Psychology
Unit 4, Outcome 2: Anxiety disorder (specific phobia)
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Foundation
Anxiety disorder: Group of disorders characterised by chronic feelings of anxiety, distress, nervousness and
apprehension that exerts a negative effect.
Specific phobia: Disorder characterised by a significant anxiety provoked by exposure to a specific feared object
or situation, often resulting in avoidance behaviour.
According to the DSM a specific phobia can belong to 1 of 5 categories including (1) animals, (2) situations (lifts,
enclosed spaces), (3) blood, injections & injury, (4) natural environments (heights, darkness) and (5) other phobias
(eg choking, vomiting, loud noises).
According to DSM-IV-TR criteria, a diagnosis of a specific phobia is only made if the fear of the specific object or
situation has persisted for at least 6 months.
Biopsychosocial factors: Biological factors
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Role of the stress response: perceived threats activate the fight-flight response that can be detrimental to
the individual if it is regularly activated.
Role of GABA: GABA is an inhibitory neurotransmitter that works throughout the brain to make the
postsynaptic neurons less likely to fire. It counterbalances the activity of Glutamate (excitatory
neurotransmitter) making the post-synaptic neuron more likely to fire. Dysfunctional GABA systems that are
found in people with anxiety disorders means this counterbalancing cannot occur. Low levels can be
caused by poor diet and socio-cultural factors such as prolonged exposure to stress. Benzodiazepines are
drugs that enhance effect of GABA to reduce physiological arousal and induce a calming effect. Biopsychosocial factors: Social factors
Environmental triggers:
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Often classically conditioned: e.g. The development of a phobia of dogs after being bitten by one
The more severe the distress associated, the more likely the development of a phobia. Exposure shortly
after traumatic event reduces the chance of the development of phobia compared to non-exposure.
Parental modelling
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Children are vulnerable to the modelling of their parent’s fearful behaviour towards an object or situation:
e.g. If a parent has a phobia of dogs and the child witnesses this there is an increased chance that the
child will also develop a phobia.
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Transmission of threat information: Delivery of information about a potential threat from media,
friends or family.
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Treatments include non-fear modelling and the attainment of accurate information about the phobic
stimulus.
Biopsychosocial factors: Psychological factors
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Psychodynamic model: Model proposed by Sigmund Freud that postulates that mental disorders are
result from unresolved psychological conflicts that are part of our unconscious mind, beyond conscious
awareness. Freud defined anxiety as an uncomfortable or unpleasant psychological feeling that arises from
the fear that our instincts will make us do something we would be punished for. An unresolved oedipal
complex is responsible for a specific phobia.
Behavioural model: Phobias are learned through experience and may be maintained or modified by
environmental consequences such as rewards and punishment. Generally phobias are acquired by
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classical conditioning (CC) and maintained through operant conditioning (although can be acquired through
operant conditioning as well).
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Cognitive model: Focuses on how the individual processes information about a phobic stimulus and
related events. As a result a cognitive bias may development that can take form as attentional, memory or
interpretative bias & often involves catastrophic thinking.
Treatments:
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Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) See below.
Systematic desensitisation: Uses CC to replace anxiety responses with relaxation responses.
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Flooding: Exposes the individual to the phobic stimulus and maintains the exposure until anxiety
disappears Cognitive behavioural therapy
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Combines cognitive and behavioural therapies to help people manage mental health problems and
disorders such as Specific phobias.
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Cognitive therapy: Focuses on helping the sufferer identify their phobic stimulus, anxiety related
thoughts and their cognitive biases that arise because of the phobia. This is based on the belief that an
individual’s maladaptive thoughts can trigger and fuel the specific phobia.
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Behavioural component: Deals with the maladaptive behaviours such as through the application of
behavioural experiments that are undertaken by individuals to test out the accuracy of their distorted
thinking towards the phobic stimulus. wiki.ee.org.au
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