The DSM 5 defines a phobia as a persistent and unreasonable fear of an object (or situation) that is generally avoided to refrain oneself from intense anxiety. By contrast, a fear is absolutely rational and reasonable as the feared stimuli is usually threatening to the individual. There are various types of phobias, these include social phobias, agoraphobia and specific phobias. If it is assumed that Anna has a phobia of snakes, this would be a specific phobia as such disorders are defined as a person who, when exposed to the feared stimuli (in this case, snakes), experiences extreme anxiety. There are several theories that may be considered to help explain how Anna acquired this specific animal phobia. The theory of classical conditioning, …show more content…
Evolutionary psychology may offer an explanation in regards of the preparedness theory (Buchanan & Coulson, 2012) which states that we are predisposed to fear dangerous animals, such as snakes, because by avoiding them it ensures our survival and reproduction. Therefore, this theory favours the nature side of the debate slightly more as it suggests we have an innate fear. However, the human mind is far too complex to explain Anna’s fear of snakes as either being entirely nature or entirely nurture. Thus, a holistic approach must be taken to explain the aetiology of Anna’s fear of snakes and why Bjorn, who is the same age, is not afraid of snakes.
Behaviourism proposes that we are born a tabula rasa and that all subsequent behaviour is a result of learning from the environment. Classical conditioning was founded by Ivan Pavlov in the 1890s who discovered that by pairing meat powder (the unconditioned stimulus) with a neutral stimulus repeatedly, he could condition the dogs to salivate every time the bell rang. It is possible that Anna learned to fear snakes through a
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Many researchers have investigated gender differences and the prevalence of fears and phobias, with several studies reaching the same conclusions, resulting in concurrent validity. One sample of 336 males and 384 females responded to a questionnaire consisting of statements which they determined true or false to ascertain whether they had a phobia or not (Fredrikson et al, 1996). Findings reveal that males only had an animal phobia prevalence of 3.3%, while females had a prevalence of 12.1%, therefore suggesting that there are in fact gender differences in phobias, with females being more vulnerable. However, as this study used the self-report method it is possible that demand characteristics skewed the results as males are more likely to deny their phobias. This may be because fear is not considered a masculine trait by society but females are generally portrayed as the weaker gender and so may be more willing to admit to their phobia. This therefore limits the validity of this theory in relation to Anna and Bjorn. Nevertheless, this study also investigated the age differences in the prevalence of phobias and found that animal fears were more common in younger children than adults, although since Anna and Bjorn are both the same age, this does not explain why Bjorn does not fear snakes. Similar findings
Introduction: Almost everyone has an irrational fear or two—of mice, for example, or your annual dental checkup. For most people, these fears are minor. But when fears become so severe that they cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with your normal life, they’re called phobias. A phobia is an intense fear of something that, in reality, poses little or no actual danger. Common phobias and fears include closed-in places, heights, highway driving, flying insects, snakes, and needles. However, we can develop phobias of virtually anything. Most phobias develop in childhood, but they can also develop in adults. If you
not have a fear of something, whether it may be a fear of heights or snakes.
* Ivan Pavlov (behaviorist) – Started the idea of conditioning, where an inherited reflex comes to be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do with that reflex. He showed that even inherited reflexes could be influenced dramatically by learning experiences.
The biological explanation for the acquisition of phobic disorders establishes that phobias are caused by genetics, innate influences and the principles of biochemistry. This theory recognizes that an oversensitive fear response may be inherited, causing abnormal levels of anxiety. This is illustrated in the basis of inheritance, particularly the adrenergic theory that convicts that those who have an acquisition to phobic disorders consequently show high levels of arousal in the automatic nervous system, which leads to increased amounts of adrenaline, thus causing high levels of anxiety.
Moreover, the research findings discussed in the article “Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear‐relevant stimuli by adults and young children” by authors Vanessa LoBue and Judy S. DeLoache relate to human subject research because it is an observational study using both children and adults as participants. Data was collected on the children and adults’
Can’t Get Away On your way back in the house feel something following you so you turned around to identify what it is nothing is there. You keep on walking all the sudden you felt the presence of this body getting closer you turn around one last time, there it is out of nowhere you realize gigantic girth as a telephone pole chasing after you weighing up to 200 pounds and it is nearly 20 feet long. As a child were always curious about happening we don’t know, however this constrictors creature is after you there is no need to stop asking why am I being chased your just running for life as quick as you can. There you are on a swing just admiring a fiery red orb of light slowly sinking beneath the horizon, and threads of light lingered in the
The client would decrease the stress levels and see the phobia in a less aggressive way. Instead of awfulizing the client would use their positive thinking to move through the irrational beliefs. This technique will be applied during the introduction to the snake within the same room. Perhaps making light-hearted conversation, just as the therapist in the video did about the naming of the snake, instead of how it’s scary. That allows the client to identify and eliminate it as a threating object.
