SPECIFIC PHOBIAS Flashcards
1
Q
phobia DSM-5
A
- disrupting, persistent fear of a specific object/situation
- excessive/unreasonable
- exposure to stimulus provokes immediate anxiety response (e.g. panic attack)
- object/situation avoided
2
Q
types of phobia
A
- animal type
- nature-forces type
- blood, infection and injury type
- situational type
- other type
3
Q
prevalence of phobias
A
- common
- adults- 18% (Jenkins, 1997)
- rarely diagnoses in children
- most common —> heights, snakes, closed spaces (fredrikson et al., 1997)
4
Q
course of phobias
A
- symptoms usually start in childhood/adolescence
- mean age varies according to phobia type
- usually present for some time before it becomes excessive
5
Q
associated features of phobias
A
- restriction from doing things
- co-occurrence with other mental disorders (50-80%)
- fainting is common
- exacerbate existing conditions
6
Q
heritability of phobias
A
- high levels of variability
- overall heritability rates - 25-45% (van houtem, 2013)
- heritability higher for fear-relevant stimuli
7
Q
preparedness theory
A
- born to acquire fear of some stimuli more easily than others
- patterns across populations
- seligman (1971) - predispositions
8
Q
learning model of fear
A
- fear thought to follow distinctive developmental course
- developmental pattern corresponds with onset of phobias (ost, 1987) - (e.g. height - always had/blood + injection - age 9/social phobia - 15-8)
9
Q
Rachmann’s model of fear
A
vicarious learning - faked fear reactions/snakes (gerull + rappee, 2002)
fear info
10
Q
phobias and thoughts
A
- cognitive factors in anxiety
- attentional biases - spider/snake - longer to identify animal (ohman, 2001)// anxiety - longer to process threatening words (williams et al., 1996)
11
Q
treating phoba
A
- all treatments contain behavioural component
- CBT - exposure therapy // cognitive techniques to reduce beliefs
- effective when compared to no treatment (84% showed improvement (Choy et al., 2007)
