phobias

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  • Created by: laurguy11
  • Created on: 17-05-17 19:54
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  • PHOBIAS
    • CHARACTERISTICS
      • a disorder in which fearful anxiety occurs in response to specific objects or situations
      • shows a marked and persistent fear out of all proportion to the actual danger posed by the situation
      • psychological symptoms - feelings of restlessness and dread, difficulty with concentration, and irritability
      • physical symptoms - shortness of breath, nausea, shaking, headaches, palpitations, and muscle tension
    • BEHAVIOURAL EXPLANATIONS
      • two-process model
        • the theory that phobias are acquired through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning
          • Little Albert study
            • US (loud noise) + NS (rat) = UR (fear)
        • operant conditioning maintains the phobia - escape (reduction in anxiety) acts as a positive reinforcement (reward)
        • Ohman et al (1975) - fewer electric shocks were needed to condition an anxiety response to fear relevant image (spider) than fear irrelevant image (flower)
          • learned fear responses to fear irrelevant images extinguished whereas fear relevant ones didn't
          • people are more likely to learn fear responses to some stimuli than others
            • Seligman's preparedness theory
          • subjected to stressful experience
          • could've triggered phobias outlasting the study
      • association between two stimuli is not always enough to cause a phobia
    • BEHAVIOURAL TREATMENTS
      • systematic desensitisation
        • heirarchy
        • practise relaxation techniques
        • longer process
        • list of situations involving their phobia
        • aim to reach the top of the hierarchy whilst maintaining a relaxed state
        • a behavioural therapy used to treat phobias by working through an anxiety hierarchy in a relaxed state
      • flooding
        • a behavioural therapy where a person is inescapably exposed to the object of their phobia
        • there is a limit to how long the body can remain in an anxiety response
        • forced to face their phobia until the fear response disappears
        • in vivo exposure - face to face exposure
        • in vitro exposure - imaginary exposure
        • quicker than systematic desensitisation
      • EFFECTIVENESS AND APPROPRIATENESS
        • most effective when able to identify the source of the phobia (more difficult with social phobia)
        • range of therapies more effective than just one
        • require exposure which puts the individual in a stressful situation
          • should only be undertaken by those trained
  • types of phobia
    • specific phobia - anxious in the presence of a particular object or situation
    • CHARACTERISTICS
      • a disorder in which fearful anxiety occurs in response to specific objects or situations
      • shows a marked and persistent fear out of all proportion to the actual danger posed by the situation
      • psychological symptoms - feelings of restlessness and dread, difficulty with concentration, and irritability
      • physical symptoms - shortness of breath, nausea, shaking, headaches, palpitations, and muscle tension
    • social phobia - experience anxiety in social situations
    • agoraphobia - anxious in situations they cannot easily leave

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