Phobias

Question 1

Anxiety disorder

Answer 1

Used to describe a group of disorders that are characterised by chronic feelings of anxiety, distress, nervousness and apprehension OR fear about the future…all with a negative effect

Question 2

Phobias

Answer 2

An excessive or unreasonable fear directed towards a particular object, situation or event that causes significant distress or interferes with everyday functioning
According to the DSM, phobias are divided into 3 categories
1) agoraphobia (afraid of public or unfamiliar places)
2) social phobia
3 specific phobia

Question 3

A specific phobia

Answer 3

Is a disorder characterised by significant anxiety provoked by exposure to a specific fear object or situation, often resulting in avoidance behaviour

According to the DSM a specific disorder must persist for at least 6 months and significantly interfere with their everyday life

Question 4

Exposure to phobias

Answer 4

Exposure to the phobic stimulus triggers are involuntary anxiety response that is like the stress response (fight/flight)

Question 5

the biopsychosocial modelled specific phobias

Answer 5

Biological
Psychological
Social-cultural factors

Question 6

Biological

Answer 6

Biological factors involve the brains neurochemistry, particularly the neurotransmitter

Question 7

Psychological

Answer 7

Origins of phobias: behavioural and cognitive models

and management: flooding and graduated exposure

Question 8

Social-cultural factors

Answer 8

That contribute to phobias: specific environments triggers, parental modelling and transmission of threat information
And management: non-fear modelling and obtaining accurate info and facts

Question 9

Behavioural model

Answer 9

Phobias are learned through experience and may be acquired, maintained or modified by environmental consequences such as rewards and punishment

Question 10

Classical conditioning

Answer 10

UCS + CS = CR

Question 11

Operant conditioning

Answer 11

Negative reinforcement tend to maintain a phobia
Positive reinforcers tend to strengthen or increase the likelihood of a phobia response in the future

Responding -> Consequence = Behaviour
(Avoidance) (Fear/anxiety (Maintained or
reduced) Increased due to
neg reinforcement)

Question 12

Cognitive model

Answer 12

Focuses on how people process information and how people think about the phobic stimulus and related events

Question 13

4 types of cognitive bias

Answer 13

1) attention all bias
2) memory bias
3) interpretive bias
4) catastrophic thinking

Question 14

Attentional bias

Answer 14

Seeks out and notice threatening stimuli over normal stimuli e.g. Hyper vigilant

Question 15

Memory bias

Answer 15

Recall or recognition is better for negative or threatening information than for positive or neutral info
e.g. Remember that 1 bad fall over the 100 good times

Question 16

Interpretive bias

Answer 16

The tendency to interpret or judge ambiguous situations in a threatening manner
E.g. Dog running up is going to attack Vs running to say hi

Question 17

Catastrophic thinking

Answer 17

A type of negative thinking in which an object or event is perceived as being far more threatening, dangerous or insufferable that it really is and will result in the worst outcome
E.g. If I fail my mum will kill me

Question 18

Specific environmental triggers

Answer 18

Include ‘specific’ objects or situations in the ‘environment’ produce or ‘trigger’ an extreme fear response at the time- hence a ‘specific environmental trigger’
The more severe the trauma the more likely it is that a phobia will develop

Question 19

Parental modelling

Answer 19

A specific phobia can be developed through the observation and subsequent modelling of another persons fearful behaviour
E.g. Child scared of mice because parents are scared and display fear responses in the presence of their child

Question 20

Transmission of threat information

Answer 20

Delivery of info from any secondary source
E.g. Others (parents, friends, teachers, media) about a potential threat or danger of a object or situation e.g. Scared of flying after watching air crash investigation

Question 21

Anxiety

Answer 21

A state of physiological arousal associated with feelings of apprehension, unease or worry that something is wrong or something unpleasant is about to happen

Question 22

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Answer 22

Combining cognitive and behavioural therapies together to help people manage a mental health problem/disorder (CBT for phobias: changing the thoughts and behaviours about a fear stimulus)

Question 23

Aim of the CBT

Answer 23

To develop a new understanding of the phobic stimulus

• identify anxiety related thoughts and cognitive biases
• look at evidence that supports/rejects these biases
• switch from unhelpful irrational thoughts to evidence based rational thoughts

Question 24

Steps in behavioural component

Answer 24

1) make a prediction
2) review the evidence for and against
3) devise an experiment to test this
4) note the results
5) draw conclusions