Psychopathology - phobias explained

Question 1

what is a phobia?

Answer 1

an irrational fear of an object or situation?

Question 2

what are phobias characterised by?

Answer 2

excessive fear and anxiety which is triggered by an object place or situation

Question 3

what are behavioural characteristics?

Answer 3

what we do because of the phobia

Question 4

what are emotional characteristics?

Answer 4

how we feel because of the phobia

Question 5

what are cognitive characteristics?

Answer 5

how we think because of the phobia

Question 6

behavioural characteristics include what?

Answer 6

avoidance, panic, endurance

Question 7

what is meant by endurance?

Answer 7

where the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience anxiety and may be unavoidable

Question 8

emotional characteristics include what?

Answer 8

intense fear and anxiety

Question 9

what does it mean by disproportionate responses?

Answer 9

the emotional responses we experience in relation to the phobic stimuli which go beyond what is reasonable

Question 10

cognitive characteristics include what?

Answer 10

selective attention and irrational beliefs

Question 11

what is meant by cognitive distortions?

Answer 11

the sufferers perception of the phobic stimulus may be distorted

Question 12

what is meant by the term anxiety?

Answer 12

an unpleasant state of high arousal which prevents the sufferer from relaxing and makes it difficult to experience any positive emotion

Question 13

how does the behavioural approach explain phobias?

Answer 13

Mowrer (1960) suggests that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and then continue because of operant conditioning

Question 14

explain how phobias are aquired

Answer 14

Watson and Rayner (1920) created a phobia of a rat in a 9 month old (Little Albert) by presenting the rat along with a loud frightening noise with an iron bar close to his ears, causing Albert to become afraid of the rat

Question 15

explain how phobias are maintained

Answer 15

an individual who has a phobia is likely to avoid an unpleasant situation which leads to a desirable consequence as a result of escaping the fear and therefore the avoidance behaviour is reinforced and the phobia is maintained

Question 16

one strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Answer 16

it has good explanatory power as it describes how phobias could be maintained overtime and show us why patients need to be exposed to the feared stimulus which prevents avoidance behaviour by stopping its reinforcement so that the phobia declines.

Question 17

another strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Answer 17

One strength of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias is that studies have found evidence for the importance of classical conditioning. Dinaro et al (1988) found that 60% of dog phobics have recalled a traumatic event with a dog.

Question 18

one weakness of the behavioural approach to explaining phobias

Answer 18

One weakness suggests that evolutionary factors could be involved. This is because it is easier to acquire a phobia of something which presents us with danger, according to Bouton (2007) which this approach fails to acknowledge. Seligman called this biological preparedness which is an innate predisposition to fear spiders, snakes and heights although cars and guns are more threatening but more uncommon phobias

Question 19

another weakness of the behavioural approach to explaining phobais

Answer 19

Another weakness is that not all phobias can be traced back to a fragmenting experience which the model cannot explain. Along that note, a frightening experience does not cause a phobia for everyone meaning that other factors could be involved such as genetic vulnerability