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Recommended: Abstract On Phobias
It is estimated that more than 40% of the general population suffers from one or more fear of a specific object or situation (Williams 1987). If a fear becomes excessive or unreasonable it is termed a phobia. Phobias can lead to significant impairment in daily life (Vigerland 2013). Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder that is defined as an unreasonable or irrational fear that has a negative impact on daily living, having a life-time prevalence rate of over 10%, specific phobias are the most prevalent group of mental disorders Five main categories are distinguished: animal type, natural environment type, situational type, blood-injury-injection type, and other type (Van Houtem 2013). The subtypes of specific phobia differ greatly in terms of prevalence, sex distribution, and age of onset (Burnstein 2012). The development of specific phobia can be best understood by the classical conditioning model; the paring of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus which automatically evokes a fear response (e.g. Watson & Rayner 1920). Conditioning theory states that objects and situations that are irrationally feared resemble previous distressing experiences (Van Houtem 2013). For a number of specific phobias other factors, including genetic susceptibility (see Van Houtem 2013), may play a role in the development of specific phobias. Specific phobias can be treated a number of ways, the most effective being one session treatments (Ollendick &Davis 2013) and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (see Vigerland 2013).
Children can be conditioned to express emotional reactions in certain situations or to certain stimuli. This conditioning may happen intentionally, as in the study described below, or unintentionally (Watson & Rayner 1920). E...
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...ol group, indicting that the results should be interpreted cautiously (Vigerland 2013).
A large percentage of the general population suffer from specific phobia, or the possibility of obtaining a specific phobia during their lifetime (Williams 1987). A specific phobia, termed so because of the excessive or unreasonable fear it exerts in an individual (Van Houtem 2013), has the capacity to seriously inhibit or impact an individual’s daily living. The blood-injury-injection type and the other type are the most dominant phobias effecting the general population. Specific phobias can be developed in a number of ways, including the pairing of a conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus automatically evoking a fear response, and genetic susceptibility (Van Houtem 2013). Specific Phobias often resemble previous distressing experiences (Van Houtem 2013).
As with all other phobias, agoraphobia is often acquired through classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus (Weiten, 1998). Describing and explaining exactly how agoraphobia is acquired can be achieved by identifying the antecedents of the phobia. Antecedents are the events that precede a particular response. In the case of agoraphobia, this response is a panic attack. Agoraphobia is essentially anxiety of three kinds, phobic anxiety, panic anxiety (the panic attacks), and phobic a...
conditioned fear that does not involve oedipal complexes or displacement. The theory of classical conditioning says that phobias are the result of learned associations of neutral stimuli and frightening events. This also demonstrates why an individual might have a phobia of guns after being shot by one.
In observational learning, a child takes note of what his or her mother or father considers to be threatening. On the other hand, children can also be conditioned by their own life experiences through a process called operant conditioning (SOURCE). In some instances, children tend to generalize their fears, subsequently forming a phobia. For example, a young girl who became increasingly cautious of flying insects after an unpleasant encounter with a nest of agitated yellow jackets. After being assaulted by these creatures, she associated all flying bugs with the painful sting of a yellow jacket. Of course, children can also be classically conditioned to display a fearful response; that is, they learn to associate an unconditioned fear-relevant stimulus with a conditioned stimulus, provoking a conditioned, fearful response. One of the most well-known examples of this is an experiment involving a young boy, famously dubbed Little Albert. Little Albert learned to fear small furry animals in a laboratory setting when the presence of these creatures was paired with loud banging noises (SOURCE). From the aforementioned experiments and studies, it is undeniable that external circumstances and experiences assist in the configuration of fear in
Preparedness theory of phobia is a concept developed to explain why specific connections to objects are learned...
Simple phobias include irrational fears of things like animals such as dogs, cats, or the most common snakes. Specific phobias are centered around specific situations such as small spaces, claustrophobia, or heights, acrophobia. Social phobias are irrational fears of interactions with other people. For example, a person might have a social phobia of public speaking or fear of embarrassment. Another form of social phobia is agoraphobia which restraints a person from being in unfamiliar, open or closed spaces, typically resulting in panic attacks. These different types of phobias have two things in common; they are irrational, and they are treated in similar
One of the characteristics of a phobia is a feeling that is greater than the fear of a situation or object with an exaggeration of the danger associated with the said situation or even object. This persistent fear often leads to an anxiety disorder that leads an individual to develop mechanisms that ensure one avoids the object or situation that triggers the occurrence of the phobia. Phobias can have highly debilitating effects on an individual including the development of depression, isolation, substance abuse, and even suicide. Many people take phobia for granted however, it is clear that it has the potential to impair the quality of life for both the affected and the people around them. The fact that many of the phobias are manageable using
Bearing in mind that an anxiety response is a result of various factors, there are different types of anxiety disorders. The most common type of anxiety disorders as described as specific phobias, social anxiety disorder (SAD), panic disorder (PD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). According to Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA) (2016), specific phobias affect about 19 million adults in the U.S, while SAD affects 15 million, PD affects 6 million, GAD affects about 6.8 million, OCD affects about 2.2 million and PTSD affects 7.7 million adults respectively. Considering that anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S, yet only about one-third of those suffering receive treatment (ADAA, 2016).
