Psychopathy

Question 1

What are the three categories of phobia

Answer 1

specific phobia - fear of a specific object e.g animal
social phobia - fear of social situations, e.g public speaking
Agoraphobia - fear of being outside or in public spaces

Question 1

What does the DSM-5 say about phobias?

Answer 1

DSM-5 categorises phobias as extreme + irrational responses to stimuli.

Question 2

What is a specific phobia - in detail

Answer 2

• sufferers show persistent, irrational, overwhelming fear of specific obj.
• is a simple phobia
• animal types, natural environment types, blood infection types, situational types
• even thinking abt causes anxiety
• results in avoidance - can have detrimental effect on quality of life.
• most common category

Question 3

What is a social phobia - in detail

Answer 3

• type of complex phobia
• persistent, irrational overwhelming fear of social situations
• even thinking abt causes anxiety
• results in avoidance, detrimental effect on quality of life
• usually begins in adolescence, often has no obvious trigger

Question 4

What is Agoraphobia - in detail

Answer 4

• complex phobia
• sufferers show irrational, persistent overwhelming fear of being out in a situation or place that would be difficult embarassing to get out of if they had a panic attack
• fearful of public places, even thinking about causes anxiety
• avoidance, detrimental effect on quality of life, sufferers often fearful of leaving home
• least common

Question 5

What are the two processes in the model of phobia development

Answer 5

operant + classical conditioning

Question 6

What does behavioural approach say abt phobias

Answer 6

• Mowrer (1947) proposed two process model
• suggests phobias are
• acquired through classical conditioning
• maintained through operant conditioning
  classical conditioning - neutral stimulus + feared obj (UCS) = phobia of neutral stimulus which becomes CS
• phobias maintained through operant conditioning -
• operant conditioning occurs when behaviour is either rewarded or punished, which tends to increase frequency of that behaviour.
• negative reinforcement - avoidance of unpleasant behaviour situation by avoiding feared stimulus, sufferer avoids fear, behaviour repeated, sufferer fails to face fear, = phobia maintained