Psychology: Phobias

Question 1

Define Phobias

Answer 1

An irrational fear of an object or situation that leads to significant anxiety

• Most phobias work in the same way, but there some operate uniquely

Question 2

What are the 3 DSM-5 categories of Phobias?

Answer 2

1. Specific Phobia: excessive fear of a particular object or situation (most phobias)
2. Social Anxiety / Social Phobia: excessive fear of a social situation e.g. public speaking, ringing the doctors, eating in public
3. Agoraphobia: excessive fear of being outside or public places

Question 3

Give two behavioural (how we act) characteristics of Phobias

Answer 3

1. Panic - scream, cry, run, freeze
2. Avoidance - to significant level impacts day to day life
3. Endurance - continue to feel high levels of anxiety fro entire duration of contact

Question 4

Give two emotional (how we feel) characteristics of Phobias

Answer 4

1. Excessive Anxiety - long term less severe
2. Excessive Fear - short term more severe

Question 5

Give two cognitive (how we think) characteristics of Phobias

Answer 5

1. Selective attention to phobic stimulus - cannot direct attention away from phobic stimuli
2. Irrational beliefs - lack logical reasoning
3. Changed what they saw e.g. though spider was bigger than it was

Question 6

What is classical conditioning and how is it involved in the acquisition of phobias?

Answer 6

Learning by association - repeated pairing of two stimuli to create conditioned response (e.g. Pavlov’s Dogs)

Question 7

A03- How does Little Albert support the role of classical conditioning in phobias?
S+C: how can you counter this evaluation point?

Answer 7

Show how fears can be acquired through classical conditioning

Question 8

What aspect of operant conditioning is particularly important for explaining the maintenance phobias? Explain why.

Question 9

Explain the two-process model + give the researcher who created the model

Question 10

A03- what are the practical applications of explaining phobias and why is this is a strength of the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias?

Question 11

A03- what are the issues of using only the behaviourist approach to explain phobias? Hint: think factors the behaviourist approach ignores

Question 12

A03- give one other evaluation point for the behaviourist approach to explaining phobias (strength/ limitation)

Question 13

Define exposure therapies

Question 14

What is extinction?

Question 14

What is counterconditioning?

Question 15

What is systematic desensitisation?

Question 16

What are the three core processes of systematic desensitisation?

Question 17

A03- what supportive evidence of SD is there?

Question 18

A03- give one other strength or limitation of SD

Question 19

What is flooding?

Question 20

A03- give one strength and one limitation of flooding

Question 21

A03- how is symptom substitution a limitation of both behaviourist treatments of phobias?

Question 22

A03- compare the two treatments, which is better?