Characteristics of Phobias (AQA A Level Psychology)

Characteristics of phobias

• Phobias fall under the category of anxiety disorders

• A phobia is an extreme fear (often irrational) of specific objects/organisms e.g. ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), situations (e.g. aerophobia, fear of flying) or concepts (e.g. athazagoraphobia, fear of being forgotten) which trigger extreme anxiety in the phobic person

• The DSM-5 classifies phobias into categories such as:

  • Specific phobia (of objects or situations) e.g.:

    • arachnophobia (fear of spiders)

    • trypanophobia (fear of injections)

    • claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces)

  • Social phobia (social anxiety disorder)

    • fear of social situations or interactions e.g. being judged, embarrassed or negatively evaluated by others

  • Agoraphobia

    • fear of public places or the outside world

Behavioural characteristics of phobias

• Behavioural characteristics of phobias include the ways in which the phobic person responds to the phobic stimulus

• A common response to a phobic stimulus is panic

  • Panic tends to result in:

    • a state of high stress and anxiety

    • ‘freezing’ on the spot

    • crying, screaming or shrieking

    • running away

    • passing out/fainting

• Another commonly experienced behavioural response to a phobic stimulus is avoidance:

  • Going out of one's way to avoid the phobic stimulus (e.g. by never booking a holiday which involves a flight)

  • Taking steps to ensure that one is not going to be confronted by the phobic stimulus (e.g. by refusing all invitations to social events)

  • Informing other people of the phobia so that they are aware (e.g. friends and colleagues are asked not to talk about illness in the presence of the phobic person)

Cognitive characteristics of phobias

• Cognitive characteristics of phobias involve irrational thinking, cognitive distortions and selective attention e.g.:

  • how the phobic person thinks about the phobic stimulus

  • the ways in which the phobic person processes information about the phobic stimulus

• Irrational thinking and cognitive distortions surrounding the phobic stimulus might involve the phobic person believing the following:

  • ‘If I touch cotton wool it might get into my bloodstream and cause a heart-attack’

  • ‘What if I talk to a new person at a party and they laugh at me and tell everyone that I’m stupid?’

  • ‘If I use this escalator I could get my clothes caught up in the machinery and be horribly injured’

• Selective attention involves the phobic person becoming fixated on the phobic stimulus and unable to draw their attention away from it e.g.:

  • staring at someone’s shirt buttons at a party due to the fear that the buttons will choke them

  • not being able to keep up a conversation with a friend in a cafe because a man with a beard is sitting at the next table

Emotional characteristics of phobias

• Emotional characteristics of phobias revolve around the primary feelings and emotions experienced in the presence of a phobic stimulus

  • The key emotion surrounding phobias is anxiety

  • A phobic response is an extreme emotional response which is usually out of proportion to the threat posed by the phobic stimulus, e.g.:

    • xanthophobia is the fear of the colour yellow (it is difficult to think of many situations - if any at all - where the colour yellow poses a threat to life)

  • The phobic person generally knows that  their response is disproportionate to the phobic stimulus but they still feel fear when they are confronted by it