Specific Phobias And The Biopsychosocial Framework

Question 1

Define the biopsychosocial framework/model.

Answer 1

Refers to taking a holistic approach to treating phobias including biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors that contribute to causes and treatment of psychological disorders.

Question 2

Explain what a specific phobia is, it’s prevalence in society and its age of onset.

Answer 2

• Refers to the fear of a single specific object or event that triggers a panic response.
• Around 5% of the population experiences a specific phobia at any given time, and around 10% will experience one in the future.
• Age of onset usually occurs in early childhood, as young as 7 years old.

Question 3

Explain the stress response and explain some symptoms.

Answer 3

• The stress response (fight-or-flight) provides individuals with an instant burst of energy to deal with danger in the surrounding environment, controlled by the sympathetic branch of the autonomic nervous system.
• Symptoms can include an elevated heart rate, palpitations, diarrhoea, sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness and tingling/prickling sensations on the skin.

Question 4

What is the role of GABA in specific phobia formation?

Answer 4

• GABA is an acronym for Gamma-Amino Butyric Acid.
• GABA producing synapses are present in approximately 40% of all nerve junctions of the brains.
• Low levels of GABA lead to higher levels of anxiety as there is not enough GABA to adequately regulate anxiety or arousal levels.
• Anti-anxiety medication/drugs that mimic GABA’s inhibitory effects can be successfully used in conjunction with other treatments to manage phobic anxiety.

Question 5

What is the role of the amygdala?

Answer 5

• The amygdala is a structure in the medial temporal lobe that is central in emotion, aggression and implicit learning. It is vital in initiating and processing emotional responses and in forming emotional memories.
• It is additionally responsible for the formation and storage of classically conditioned fear. Therefore, if a person is exposed to a frightful stimulus, the amygdala triggers the ‘emotion’ of fear (fight or flight).

Question 6

What is the role of the hippocampus?

Answer 6

• The hippocampus is located in the medial temporal lobe and is responsible for consolidation of explicit memories and acts to transfer these to other parts of the brain for LTM storage.
• Involved in formation of declarative memories, so when a person experiences a ‘frightening’ event, it is consolidated by the hippocampus so that the person has a conscious recollection of the frightening event.

Question 7

Explain the psychodynamic model in relation to specific phobias.

Answer 7

• Proposes that the development is due to unresolved conflicts that arise during the phallic stage of a child’s development.
• If a person is unable to successfully deal with this conflict, their anxiety is displaced to a situation or object that is less relevant.
• The feared object then becomes the symbol of the real source of conflict.

Question 8

How does the behavioural model associate with specific phobias?

Answer 8

• The behavioural model focuses on observable behaviours and examines how an organism’s behaviours are influenced by environmental influenced by environmental factors.
• States that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning.

Question 9

How does the cognitive model explain specific phobias?

Answer 9

• The cognitive model emphasises the influence of thought processes on how we feel and how we behave.
• Psychologists use this model to examine the distorted thinking processes involved in the development and maintenance of specific phobia and lock at ways to change those incorrect thoughts.
• The cognitive model argues that anxious people are more likely to exaggerate perceived threats, making them more likely to interpret situations, objects or activities as more dangerous than the average person would.

Question 10

Explain cognitive behavioural therapy.

Answer 10

• Uses a combination of verbal and behaviour modification techniques to help people change irrational thinking techniques.
• Focuses on helping people change negative automatic thoughts into more positive realistic ones.

Question 11

What is the process of CBT?

Answer 11

• When a person is exposed to a fearful object (stimulus), they experience an emotional (distress) and biological (fight or flight) response. This then alters their behaviour (they actively avoid the stimulus).
• The person is encouraged in CBT that the incidence of these fearful thoughts and events actually happening are very slim and that their catastrophic thoughts are not based on reality.

Question 12

What is graduated exposure?

Answer 12

• Involves teaching relaxation and systematic desensitisation.
• Based on the assumption that most anxiety responses are initially acquired through classical conditioning.
• The objective is to recondition people so that the feared object (conditioned stimulus) elicits feelings of relaxation rather than fear.

Question 13

What is the process of graduated exposure?

Answer 13

1. Therapist trains the client in deep muscle relaxation.
2. Client makes a list of linked anxiety-causing stimuli that are similar to the simple phobia, from least fear-inducing to most fear-inducing.
3. The client works through the list, learning to remain relaxed when presented with the each stimulus.

Question 14

Explain flooding, ya shit face.

Answer 14

• A behavioural psychotherapy based on the premise that phobias are learnt through classical conditioning, but patients are exposed at once and for prolonged periods of time to the feared stimulus.
• Patients are subjected to high levels of anxiety that seek to replace with feelings of relaxation.
• While this method can achieve quicker results, it can also make the fear/anxiety worse in some cases.

Question 15

What are environmental triggers?

Answer 15

Environmental triggers can lead to a phobia’s development. They come from three sources:

1. Direct exposure to a traumatic experience.
2. Witnessing another person have a traumatic experience.
3. Reading or hearing about dangerous or traumatic situations and events.

Question 16

How can parental modelling lead to a phobia’s development?

Answer 16

• A great deal of children’s behaviour is taught from modelling other people’s behaviour, largely from parents.
• Specific phobias can be developed vicariously via watching other people’s reactions to a stimulus.
• Children who are exposed to parents with phobic reactions to certain stimuli are more likely to develop comparable fears to similar stimuli.
• Thus, parental modelling can lead to the transmission of threat information which is incorporated into the child’s long-term memory.

Question 17

What is threat information and how is it passed?

Answer 17

• The transmission of information that a person perceives as threatening is not limited to observing their parents’ responses, but can be received from a range of different sources.
• Some of these include the media, friends, the Internet, and school.