3. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
4. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
•An anxiety disorder
5. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
•An anxiety disorder
•involves feelings of extreme anxiety, with physical and
psychological symptoms, that prevents a sufferer from
normal functioning (leads to an unrealistic, recurring
and intrusive fear, avoidance behaviour and pervasive
feelings of stress).
6. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
•An anxiety disorder
•involves feelings of extreme anxiety, with physical and
psychological symptoms, that prevents a sufferer from
normal functioning (leads to an unrealistic, recurring
and intrusive fear, avoidance behaviour and pervasive
feelings of stress).
•an example is a phobia
7. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
•An anxiety disorder
•involves feelings of extreme anxiety, with physical and
psychological symptoms, that prevents a sufferer from
normal functioning (leads to an unrealistic, recurring
and intrusive fear, avoidance behaviour and pervasive
feelings of stress).
•an example is a phobia
•a phobia is an excessive or unreasonable fear
directed towards an object, situation or event that
causes significant distress
8. Ch 13 PHOBIAS
•Anxiety
•a feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
response to an unclear or ambiguous threat.
•An anxiety disorder
•involves feelings of extreme anxiety, with physical and
psychological symptoms, that prevents a sufferer from
normal functioning (leads to an unrealistic, recurring
and intrusive fear, avoidance behaviour and pervasive
feelings of stress).
•an example is a phobia
•a phobia is an excessive or unreasonable fear
directed towards an object, situation or event that
causes significant distress
•example of a specific phobia: agoraphobia(fear of open or public spaces),
xenophobia (fear of foreigners), claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces).
9. biological contributing factors
• role of the stress response: activates sympathetic NS (fight-
flight response)which leads to increased heart rate, blood
pressure and respiration plus feelings of apprehension and worry
(psychological response); becomes a problem when absence of
real threat as in phobia
• role of the GABA neurotransmitter;
• inhibiting (inhibits ‘firing’) effect; calms the body; GABA
activates its receptors in the synapse; they become inhibited; thus
calming the stress response (eg HR, BP RESP)! not excitatory like
adrenaline and glutamate
• dysfunctional GABA system causes phobic anxiety;
benzodiazepines; a drug used to calm down the body like GABA
eg Valium, Rohypnol; cause drowsiness but are addictive
• alcohol has an inhibitory effect; it binds to GABA receptors; a
calming effect; substance abuse and problems still there!!!
10. psychological
contributing factors
• psychodynamic model:
• unresolved psychological conflict (unconscious);
• Freud believed anxiety (a phobia) is the surfacing of these
unresolved conflicts from our unconscious to conscious
mind!
• Repression is a defence mechanism helps eliminate the
anxiety-causing (phobic) thought.
• behavioural model: phobias are learnt by CC (conditioned
fear Little Albert), OC (rewards, punishment) and OL
(vicariously)
• cognitive model: attentional bias, memory bias, interpretive
bias, catastrophic thinking
11. socio-cultural
contributing factors
• specific environmental triggers eg dogs
• parental modelling eg parental reaction
• transmission of threat information eg from
parents, teachers media
12. biopsychosocial framework
• biological, psychological and socio-cultural combine and
interact to understand the disorder and its
management
• biological factors eg ANS’s response to a ‘threat’, genes,
• psychological factors eg unresolved unconscious
conflict, and
• social factors eg communication with parents; interact
with each other and can result in an anxiety disorder
like a phobia
13. psychological management of specific
phobias
• cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT):
• applies learning principles eg CC and OC, to change thought
processes (cognitive) and human behaviour, especially
maladaptive behaviour
• systematic desensitisation:
• graduated exposure; teaches sufferers to link feared stimulus
with relaxation and feelings of being calm
• flooding:
• exposes person to the real feared stimulus all at once, usually
14. What is anxiety?
What is a phobia?
What is the role of the stress response?
What is the role of GABA?
What is the psychodynamic model for phobias?
What is the behavioural model for phobias?
What is the cognitive model for phobias?
How does parental modelling affect developing a phobia?
What is the role of CBT, graduated exposure and flooding in
the treatment of phobias?
