Characteristics of Phobias
- Phobias are an irrational fear of an object, place or situation that causes a constant avoidance of said object, place or situation.
- All phobias are characterised by the excessive fear and anxiety caused by the object, place or situation
- The DSM-5 recognised the following categories of phobias:
- Specific phobia: Phobia of a specific object or situation, E.g. A needle or spider, or, flying
- Social phobia (Social anxiety): Phobia of social situations, E.g. Public speaking
- Agoraphobia: Phobia of being outside
Symptoms of phobias can be characterised by three areas:
Behavioural characteristics
- Panic: A person with a phobia may panic in response to the phobia stimulus, this could result in displaying the following behaviours; crying, screaming and/or running away
- Avoidance: A person with a phobia will avoid the phobic stimulus, which can make daily life complicated, E.g. if a person has a fear of going outside, they are unable to function in their day-to-day life
- Endurance: The opposite behaviour to avoidance, where the individual chooses to remain in the presence of the phobia, but continues to suffer and experience high levels of anxiety
Emotional characteristics
- Emotional responses: being unreasonable and irrational, the emotional response felt by the sufferer is disproportionate to the danger they are facing
- Anxiety: A person with a phobia will suffer from anxiety, which is an unpleasant state of high arousal and this state stops the person from being able to relax or feel any other emotion
- Fear: The person's immediate emotion when coming into contact with the phobia is fear
Cognitive characteristics
- Selective attention to the source of the phobia; often when the person is near the phobia, they cannot focus on anything else
- Usually keeping your attention on something dangerous gives you a higher chance of survival, this is not so, when the fear is irrational, such as with a phobia
- Cognitive distortions, the person's perception of the phobia can often be distorted, E.g. Someone who has a phobia of spiders can see the spider as aggressive and angry looking and may even feel that the spider is running toward them as if to attack
Exam Tip
When discussing phobias in exam questions, use real-world examples in your explanations. If you mention the DSM-5 categories of phobias and then discuss specific phobias, ensure the example is of relevance.
For example, Heights, spiders, dogs, tomato ketchup.
This topic commonly comes up as 1 mark responses or multiple choice to really revise the difference between cognitive, social and emotional.
