phobias - characteristics, explanations, treatments

Phobia (classed as an anxiety disorder)

irrational fear of an object or situation

specific phobia (DSM-5 category)

phobia of an object or situation

social anxiety (DSM-5 category)

phobia of social situations such as public speaking

agoraphobia (DSM-5 category)

phobia of being outside in public spaces

panic (behavioural characteristic)

crying, running away

avoidance (behavioural characteristic)

making an effort to prevent coming into contact with the phobic stimulus

endurance (behavioural characteristic)

choosing to stay in the presence of the phobic stimulus to ‘keep an eye’ on it

anxiety (emotional characteristic)

unpleasant state of high arousal, prevents relaxation

fear (emotional characteristic)

immediate and extreme response to phobic stimulus

unreasonable (emotional characteristic)

threat is disproportionate to fear

selective attention (cognitive characteristic)

hard to look away from phobic stimulus, distraction

beliefs (cognitive characteristic)

irrational, increase pressure on individual

distortions (cognitive characteristic)

perceptions inaccurate and unrealistic

mowrer’s 2 process model in explaining phobias

phobias are acquired by classical conditioning and maintained by operant conditioning

classical conditioning in acquisition of phobias

learning to associate neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits a fear response

little albert study - watson and rayner

ucs of a noise creates the ucr of fear in albert, when a rat (ns) is paired with the ucs, they become associated so the ns is now a cs

strengths of mowrer’s theory

real world application to exposure therapy (can treat phobias by preventing avoidance of the phobic stimulus), reliable findings (de jongh found similar findings to mowrer), provides credible INDIVIDUAL explanations

limitations of mowrer’s theory

reductionist (no account for cognitive aspects of phobias), not all phobias appear following a bad experience (may stem from having limited exposure to it), theory of evolution better explains more characteristics, cannot be generalised to everyone because different people have phobias for different reasons

systematic desensitisation (treating phobias)

behavioural therapy which causes counterconditioning by classical conditioning, client and therapist make phobia hierarchy of stimuli, reciprocal inhibition to allow the patient to relax, patient exposed to stimuli in relaxed state in order of hierarchy

strengths of systematic desesntitisation

research support increases reliability (gilroy followed 42 people with arachnophobia over 3 45 min sessions and their phobia improved), can help people with learning abilities using cognitive therapy

limitations of systematic desensitisation

weschler - cannot be used for VR when treating phobias because lacks realism, cannot be used for certain phobias such as fear of heights because too dangerous

flooding (treating phobias)

exposing people to phobic stimulus without a hierarchy, causes extinction as person quickly learns phobia is harmless because no option of avoidance, client must give informed consent

strengths of flooding

cost effective because can work in as little as one session and more people can be treated at the same time

limitations of flooding

higher attrition as more traumatic (schumacher found flooding more anxiety inducing for both therapist and client), only masks symptoms (underlying cause of phobia not tackled), can lead to other phobias (persons found when woman’s fear of death treated with flooding, fear of death declined but fear of criticism increased)