L5 - Phobias

Question 1

What is fear?

Answer 1

• Basic emotion that involves activation of the flight/flight response of autonomic nervous system
• Functional value is an alarm response to escape imminent danger
• e.g cogn: I am going to die = physiological: strong sympathetic nervous system arousal = beh: string urge to flee

Question 2

What is anxiety?

Answer 2

• Complex blend of diffuse and unpleasant emotions and cognitions
• Functional value: helps to prepare and plan for possible threat or danger
• e.g C: negative mood and worry about future = P: somatic symptoms of tension, chronic over-arousal = B: avoidance of situations where there may be danger

Question 3

What is the adaptive value of anxiety?

Answer 3

• Has been selectively favoured in an evolutionary sense: organisms able to respond quickly to life threatening situations
• Allows us to learn to anticipate upcoming frightening events by mobilising resources

Question 4

When is anxiety a disorder?

Answer 4

• Must be chronic/severe
• Must be in response to things most people would not perceive as threatening
• Anxiety is an umbrella term to describe multiple different conditions characterised by unrealistic, irrational fears
• Highly comorbid with depression
• Females more likely to have it than men as they are free to express emotions = cultural reasoning

Question 5

What are the criteria for specific phobia?

Answer 5

• Marked fear/anxiety about a specific object
• Phobic object almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety
• Phobic object is actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety
• Fear/anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger
• Lasts for 6+months
• Causes significant distress or impairment in areas of functioning
• Not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder

Question 6

What are the phobia types?

Answer 6

• Animal
• Natural env
• Blood-injection-injury
• Situational
• Other
• Specific Phobias are underpinned by evolutionary preparedness

Question 7

What is the Psychoanalytic perspective?

Answer 7

• Phobias = defence against anxiety that stems from repressed impulses from the id
• Too dangerous to know the repressed id impulse
• Anxiety is replaced onto some external object or situation that has a symbolic relationship to the real object of anxiety

Question 8

Can anxiety behaviours be learned?

Answer 8

• Idea of Little Albert and classical conditioning where he was made to be scared of a white rat
• Only had one subject in experiment with no control
• No measurements
• Condition and response becomes the elicited anxiety response

Question 9

What is Mowrer’s two factor theory?

Answer 9

• Classical conditioning: appearance of the phobia
• e.g dog bites you, next time you see a dog, you experience anxiety
• Operant conditioning: maintaining the phobia
• e.g when you see the dog you feel anxiety so you avoid the dog so you have negative reinforcement (walking away from situation) but reinforces phobia towards dog = temporary reduction of anxiety
• Can be vicarious also

Question 10

What is vulnerability to fear conditioning?

Answer 10

• Familiarity with the object and nature of past experiences (past modelling experiences) = more vulnerable
• Conditioning experience per se e.g escapable vs inescapable and controllable vs uncontrollable = escalates feeling of threat around the situation
• Experiences after the conditioning experience: inflation effect e.g if someone comes up to you to strengthen perception of danger “oh my that was crazy”

Question 11

What is exposure therapy? (systematic desensitisation)

Answer 11

• Controlled exposure to stimuli or situations that elicit phobic fear
• Ppt modelling
• Virtual reality environments

Question 12

What is social phobia?

Answer 12

• Anxiety about social situations where individual is exposed to possible scrutiny by others
• Think they will be negatively evaluated
• Social situation almost always provoke anxiety so are avoided or endured with intense fear/anxiety
• Again, out of proportion, lasts 6+ months and causes significant distress

Question 13

What is the behavioural perspective on Social Phobia?

Answer 13

• Classical conditioning = neutral social situation paired with negative outcome
• Can be vicarious
• Found close relationship between negative social encounter and onset of social phobia

Question 14

What is the cognitive perspective on social phobia?

Answer 14

• High standards for social performance = activates assumptions = perceived social danger
• Expectations of rejection and negative evaluations = detailed monitoring and observation of self = safety behaviours = explains lack of consequences from inadequate behaviour
• Feeling anxious = looking anxious = social failure or inadequacy = negative beliefs about the self

Question 15

How do we do CBT for Social Phobias?

Answer 15

• Exercises to manipulate focus of attention - self as social object
• Role play, video/audio feedback, cognitive restructuring, exposure and self-monitoring, and education
• Can use NICE guidelines - Consists of 14 sessions, 90 minutes and lasting 4 months e.g situation, prediction, experiment, outcome and what they learned