Fears and Phobias

Fears and Phobias Everybody has experienced fear in their lives at one time or another and many people have irrational fears, for example people are scared of spiders even though human are bigger than them and they are unlikely to hurt them. But are fears useful and why do people have phobias, which can affect their day-to-day lives. In this piece I'll be talking about everything to do with fear and phobias. Phobias are totally irrational things that human beings experience they don't have any cause behind them and they can effect people way of living for example a claustrophobic person can't go into a room to see an exhibition because the room is either too small or too crowded this hinders the enjoyment of life. People often classify slight irrational fears they have like a slight nervousness of heights as a phobia although it doesn't really affect your life and the fear is not as serious to class as a phobia. Some fears we have are instilled in us in childhood by what people say or do and this could affect us in later life. Or a fear we have like not being able to go in deep water could be from a past experience (when you were younger you nearly drowned). Superstition is a cause of fear as they are lead to believe if they do certain thing(s) something horrible will happen One fear that everyone seems to have is a fear of the unfamiliar to a certain extent that why some

  • Word count: 587
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: English
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Psychology Phobias Coursework

Phobia Coursework Introduction Hannah Ingram Title: An investigation to see if there is a strong correlation between fear and some characteristics of animals. Abstract: The area studied for this study is phobias, by adapting the work of Bennett Levy and Marteau. The alternative hypothesis was whether the participant disliked a particular thing about the animal; in particular it being likely to bite, being ugly, or having a strange texture, they will also give a high fear rating. A survey was completed by 30 participants aged over sixteen years old, using an opportunity sample, to find their opinions about how likely the variables are likely to occur. The principle finding was all the variable results gave a positive significant correlation. The main implications of the findings were it supported the research by Bennett Levy and Marteau that there is a strong correlation between an appearance of an animal and fear. Introduction: The definition of a phobia is a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the conscious awareness that it is not dangerous. Explanations to how a phobia develops differ between schools of psychology. The behaviourist theory argues that phobias are learnt by classical conditioning and reinforced by operant conditioning. An experiment on phobias

  • Word count: 3250
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Discuss the Behavioural Approach to Treating Phobias

Transfer-Encoding: chunked Behavioural approach (12 marks) This approach has emphasis of behaviour on environment and how behaviour is enquired and primarily concerned with observable behaviour. The first theory is classical conditioning is learning through association and best explains the development of phobias. The unconditioned stimulus leads to a conditioned response, with a conditioned stimulus leading to a conditioned response. For example, a fear of spiders and associated with another stimulus which creates the phobia. Then there is operant conditioning is learning with rewards and punishments. This theory could leads to anorexia. For instance, if someone losses weight and they are complimented. It’s a reward and they are more likely to repeat it which may lead to eating disorders. Then there is social learning theory which is learning through observation and imitation. This is when you look at a role models behaviour, if they are being rewarded the individual may go down the same route as the role model is seen as successful (vicarious reinforcement). This theory can also be linked to eating disorders as exposure of young girls to successful thin women in the media. This linked is to pschopathogies because that maladaptive behaviour can also be learnt There is strong research support for the role of learning for example, Watson’s study on little albert

  • Word count: 647
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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Are phobias best understood as an exaggeration of normal fears?

Are phobias best understood as an exaggeration of normal fears? According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (APA, 1994) phobias are characterised by a persistent fear of an object or situation which is out of proportion to any threat posed. Moreover, this fear is recognised by the sufferer as excessive yet can still cause extreme avoidance behavior. However, different paradigms have debated the ways in which normal, adaptive and proportionate fear is distinguished from fear that is diagnosed as phobic (Rachman, 1978). The differences between a dimensional interpretation of phobias which sees the disorder as an exaggeration of normal fear and a categorical approach which views phobias as being distinctly different from normal fear will be examined with reference to features of several types of phobic disorders. An overview of influential paradigms of phobias will be given focusing on whether they view this disorder as being categorically or dimensionally different from normal fear and the implications of these interpretations on the understanding and treatment of phobias. One of the earliest attempts to define the etiology of a phobia was made by Freud. He suggested that phobias occur due to the anxiety produced by the phobic's desire to seduce his mother (the Oedipus complex) conflicting with the fear of castration by his father. This

  • Word count: 885
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Can 'learning' explain phobias about snakes or creepy-crawlies

Learning happens quite naturally and goes by quite unnoticed but in many cases we have to put effort and work hard to learn things (Pritchard, 2009). Learning is crucial for mastering new skills, for personality and emotional development and social interaction. This essay will discuss 'learning' and phobia looking from behaviourist and cognitive approaches and argue can learning explain phobias about snakes or 'creepy-crawlies'. This paragraph will consider what is 'learning' and how behaviourists and cognitivists explain 'learning'. Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behaviour or behaviour potential based on experience. Our capacity for learning depends upon both genetic heritage and the nature of our environment (Zimbardo, 1992). We learn by interacting with our environment. Sometimes we have no explicit teacher but we have a direct sensorimotor connection to environment. Exercising this connection produces a wealth of information about: cause and effect, the consequences or actions and what to do in order to achieve goals. When we are learning we are acutely aware of how our environment responds to what we do and we seek to influence what happens through our behaviour (Sutton & Barto, 1998). 'Learning' by behavioural approach assumes that a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. (Learning Theories Knowledgebase,

  • Word count: 1639
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Why are psychological treatments for phobias often so effective?

