Specific phobia

Question 1

Specific phobia

Answer 1

• Excessive, unreasonable and persistent fear triggered by a specific object or situation
• Phobia leads to avoidance responses
• Fear is driven by dysfunctional phobic beliefs

Question 2

DSM-5 for specific phobia

Answer 2

• Fear or anxiety is almost always provoked by a phobic object or situation leading to active avoidance or enduring behaviours.
• Out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the object or situation
• Persistent for six months or more and causes clinically significant distress or impairment of functioning.
• The disturbance is not accounted for by any other mental disorder e.g. OCD or social anxiety

Question 3

Conditioning

Answer 3

• Lil alberts conditioned fear of rats
• Mowrer created a two factor model which suggests a phobia is created through classical conditioning (Stimuli is paired with aversive USC) and maintained through operant conditioning (negative reinforcement maintains avoidance)

Question 4

Evolutionary aspects

Answer 4

• Biological preparedness suggests phobias are inherited predispositions used to protect ourselves
• Non-associative fear acquisition suggests fear develops naturally due to repeated exposure to biologically relevant stimuli which explains why children show development through stages of fear, adult phobias are caused when these childhood fears fail to habituate

Question 5

Biological accounts

Answer 5

-FMRI studies have pointed to activity in the amygdala during phonic response

Question 6

Treatments of specific phobia

Answer 6

• Counter conditioning
• Systematic desensitization
• Flooding

Question 7

Aetiology of specific phobias

Answer 7

• Psychoanalytic explanations
• Conditioning
• Evolutionary
• Biological