Phobia Characteristics Flashcards
(4 cards)
What is a phobia?
Phobias are a type of anxiety disorder characterised by an irrational fear that is excessive or unreasonable, which is cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation.
Behavioural Characteristics
The main behavioural characteristics of phobias are avoidance and panic.
1) If a person with a phobia is presented with an object or situation that they fear, their immediate response is to avoid it. For example, a person with acrophobia (a fear of heights) will avoid engaging in activities involving heights, e.g., roller coasters and skydiving.
2) However, people are not always able to avoid their phobias and sometimes come face-to-face with them. This results in panic, which causes high levels of stress and anxiety, that is often physically manifested through e.g., screaming, hyperventilating or running. Sometimes the fear response is so intense, it results in a person ‘freezing’, which is a part of the ‘fight or flight’ fear response. The freezing response is an adaptive response to make a predator think that their prey is dead.
3) An alternative to avoidance is endurance, where the sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus, experiencing very high levels of anxiety.
Emotional Characteristics
The key emotional characteristics of phobias are excessive and unreasonable anxiety and fear.
1) Anxiety is an unpleasant state of high emotional arousal and is triggered by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation, which is excessive in relation to the danger actually posed. It prevents the sufferer from relaxing and makes it extremely difficult for them to experience any positive emotion at the time. Anxiety can be long term.
2) Fear is an intense and immediate emotional state linked to the fight-or-flight response, a sensation of extreme and uncomfortable alertness in the presence of the phobia that only subsides when the phobic stimulus is eliminated.
Cognitive Characteristics
The cognitive characteristics of phobias involve selective attention and irrational beliefs.
1) If a person with a phobia is presented with their phobic stimulus, they will find it difficult to direct their attention elsewhere. Therefore, a person’s selective attention will cause them to become fixated on their phobia because of the irrational beliefs about the danger posed. It is logical as keeping our attention on something we think is dangerous gives us the best opportunity to react quickly to the threat but it is not helpful if the fear is irrational and may even reduce cognitive capacity by accentuating the severity of the danger they are in, making them less able to focus on day-to-day activities.
2) Furthermore, a person’s phobia is defined by their irrational thoughts towards the phobic stimulus. For example, a person with arachnophobia may believe that all spiders are dangerous and deadly, despite the fact that such spiders are extremely rare.
