– Phobias are categorised by excessive fear and anxiety triggered by an object, place or situation
– Instance of irrational fear that produce avoidance
– This interferes with everyday life
BEHAVIOURAL
PANIC
– A phobic person may panic is response to the presence of the phobic stimulus.
– Panic may involve a range of behaviours including crying, screaming or running away.
– Children may react slightly differently, for example by freezing, clinging or having a tantrum.
AVOIDANCE
– Unless a sufferer makes 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.
– This can make it hard to go about daily life.
ENDURANCE
– The alternative to avoidance is endurance
– In which a sufferer remains in the presence of the phobic stimulus but continues to experience high levels of anxiety.
– This may be unavoidable in some situation, for example for a person who has an extreme fear of flying.
EMOTIONAL
ANXIETY
– Phobias are classes as anxiety disorders and so by definition they involve an emotional response of anxiety and fear.
– Anxiety is an unpleasant state of arousal.
– This prevents the sufferer relaxing and makes it very difficult to experience any positive emotion.
UNREASONABLE
– Emotional responses are unreasonable.
– For example, the anxiety and fear produced from seeing a spider is wildly disproportionate to the danger posed by the spider itself.
COGNITIVE
SELECTIVE ATTENTION
– If a sufferer can see the phobic stimulus it is hard to look away from it.
– Keeping our attention on something really dangerous is a good thing as it gives us the best chance of reacting quickly to a threat, but this is not us useful when the fear is irrational.
– A pogonophobic will struggle to concentrate on what they are doing if there is someone with a beard in the room.
IRRATIONAL BELIEFS
– The phobic holds irrational beliefs in relation to the phobic stimuli
COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
– The phobic perceptions of the phobic stimulus may be distorted.
– For example, an omphalophobic is likely to see belly buttons as ugly and/or disgusting