Phobia characteristics

Question 1

What is a phobia?

Answer 1

They are a type of anxiety disorder.

Phobias are characterized by uncontrollable, extreme, irrational and enduring fears that involve anxiety levels that are out of proportion to any actual risk.

Question 2

What is anxiety

Answer 2

Anxiety is an emotion every individual experiences and is a natural response to a potentially dangerous stimuli or situation.

Question 3

Where do most phobias originate from?

Answer 3

Most phobias originate in childhood but become less severe as we grow into adulthood.

Question 4

What are the three categories (determined by the DSM-5) of phobias?

Answer 4

Specific phobia
Social anxiety (social phobia)
Agoraphobia

Question 5

What is a Specific phobia

Answer 5

A phobia of an object, such as an animal, body part or a specific situation like flying or having an injection.

Question 6

What is Social anxiety (social phobia)?

Answer 6

A phobia of a social situation such as public speaking, performance, large crowds or using a public toilet.

Question 7

What is Agoraphobia?

Answer 7

A phobia of being outside or in a public place. The fear of leaving home or a safe place, often occurs with panic attacks.

Agoraphobia can also be brought on by simple phobias such as contamination or social embarrassment.

In order to cope in these situations, sufferers usually seek a safe place which is usually their home.

Question 8

What are some examples of behvaioural responses to phobias?

Answer 8

Panic: A phobic person may panic in response to the presence of the phobic stimulus. Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away.

Avoidance: Unless the sufferer is making a conscious effort to face their fear, they tend to go to a lot of effort to avoid coming into contact with the phobic stimulus which can mean some people fail to function adequately.

Endurance: The alternative to avoidance is endurance where the sufferer remains in the presence of phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety. This may be unavoidable in some situations, for example a person who has an extreme fear of flying.

Question 9

What are some examples of emotional responses to phobias?

Answer 9

Anxiety
Emotional responses are unreasonable/disproportionate

Question 10

What are some examples of cognitive responses to phobias?

Answer 10

Selective attention: it’s hard to look away from a phobic stimulus. In normal circumstances, keeping our attention on something that is really dangerous is a good thing because it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat – but it’s not useful when the fear is irrational.

Irrational beliefs: a phobic may hold irrational beliefs to a phobic stimulus. For example, social phobias can involve beliefs like ‘I must always sound intelligent’ or ‘if I blush people will think I am weak.’ This kind of belief increases the pressure on the sufferer to perform well in social situations.

Cognitive distortions: the phobic’s perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted, for example a person with a phobia of belly buttons is likely to see them as ugly or disgusting.