PHOBIAS

PHOBIAS:     (BASED ON BEHAVOURIST APPROACH)

The DSM-5 recognised the following categories of phobias:

• Specific phobia: Phobia of a specific object or situation
• Social phobia (Social anxiety): Phobia of social situations
• Agoraphobia: Phobia of being outside

BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Panic
• Avoidance
• Endurance.

COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Selective attention
• Cognitive distortions
• Irrational beleifs.

EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Emotional respones.
• Fear
• Anxiety.

THE TWO PROCESS MODEL:

• Mowrer (1960) suggests phobias are first learnt (acquired) by association (classical conditioning) and then maintained via reinforcement (operant conditioning) .

LITTLE ALBERT- (WATSON + RAYNER 1920)

• 9 month old baby conditioned into phobia of rats.
• The white rat (NS) and loud bang (UCS) occured simulatnously to little albert.
• The rat then became the CS that produces the CR and the phobia had…