Why are psychological treatments for phobic anxiety often so effective? With over 275 types of specific phobia, between 8-12% of us clinically diagnosable and some level of phobic anxiety affecting more than 60% of us at some point in our lives (Goodwin, 1983; Ollendick & King, 1994; Robins & Regier, 1991), effective treatments, unsurprisingly, are highly sought after. Varying interventions claim extraordinary success rates, from one-hour behavioural cures to prolonged drug therapy. This essay focuses on psychological treatments for phobic anxiety, and examines possible reasons for their apparent success. Investigating the differences between psychological and pharmalogical treatments, and distinguishing phobias from other mental disorders can provide useful insights into the effectiveness of psychological treatments. Fear is an everyday response. From walking home alone at night to public speaking, almost all of us experience it. Phobic anxiety, however, differs from fear in that it is irrational and disproportional to the level of actual danger in terms of "duration, degree of avoidance or subjective distress" (Davey, 1997). The DSM-IV criteria state that fear must be excessive or unreasonable, provoked by an object or situation; exposure to this object/situation immediately produces anxiety, and avoidance of this fear interferes with the sufferer's life. It defines five

  • Word count: 1984
  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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What role does evolution play in the development of phobias?

What role does evolution play in the development of phobias? Throughout time the survival of humankind has been threatened by the continual inventions by human which have threatened everyday existence with inventions like guns and bombs thus in the 21st century humans are faced with a huge amount of everyday dangers regarding these threatening stimuli. However, it seems that humans generally, still feel more threatened by threatening stimuli experienced by our ancestors like spiders and snakes, even though these are of a less of a threat to human survival in the 21st century. Indeed the stimuli experienced by our evolutionary ancestors still appear in the top ten phobias experienced in the 21st century, (Stillwell 2004). Such findings can be explained by analysing Seligman's theory. Seligman's theory (1971) proposed that humans have an evolutionary pre-dispositional preparedness to fear certain stimuli more than others, i.e. spiders and snakes. Our ancestors who had fears of such stimuli were likely to be more successful through natural selection. Seligman went to point out that an organism can be: Prepared - i.e. people will fear stimuli which signalled danger in ancestral environments but not necessarily our current environment. Non-prepared - i.e. people don't fear stimuli which do not signal danger in ancestral or our current environment. Contra-prepared - i.e. people

  • Word count: 624
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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We are not born with phobias - a phobia is learnt because it has become associated with an object or an experience that is unpleasant. According to the behaviourist, a phobia has to be learnt

Phobias Thesis: We are not born with phobias - a phobia is learnt because it has become associated with an object or an experience that is unpleasant. According to the behaviourist, a phobia has to be learnt. This can happen in one of two ways: classical or operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is where an object/experience becomes associated with something unpleasant or causes pain/fear. J Watson and R Rayner tested this in a controversial experiment in 1920, in the case of little Albert. The stimulus may be all kinds of things, an object, a person or a sound. By itself it has no effect but once it has become associated with the UCS (unconditional stimulus) and it causes a response, as the white rat did with little Albert; it is called the conditional stimulus (CS) because the person has become conditioned to it and a conditional response occurs (CR). If this response then occurs with other similar objects, then the conditioning has become generalised. Operant conditioning is where we learn from the consequences of our actions. If we do something that brings a pleasant result then we are more likely to repeat that action. This is reinforcement. There are two kinds of reinforcement - positive and negative. Positive reinforcement is when something we don't like occurs and we are comforted. E.g. a parent comforts a frightened child. If the level of

  • Word count: 924
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Health and Social Care
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What is classical conditioning and how is it relevant to phobias in humans?

Department of Professional and Community Education (PACE) Integrated Degree in Psychology Student Identification number/Name: 33066386 Core essay Title of the essay: What is classical conditioning and how is it relevant to phobias in humans? Name of the tutor who will be marking it: Mike Griffiths Date of Submission: 25/04/2007 Essay title What is classical conditioning and how is it relevant to phobias in humans? This essay will demonstrate a basic learning process known as classical conditioning along with the way it is associated with phobias in humans. Ivan Pavlov’s initial discovery of classical conditioning and his contribution to the understanding of this phenomenon will be outlined. Moreover, the definition and the basic principles of classical conditioning will be stated next to its significance in daily behaviour. Furthermore, different types of phobias as well as their acquisition through classical conditioning will also be presented. Finally, a number of techniques which could be applied in treating phobias will also be introduced. According to Carlson, Martin and Buskist (2004), people acquire much of their daily behaviour throughout classical conditioning. For instance, when people hear a song they used to listen to when they were with loved ones they are likely to experience feelings of nostalgia. As a general rule, classical conditioning

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  • Level: University Degree
  • Subject: Biological Sciences
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Discuss examples of the deliberate alteration of human behaviour: phobias

Discuss examples of the deliberate alteration of human behaviour Behaviour consists of learned responses to simple stimuli. One example of the use of deliberate alteration of behaviour is with phobias. In the learning approach, phobias are seen as the result of maladaptive learning by classical conditioning. If at some time a fearful, even traumatic, event has occurred then, by classical conditioning the person experiencing this may associate it with anything that was around at the time. Behaviour therapy is the means of treating phobias using classical conditioning. Joseph Wolpe (1958) developed a procedure known as systematic desensitisation that consists of three phases: relaxation training, construction of fear hierarchy and counter-conditioning by pairing the feared object with a relaxation response. The patient is first trained in deep muscle relaxation. In this phase, the patient constructs a list of feared stimuli, starting from the least feared, to the most disturbing. In the next phase, the patient is then required to use the learned relaxation technique when presented with the feared stimulus, starting with the least feared, and gradually working up the ladder of fears. This technique is known as systematic desensitisation because it involves gradually desensitising the person to the feared stimulus. This technique does not use classical conditioning alone. The

  • Word count: 601
  • Level: AS and A Level
  • Subject: Psychology
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