Having anxiety is common and a part of everyday life however; there is a huge difference between a fear and a social phobia or anxiety disorder. The difference and important distinction psychoanalysts make between a fear and a phobia is “a true phobia must be inconsistent with the conscious learning experience of the individual” (Karon 1). Patients with true phobias “do not respond to cognitive therapy but do respond well to psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic therapy” (Karon 2). Social phobia is a serious anxiety disorder that should not be taken lightly or mistaken as a fear you will simply grow out of the older you get. Social phobia has the power to destroy lives and can prevent people from living and enjoying their life to the fullest. Social phobia is a disabling condition that often starts between the ages of early childhood and late adolescence. The origins of social phobia can be linked to “traumatic social experiences and social isolation” (Hudson118-120). Social phobia is treatable however; research and statics show that not many seek help.
Behaviorists propose that phobias come about in a similar way, for example, somebody who is spider-phobic, might have learned to be scar... ... middle of paper ... ... This essay has evaluated the assumptions and contributions of the behaviourist, psychodynamic and humanistic approaches to psychology. The behaviourist approach focuses on the behaviour of people and seeks to explain behaviour as being learnt.
Individuals with blood-injection-injury phobia have excessive/unreasonable fear related to seeing blood, injections, and injuries. They exhibit extreme avoidance behaviors in regards to blood, injection, or injury related stimuli. They are also likely to faint at the sight of blood, in anticipation of an injection, or in anticipation of a physical injury.
A phobia is an extreme irrational fear or an aversion to something, a phobia is also described as an anxiety disorder in which a person has a persistent fear of an object or situation. For a trepidation to be recognized as a phobia it will typically be rapid in onset and present itselfs for six months or longer. According to the National Institute of Mental Health approximately four to five percent of the United States population has one or more clinically significant phobias per year. In the book 1984 by George Orwell the citizens are dictated by the government through means of fear in order to get results. Throughout the novel examples of phobias and fear are exploited by the government as a way for them to gain further control over the
Venn, J. R., & Short, J. G. (1973). Vicarious classical conditioning of emotional responses in nursery school children. Journal Of Personality And Social Psychology, 28(2), 249-255, doi:10.1037/h0035717
Phobias are irrational fear to a person, place or object and they are classified as an anxiety disorder. There is a term for every phobia imaginable. Phobias affect approximately nineteen million individuals, with the fears ranging from blood to women and every thing in between. The symptoms one experiences when suffering with a phobia include profuse sweating, headaches, extreme nausea and a variety of other physical symptoms.
Philophobia: fear of love or falling in love. Feelings you get when you’ve been hurt over and over again by multiple people or even someone you truly loved. A feeling you think you will never overcome, no matter how much you grow. For me this was something new, falling for a damaged individual was never in my plan. When I first met my “forever” I was only 13, and here it is 6 years later and “forever” will never exist again. We met as friends, and I never wanted more because our friendship was so rare. It was something I never felt before, and hoped to never feel again. Surprisingly, I decided to take a chance… in hopes that it will be worth it. However, I found out it may have been the worst decision I’ve ever made. When building a relationship, a connection, association, or involvement can be very smooth in the beginning but when the problems come along, you begin to question everything. Now that’s where everything took things for the worst.
...6. Generalization from the original phobic stimulus to stimuli of a similar nature will occur; 7. Noxious experiences which occur under conditions of excessive confinement are more likely to produce phobic reactions; 8. Neutral stimuli which are associated with a noxious experience, may develop motivating properties. This acquired drive is termed the fear drive; 9. Responses (such as avoidance) which reduce the fear drive are reinforced; 10. Phobic reactions can be acquired vicariously (Rachman 31). These theories are used to identify how people obtain phobias and other situations that may occur with phobias.