For example if a child sees its mother reacting in a fearful way towards a spider they too will react in that particular way. Evidence for this comes from Bandura who observed the reactions of fake electrical shocks been given with a buzzer. Maneeka found that when mothers reacted to snakes in a bad way the child developed a phobia of snakes in later life. There are demand characteristics with this research, as the researchers will be expecting a particular outcome and the people may already have a fear of a particular object or situation. Also the outcomes cannot be applied to every phobia i.e. claustrophobia therefore it is limited.
A phobia is an overwhelming and unbearable fear of something, such as an object, place, situation, feeling or animal. Phobias are a lot profounder than fears. In my essay I will be looking at a scenario of a woman called Amy with an extreme phobia of birds and how we can explain her fear looking at different psychological theories that explains learnt behaviour.
I'm leaning more to instincts rather than inherit memories. It is true that it is our innate that we should fear snakes. I am scared of pretty much everything that's not human, but my mother and father are not. So I'm still not convince that it is our inherit memories that I learn to fear pretty much
Known as a mental disorder a phobia is a persistent fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to compelling desire to avoid it. Phobias tend to affect the way people live their lives, for example, their working and social environments, considering that they last for a very long time and are capable to cause intense psychological physical stress. It is considered today the most common mental and anxiety disorder in the United States (Matig Mavissakalian & David H. Barlow 1981 pp 2). There are many phobias such as: the fear of aging, fear of changing, fear of clowns, fear of getting fat, fear of being in closed spaces, etc.
Phobias have impacted millions of people just in the United States. Whether they or someone they know has a phobia, phobias have affected their lives somehow. Researchers have found various methods for treating these phobias, but still have not found the exact cause for the development of phobias. To help organize these phobias, researchers have created three main categories that group the phobias by the general subject of fear. As previously stated, researchers have not yet determined the cause of the development of phobias, but have narrowed it down to two main theories. With treatments, researchers have been a bit more successful with finding working treatments, however, there still aren’t very many alternatives. Through the use of three broad categories of phobias, probable causes and treatments can be determined.
However, phobia can even cause people to risk their health. For example, the fear of dentists can leave people suffering from it willing to risk the health of their teeth in order to avoid having to go through an exam or procedure ( MacKay). When one knows about an upcoming confrontation, it can be the reason why one can not sleep or finds it hard to focus on important tasks. Due the change in daily routine, this unrealistic fear can interfere with the ability to socialize, work, or go about everyday life, brought on by and object, event or situation. But even animals have anxieties and phobias just as every human being (www.phobia-help.de). A phobia is an irrational fear, one knows that the object or situation, one is scared off, can not hurt one, but one is still afraid. A reason for this is that the human mind can not distinguish what is real and imaginary. When one has uncontrollable anxiety attacks, he loses rational judgement, leading to complicated problems. However, anyone can develop a phobia, men and women, teens and young adults, and elderly lady or a one-year-old boy (MacKay).
Phobia is described as a strong, irrational fear and avoidance of objects or situations that are usually considered harmless (Huffman, 485). Phobic disorders can be categorized into three categories: agoraphobia, specific phobias, and social phobias. In this paper I will be talking about a specific phobia called arachnophobia and how it affects my cousin whom is suffering from this phobia.
In 1903 a Russian physiologist by the name of Ivan Pavlov first developed an experiential model of learning called Classical Conditioning (Lautenheiser 1999). An example if Classical Conditioning would be ringing a bell when it is time for your pet to eat. The pet hears the bell and over time is conditioned that when the bell rings its dinner time thus begins to salivate, and eventually learns to be conditioned to responding to the bell in a specific manner. The bases was that neutral stimulus would be put together with an excitatory one and over time the neutral stimulus would, at some point down the line elicit the response that was associated with the original unlearned response. Pavlov later added an element known as the nonexcitatory, conditioned stimulus which is but together with an unconditioned stimulus (Lautenheiser 1999).