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psychopathology - phobias - Coggle Diagram
psychopathology - phobias
phobias
all phobias are characterised by excessive fear and anxiety, triggered by an object, place or situation. the extent of fear is out of proportion to any real danger presented by the phobic stimulus
top 5 phobias:
hypochondria - fear of illness
driving phobia - fear of driving
erythrophobia - fear of blushing
agoraphobia - fear of public open spaces
social phobia - fear of interacting with other people
DSM-5 recognises the following categories of phobias
specific phobia - phobia of an object, such as an animal or body part, or a situation such as flying or injections
social phobia - phobia of a social situation such as public speaking or using a public toilet
agoraphobia - phobia of being outside or in a public place
characteristics
behavioural
panic (crying, screaming, running away, freezing, tantrums)
avoidance of stimulus
endurance (remaining in the presence of phobic stimulus but experience high anxiety)
emotional
anxiety (unpleasantly high state of arousal)
fear (immediate and extremely unpleasant stimulus)
unreasonable emotional response
cognitive
selective attention to stimulus
irrational beliefs (eg, I must always sound intelligent)
cognitive distortion (seeing the stimulus as alien, ugly, aggressive)
behavioural explanation of phobias and evaluation
emphasises the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour - geared towards avoidance, panic and endurance
the two process model
- phobia acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
acquisition by classical conditioning - associating something we initially have no fear (neutral stimulus) with something that already triggers fear (unconditioned stimulus)
strength - the two process model suggests that phobias are maintained through an avoidance of the phobic stimulus. this suggests that to treat the phobia, the patient could be exposed to the stimulus so they will unlearn the negative, avoidant response. this has helped produce real life treatments such as flooding any systematic desensitisation
limitation - it offers an incomplete explanation for phobias. Bounton points out that evolutionary factors have a role in the development of phobias. We easily acquire phobias of things that have been a source of danger in our evolutionary past eg, snakes, spiders, heights, and Seligman called this biological preparedness - the innate predisposition to acquire certain fears. it is rare to acquire fears to things like cars presumably because they have only come about very recently and we have not yet learned to fear them. this shows that there are biological factors that affect phobias
limitation - Psychodynamic explanations - little Hans projected his fear of his dad onto horses
limitation - Phobias also have a cognitive element - the schema could maintain phobias, cognitive distortions - root of a phobia could be the way someone thinks
two process model
acquisition by classical conditioning
Watson and Rayney created a phobia in a 9 month old baby called 'little Albert' who showed no unusual anxiety at the start of the study eg. when he was shown a white rat he tried to play with it.
Procedure - when the rat was presented, the researchers made a loud noise by banging an iron bar. this noise was the unconditioned stimulus which created the unconditioned response of fear. when the rat, a natural stimulus, and the loud noise were encountered close together, the rat became associated with the noise so both produced the fear response. Albert became frightened when he saw the rat as he expected a loud noise.
findings - the rat became a conditioned stimulus that produced a conditioned fear response.
maintenance by operant conditioning
responses acquired by classical conditioning tend to decline overtime however, phobias are often long lasting. Mowrer has explained this as a result of operant conditioning.
operant conditioning takes place when behaviour is reinforced or punished
reinforcement increases the likelihood a behaviour will continue
in negative reinforcement, an unpleasant stimulus is removed or avoided which results in a desirable consequence
Mowrer suggested that whenever we avoid a phobic stimulus we successfully escape the fear and anxiety that we would have suffered if we had remained there. this reduction in fear reinforces the avoidance of behaviour so the phobia is maintained.