Introduction to psychological disorders: lesson 25

Question 1

Define phobia?

Answer 1

• anxiety disorder which interferes with daily living
• irrational fear producing avoidance of object/situation

Question 2

How are phobias diagnosed?

Answer 2

• exposure to phobic stimulus produces rapid anxiety
• excessive fear
• interferes with your life
• continuous for 6months min

Question 3

What are the characteristics of phobias?

Answer 3

• emotional: anxiety, unreasonable
• behavioural: panic, avoidance
• cognitive: irrational beliefs, cognitive distortions

Question 4

“Eileen dreads going up a ladder. She feels anxious when she reaches the top and gets sweaty palms and a feeling of butterflies in her stomach . She reported having similar feelings at the top of the Eiffel Tower 8 months ago” is this a fear or phobia?

Answer 4

• fear
• isn’t showing signs of avoidance or severe distress

Question 5

“ Iver experiences freezing episodes when he sees dogs. His heart races and he feels panicked and finds himself unable to move. He no longer goes near parks in case he sees a dog” is this a fear or phobia?

Answer 5

• phobia
• shows signs of avoidance and severe distress

Question 6

What is adaptive fear?

Answer 6

• fear response which reduce danger or injury
• e.g freezing, heart rate and blood pressure changing

Question 7

What is maladaptive fear?

Answer 7

• hinder you from adapting or coping in healthy ways
• e.g self isolation, sleeping & lashing out

Question 8

What are the 3 categories of phobias?

Answer 8

• specific phobias
• social phobias
• agoraphobia

Question 9

Key facts on social phobias

Answer 9

• inappropriate anxiety in social situations
• thought causes anxiety
• leads to avoidance
• starts at adolescence not usually a trigger

Question 10

Key facts on specific phobias

Answer 10

• anxious in presence of stimuli
• categories are; animal, natural environment, blood , situational

Question 11

Key facts on agoraphobia

Answer 11

• anxious when in situations they can’t leave e.g crowds
• avoid situations and are anxious if anticipating them
• most cases begin in early 20s and 1st occurrence can have no warning
• least common

Question 12

What is the behavioural explanation for phobias?

Answer 12

• environmentally learnt
• classical & operant conditioning

Question 13

What is the two-process model by Mowrer?

Answer 13

• drive based two factor theory to avoid explaining avoidance using cognitive concepts
• avoidance involves 2 stages
  1) fear classically conditioned to environmental conditions
  2) cues evoking fear

Question 14

Use the diagram of classical conditioning to explain how phobias develop

Answer 14

Unconditioned stimulus (loud noise) = unconditioned response (fear)
Unconditioned stimulus (loud noise) + neutral stimulus (rat) = conditioned responses (fear)

Question 15

What are strengths and weaknesses of Mowrers two-process model

Answer 15

Strengths
-real world application: helps to explain why people with phobias benefit from exposure to phobic stimuli
Weakness
- some phobias don’t follow traumatic experience so therefore aren’t all due to learning