Theories of Social Phobia

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.

The study of Social anxiety shows no clear causes for its variety of symptoms, but psychologists have been able to determined triggers and possible factors for its development. As psychologists continue to study social phobia, they have determined many possible causes. Since the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, psychologists have

Classical conditioning effects everyday life especially in relation to phobias and addiction which will be discussed in this essay. Classical conditioning was founded by Ivan Pavlov. He believed that if a behaviour can be learned, it can also be unlearned too. This essay will highlight the importance of conditioning principles in explaining and treating problem behaviours. Classical conditioning has revolutionised behavioural therapies, such as flooding and systematic desensitisation to treat phobias, and aversion therapies to treat addictive behaviour.

Discuss issues of reliability and validity associated with the classification and diagnosis of phobic disorders (24 marks)

Classical conditioning is often associated with physiologist Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with the salivating dog (Hutchinson, 2015). This experiment focused on conditioning the dog to associate food with the bell while salivating, and eventually salivates when the bell is rung even without the presence of food. Operant conditioning theory is changed behavior as the result of a reinforcement (Hutchinson, 2015). In our society, we associate positive reinforcements with compliments, smiles, high-fives in order to encourage a behavior more. Negative reinforcement involves jail, detention, and grounding, and this is to stop a behavior from continuing. A cognitive social learning theory states that behavior can be learned through observations, beliefs, expectations, and imitation of others (Hutchinson, 2015). A major difference between cognitive social learning theory and the others, is a lack of manipulation to encourage the individual to follow through with a behavior. Rather, cognitive social learning theories suggest that a change in thinking can ultimately result in a change in behavior (Hutchinson, 2015).

Social anxiety is a prevalent and common disorder amongst society. Social anxiety disorder is expressed as a fear in public and social situations for an individual (Kashdan, Farmer, Adams, Mcknight, Ferssizidis, Nezelf 2013). A person with social anxiety fears that a social appearance, outcome, or situation will lead a to negative response to their surrounding audience (Kashdan, Farmer, Adams, Mcknight, Ferssizidis, Nezelf 2013). However there are numerous treatments for social anxiety. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most efficacious treatments that a patient may receive (Hambrick, Weeks, Harb, & Heimberg, 2003. Cognitive behavioral therapy has numerous techniques that can be used on patients. The result of using cognitive

The classical conditioning model was one of the first theories used to describe phobias. Many years ago, scientists observed that one could willingly elicit a fear response in an animal or human through systematic teaching. For example, if every time a rat is presented with a low buzzing noise, it is electrically shocked, eventually, when it hears the noise alone (with no shock), it will exhibit symptoms of fear. (3) Scientists

The concept of fear dated back as far as 400 BC. During this time, Hippocrates, an ancient Greek physician described the overly shy person as “someone who loves darkness as life and thinks every man observes him”. When fear is persistent and exaggerated, it results to tension and stress and consequently, anxiety.

A phobia can be acquired by a person by making the person associate one thing with something not pleasant or painful to them. The effect of this can be permanent if the extinction process on the person

“Is a 17-item Likert-type self-report instrument assessing fear, avoidance, and physiological symptoms associated with social phobia”

Psychological Explanations of One Anxiety Disorder Phobias are an example of an anxiety disorder and the psychological explanations of these are cognitive, psychodynamic, behavioral and social factors. The Behavioral, Psychodynamic and social factors of the psychological explanation will be discussed in greater detail. Behavioral explanations say that all behaviour is learnt whether it is normal or abnormal and this approach has been applied to humans and animals.

Arguably, an organism is better described as an information seeker, forming relations amongst events from information provided by a stimulus. For example, Rescorla suggests that contiguity is an insufficient example of Pavlovian Conditioning. As shown in simple CS/US parings, learning was determined by how the two stimuli differ, not in what they share, showing that contiguity is not a necessity, (Rescorla, 1988). Furthermore, systematic fear conditioning scenarios imply the base rate of US occurrence against a CS/US contiguity is also sensitive to conditioning. Evidence for this can be found in previous work that validates the current conclusion. Rescorla (1968, p. 1), argues that contingency over contiguity is an important determinant of fear conditioning, and refers to contingency as the “relative probability of occurrence of US in the presence of a CS as contrasted with its probability in the absence of CS.” Rescorla’s (1988) adaptation of these results measures asymptotic fear levels, (where each curve shows conditioning as an increasing function of the likelihood of receiving a shock during the tone), supporting the continued importance of perceived fear in associations. Furthermore, results from studies on Blocking, Conditioned Inhibition and Auto-shaping in pigeons suggest that the simplistic notion of previous theory

Classical conditioning is the theory that involves a subject learning a new behavior by the process of association. A naturally occuring stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus) is paired with a response (the unconditioned response). Then, a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus) is paired with the unconditioned stimulus and eventually the conditioned stimulus produces the initial response of the unconditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus being present. The response, therefore, becomes the conditioned response. This study had a major influence on the psychological study of behaviorism. “Behaviorism is based on the assumption that learning occurs through interactions with the environment” (Cherry 1). Classical conditioning

Social Phobia, also called social anxiety disorder (SAD), is one of the most common, but misconstrued mental health problems in society. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA), over 15 million adults suffer from the disorder. First appearing in the DSM-III as Social Phobia, and later in the DSM-IV as Social Anxiety Disorder, this newly established disorder denotes afflicting stress and anxiety associated with social situations (Zakri 677). According to James W. Jefferson, two forms of Social phobia exist: specific and generalized. Specific social phobia indicates anxiety limited to few performance situations, while generalized indicates anxiety in all social situations (Jefferson). Many people often interchangeably link this disorder to shyness––a personality trait. However, although they have striking similarities, the two are divergent. To begin with, SAD has an extensive etiology ranging from multiple factors. Furthermore, symptoms of various aspects accompany SAD. Moreover, SAD has detrimental impacts affecting quality of life. Lastly, SAD has numerous methods of treatment. Social Phobia is prevalent in both women and men beginning at the onset of puberty (ADAA).

They are very anxious about being with other people. They are very self-conscious in front of other people. They are anxious about how they themselves will act. They are very afraid of being embarrassed in front of other people. They are terrified that other people will judge them. They worry for days or weeks before an event where other people will be. They stay away from places where there are other people. They have a hard time making friends and keeping friends. They may have body symptoms when they are with other people. For example; blushing, nausea, trembling, heavy sweating, and having a hard time talking[NIMH].