Chapter 9 - Application of a biopsychosocial approach to explain specific phobia

Biopsychosocial Approach

a holistic, interdisciplinary framework for understanding the human experience in terms of the influence of biological, psychological and social factors.

Biological factors

internal, genetic and/or physiologically based factors.

Psychological factors

internal factors relating to an individuals mental processes, including their cognition, affect, thoughts, beliefs and attitudes.

Social Factors

external factors relating to an individual’s interactions with others and their external environment including their relationships and community involvement.

Specific Phobias

a type of diagnosable anxiety disorder that is categorised by excessive and disproportionate fear when encountering or anticipating the encounter of a particular stimulus.

Examples of biological factors

• GABA Dysfunction

• Long Term Potentiation

GABA

the main inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human nervous system

GABA Dysfunction

Insufficient neural transmission or reception of GABA in the body, causing someones fight-flight-freeze or anxiety response to be activated more easily and recurrent stress responses which leads to the development of a specific phobia.

Long Term Potentiation

the long-lasting and experience-dependent strengthening of synaptic connections that are regularly co-activated, which contributes to the development of phobias as the neural connections that create the trigger are strengthened, meaning they are more readily triggered.

Examples of psychological factors

• precipitation by classical conditioning

• perpetuation by operant conditioning

• the role of cognitive biases. (Memory bias and catastrophic thinking)

Precipitating Factors

factors that increase the susceptibility to and to contribute to the occurrence of developing a specific phobia.

Classical Conditioning

a model of learning in which organisms learn through the involuntary association of 2 or more stimuli.

Perpetuating factors

Factors that inhibit a person’s ability to recover from a specific phobia

Operant conditioning

involves learning through the association of a behaviour and a consequence.

Cognitive Bias

a predisposition to think about and process information in a certain way

Memory Bias

a type of cognitive bias caused by an inaccurate or exaggerated memory.

Catastrophic Thinking

a type of cognitive bias where a stimulus or event is predicted to b far worse then it actually is.

Specific Environmental triggers

stimuli or experiences in a person’s environment that evoke an extreme stress response, leading to the development of a phobia

Stigma

feeling of shame or disgrace experienced by an individual for a characteristic that differentiates them from others, specifically the feeling of shame in seeking help for a phobia.

Benzodiazepines

a type of medication that depresses CNS activity and is often used as a short-acting anti-anxiety medication

Agonists

a type of drug that imitates neurotransmitters and works to initiate a neural response when it binds to the receptor sites of a neuron.

Breathing Retraining

a method used to teach breathing control techniques that may reduce psychological arousal.

Psychotherapeutic Treatments

treatments that address dysfunctional emotions, thoughts, and behaviours through therapeutic communication.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

a form of psychotherapy that encourages individuals to substitute dysfunctional cognitions and behaviours with more adaptive ones.

Systematic Desensitisation

a therapeutic technique used to overcome phobias that involves a patient being exposed incrementally t increasingly anxiety-inducing stimuli, combined with the use of relaxation techniques.

Psychoeducation

teaching families and supporters of individuals with mental health disorders how to better understand, deal with, and treat their disorder.