobic stimulus
what are the key aspects of operant conditioning?
negative reinforcement
positive reinforcement
describe social learning theory as an explanation of phobias?
people can learn behaviours from others (models) e.g a child might learn to be afraid of spiders as their mother shows fear when she sees a spider - the child imitates this behaviour
name a limitation of the two process model
the cognitive aspects to phobias cannot be explained through behaviourist framework
what is the diathesis stress model?
a theory suggesting that mental disorders result from a combination of genetic risk factors interacting with environmental factors
what are the two types of treatment for phobias?
systematic desensitisation
flooding
what is systematic desensitisation?
when a client is gradually exposed to the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is distinguished
what is flooding?
when a client is exposed to an extreme form of the threatening situation under relaxed conditions until the anxiety reaction is distinguished
describe systematic desensitisation
- it involves counterconditioning whereby a fear response is replaced with a relaxation response (this is a form of classical conditioning)
- patient is taught relaxation techniques to be used in feared situations
- fear hierarchy is used by gradually introducing patient to feared situation one step at a time to make it less overwhelming
- its expensive as its multiple sessions with therapist
- not effective for all types of phobias
what are the limitations of flooding?
- can be highly traumatic and so patients aware of this beforehand could quit during the treatment
