Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ANXIETY
- A feeling of apprehension, dread or uneasiness in
when anxiety becomes irrational, unrealistic and intrusive, it begins to interfere with day-to-day functioning.
ANXIETY
ABS reports 13% of young people experience anxiety Anxiety disorders occur most frequently between 18 and
heading of Anxiety Disorders: Generalised Anxiety Disorder Panic Disorder Social Phobias Post-traumaic Stress disorder
SPECIFIC PHOBIA
An intense, irrational fear and avoidance of a
function normally.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2pbYxA-MzI
fear response, similar physiological changes activated by the fight or flight response are activated in response to an individuals specific phobia.
- Learning to recognise the stress response can help
excitatory effect prepare the body for fight or flight - Other neurotransmitters (GABA) have an inhibitory effect- calm the body, returning to homeostasis.
disorders often target the enhancement of GABA neurotransmission in order to inhibit the overactivation of the bodies resources by the stress response.
can be used for he short-term treatment of phobic anxiety as they enhance the effect of GABA upon the body - leading to a slowing or calming of the bodied response to the stress or fear.
phobia refer to our thoughts, beliefs and perception about ourselves, our experiences and our environment.
Those who are more sensitive and anxious and feel less
in control are more likely to notice events in their environment and to view them as potentially threatening, even though there may be nothing to fear.
PSYCHODYNAMIC MODEL
The psychodynamic model (based on work of Freud)
proposes that the development of phobias is due to unresolved conflicts that arise during the phallic stage of a childs development.
of the same sex (the father) because of the childs underlying sexual impulses towards his motherthe Oedipal complex. Female equivalent of this- Electra complex
According to psychodynamic theorists, if a person is
unable to successfully deal with this conflict, their anxiety is displaced to a situation or object that is less relevant.
BEHAVIOURAL MODEL
The behavioural approach focuses on observable
behaviours and examines how an organisms behaviours are influenced by environmental factors. According to the behavioural model, phobias are learnt through classical conditioning and maintained through operant conditioning. The avoidance of an individuals phobia acts as a negative reinforcement. Whereas, the relief which comes from having avoided the phobia, acts as a positive reinforcement.
COGNITIVE MODEL
The cognitive model emphasises the influence of thought
the distorted thinking processes involved in the development and maintenance of simple phobia and look at ways to change those incorrect thoughts. a propensity to exaggerate perceived threats, making them more likely to interpret some situations, objects or activities as more dangerous than the average person would.
combination of verbal and behaviour modification techniques to help people change irrational patterns of thinking involved.
CBT focuses on helping change negative thoughts
(flies can kill me) replacing them with more positive, realistic ones (flies are unpleasant but they wont hurt me).
these thoughts so that the person no longer experiences the phobic response. avoid the feared stimulus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y8VKs3__cA
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
Systematic desensitisation is based upon the
assumption that most anxiety responses are initially acquired through classical conditioning.
Therefore, eliminating a phobia can be achieved
through counter-conditioning or weakening the association between the conditioned stimulus (for example rat, needle, flying) and the conditioned response of fear or anxiety.
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
This is done in three steps: - 1 The therapist helps the client build an anxiety/fear
hierarchy. - The client makes a list of anxiety-causing stimuli that are linked to their simple phobia, from least anxiety/fearinducing to most anxiety/fear-inducing.
- 2 The therapist trains the client in deep muscle relaxation. - 3 The client tries to work through the hierarchy, learning to
remain relaxed while imagining each stimulus on their hierarchy. - This is repeated until the person can imagine each situation or object with little or no anxiety/ fear.
SYSTEMATIC DESENSITISATION
Essentially, the objective of systematic desensitisation is
simple: - To recondition people so that the feared object, animal or situation (the conditioned stimulus) elicits relaxation rather than fear or anxiety
Systematic desensitisation is more effective in treating
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz-H7nwMXco
FLOODING
Sometimes known as exposure therapy Behavioural psychotherapy based on the premise
is gradually exposed to the object of the phobia, patients are actually exposed at once and for prolonged periods to the feared stimulus.
FLOODING
Patients are subjected to high levels of anxiety which they
Parental Modeling- Research has found that a child whose parent suffers from a
phobia of moths, for example, is more likely to develop the same or a similar phobia as a result of simply observing their parents fear response and making the cognitive connection that moths are dangerous.
Transmission of Threat Information- Developing a fear of dogs after hearing stories about children,
event, such as seeing another person being mauled by a dog (observational learning)
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL
BIOLOGICAL - The bodys physiological makeup and how the brain processes
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL
PSYCHOLOGICAL- Factors such as thoughts, beliefs, personal experiences
and perceptions of ourselves can influence whether or not we interpret events around us as a source of danger. experience a stress response
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL
SOCIAL - Family and cultural background can lead them to focus
vulnerability, a combination with an exposure to an environmental trigger and parent modeling is generally needed.
As the cause of phobias is a combination of factors,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGpfntjwYwc