Phobias

Question 1

Define phobia?

Answer 1

An irrational fear of an object or situation

Question 2

Define behavioural?

Answer 2

Ways in which people act

Question 3

Define emotional

Answer 3

Ways in which people feel

Question 4

Define cognitive?

Answer 4

Refers to the process of thinking, knowing, receiving and believing

Question 5

What is the DSM system?

Answer 5

The best known system for classifying and diagnosing mental health problems(Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental health disorders ). Published by the EPE and updated as ideas about abnormality change

Question 6

What are the DSM categories of phobia?

Answer 6

All phobias at categorised by excessive fear and anxiety , triggered by an object, place or situation. The extent of the fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus

Question 7

What is a specific phobia?

Answer 7

Phobia of an object, such as a animal or body part or a situation such as flying/getting an injection

Question 8

What is social anxiety?

Answer 8

Phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet

Question 9

What is agoraphobia?

Answer 9

Phobia of being outside or in a public place

Question 10

What are two main behavioural characteristics of phobias?

Answer 10

Panic and avoidance

Question 11

What is panic?

Answer 11

In the presence of a phobic stimulus panic may involve crying, screaming or running away. Children may react differently - freezing or having a tantrum

Question 12

What is avoidance?

Answer 12

Unless the sufferer is trying to face the fear they tend to go to a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus - this can make life difficult interfering with work, education and social life.

Question 13

What is endurance?

Answer 13

The alternative to avoidance where the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety.

Question 14

What are phobias classed as?

Answer 14

Emotional disorders - by definition they involve an emotional response such as fear or anxiety.
Anxiety - unpleasant and prevents the sufferer from relaxing
Fear - immediate and unpleasant experience we encounter when we see a phobic stimuli

Question 15

What is the biggest emotional characteristic of phobias?

Answer 15

Anxiety

Question 16

Why are the emotional responses unreasonable?

Answer 16

A phobic stimuli goes beyond what is reasonable, this is widely disproportionate to the danger posed

Question 17

What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias concerned with?

Answer 17

The ways in which people process information

Question 18

What are the three main cognitive characteristics of phobias?

Answer 18

Selective attention to phobic stimulus
Irrational beliefs
Cognitive distortions

Question 19

What is selective attention?

Answer 19

If the sufferer can see the phobic stimulus its hard to look away from it - keeping our attention on something dangerous allows us to react quickly but is less useful when the fear is irrational

Question 20

What are irrational beliefs?

Answer 20

The sufferer often holds irrational beliefs in response to the phobic stimulus e.g. social phobias can involve beliefs such as if I go red people will think I’m weak - this kind of belief increases the pressure on the sufferer to perform well in social situations

Question 21

What is a cognitive distortion?

Answer 21

The phobic’s perception of the phobia may be distorted e.g, omphalophobia are likely to see bellybuttons as ugly or disgusting.