Phobias Flashcards
Define phobia?
An irrational fear of an object or situation
Define behavioural?
Ways in which people act
Define emotional
Ways in which people feel
Define cognitive?
Refers to the process of thinking, knowing, receiving and believing
What is the DSM system?
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
What are the DSM categories of phobia?
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
What is a specific phobia?
Phobia of an object, such as a animal or body part or a situation such as flying/getting an injection
What is social anxiety?
Phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet
What is agoraphobia?
Phobia of being outside or in a public place
What are two main behavioural characteristics of phobias?
Panic and avoidance
What is panic?
In the presence of a phobic stimulus panic may involve crying, screaming or running away. Children may react differently - freezing or having a tantrum
What is avoidance?
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.
What is endurance?
The alternative to avoidance where the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety.
What are phobias classed as?
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
What is the biggest emotional characteristic of phobias?
Anxiety
Why are the emotional responses unreasonable?
A phobic stimuli goes beyond what is reasonable, this is widely disproportionate to the danger posed
What are the cognitive characteristics of phobias concerned with?
The ways in which people process information
What are the three main cognitive characteristics of phobias?
Selective attention to phobic stimulus
Irrational beliefs
Cognitive distortions
What is selective attention?
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
What are irrational beliefs?
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
What is a cognitive distortion?
The phobic’s perception of the phobia may be distorted e.g, omphalophobia are likely to see bellybuttons as ugly or disgusting.
