Preview

Phobia Research Paper

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2243 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Phobia Research Paper
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.

One who encounters phobias has to deal with a collection of uncontrollable symptoms when their fear is presented. The mild cases, if not psychology cured, tend to grow into fears that are not able to be controlled which lead a person to feel like their life is being taking away from their own control (Erin Gersley 2001). In order to avoid their fear he or she will do anything in their power to not have to encounter it. Although feeling powerless and helpless, the people with the phobias tend to believe that their fears are irrational and exaggerated. These fears are avoided because when encountered they will bring the inability to function normally due to the anxiety provoked. Physical reactions are also encountered although psychologically is mostly common. Severe panic attacks, rapid heartbeat, sweating, difficulty breathing are some symptoms that people experience (Mavissakalian & Barlow 1981 pp 2-3). Hence, regardless the phobia, he or she will most likely experience a particular set of symptoms.

Observable psychologists have found that the pupils become dilated, the skin perspires, they might suffer from tremulousness, or their face becomes flushed when encountering their phobia. In some cases, a person will do anything that they can to escape the situation of fear causing them to take excessive measures to relief

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    An psychological explanation to understand phobias are classical conditioning which is defined as a learning process which occurs when you have two stimuli and they are repeatedly…

    • 1941 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    A phobia is a persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable which must meet a set of criteria given in the DSM. A clinical diagnosis is made if there is no other possible physiological cause and if the symptoms cannot be better accounted for by another disorder. The individual also recognises their behaviour is unreasonable and the severity of the fear interferes with an individual’s normal functioning.…

    • 681 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Psych 115

    • 9499 Words
    • 38 Pages

    Phobias- are anxiety disorders where an irrational fear that causes the person to fear and object, situation, or activity. It disrupts the lives of the people affected.…

    • 9499 Words
    • 38 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    There is the fight or flight that every living being uses, animal and human. Humans often have other bodily reactions to fear, such as fast heart rate, sweaty palms and many others. Often times, the same person can have different reactions to different situations. For example, when I take a big test or write an essay, my hands begin to sweat. Not only does this help me calm down, I am able to focus on the task at hand. I have had a lasting fear of “The back room” in my house, it is a room that is unfinished and is used for storage purposes. I fear the room because it has a decent amount of old stuff, the room is dusty, and it is a dwelling for many arthropods and arachnids. I do not hate the room itself, because it holds the water heater and all the tools to make my house work smoothly, but I fear what lies behind the boxes, the old board games, and the unknown inside it all. Every time I have to go back in the room, I shiver and shudder and pray that there is not any sudden movement that passes my feet. While I shiver at the thought of bugs and the unknown I also have a terrible fear of heights. My fear is so bad I can barely go on the final step of a six foot ladder. I refuse to go into the attic and I scoff at the idea of helping my sister put Christmas lights on the roof. When I do come to a situation when I am on a rooftop or on a mountain overlooking a valley, not only am I…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    A phobia is when the level of anxiety or escape behavior is severe enough to disrupt the person’s life.…

    • 1853 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    A phobia is a fear that is so irrational that the amount of fear is not warranted by cause and it interferes with the daily functioning of the sufferer (Antczak, 2011). Classical conditioning leads to phobias by way of learning. An example of a phobia is seeing a needle and fainting. You may have had a bad experience with getting a shot so once you see the needle it may cause you to have a reaction to just the sight of it (Kowalski & Weston, 2011). You know as an adult that it is painless, but the phobia kicks in and may even cause you to faint. Another example of a phobia could be to sound. If you hear a car horn honk or tires screech, followed by a crash, you then may associate every honk or screech to a car accident and you will probably stay away from that part of the road in the future to avoid these…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    2. According to the Freudian concept of psychoanalysis, phobias are believed to originate from childhood traumas. This perspective also supports the idea that phobias may be replacing other hidden fear or anger that the individual is reluctant to face. Fortunately, these anxieties can be treated. Such techniques in which to do so include those from the…

    • 1151 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Systematic Desensitisation

    • 11148 Words
    • 45 Pages

    Specific phobias are among the most common psychological problems (Kessler et al. 2005); however, specific phobias are seldom the primary reason that individuals seek treatment (Brown et al. 2001b). Because specific phobias are rarely the focus of clinical attention, there is a common—though in many cases mistaken—perception that specific phobias are straightforward and uncomplicated. In addition, because the fear associated with specific phobias is typically limited to the phobic stimuli and rarely associated with pervasive anxiety outside of the phobic situation, some believe that specific phobias are necessarily less severe than other anxiety disorders. The clinical picture of specific phobias, however, can be very different. Individuals with specific phobias can incur serious life impairment, such as failure to obtain necessary medical care, interference with social activities, and lost time and reduced productivity at work. In some cases, the impairment is comparable to that seen in other mental disorders (Wittchen et al. 1998). In addition, phobias are sometimes associated with complex symptom profiles, including physiological symptoms, extensive coping and avoidance behaviors, and unhelpful or distorted cognitions. Therefore, a thorough assessment using multiple methods is important to evaluate the idiosyncrasies of each client’s presentation. The purpose of this chapter is to review the elements of a comprehensive, evidence-based assessment and treatment plan for specific phobia. It will provide an overview of diagnostic and clinical features of specific phobia, review the empirical status of commonly used assessment and treatment methods, and conclude with recommendations for assessment and intervention.…

    • 11148 Words
    • 45 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Fear Vs Phobias Essay

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages

    A phobia is a persistent, overwhelming and exaggerated fear of an object or situation that can affect your ability…

    • 972 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Catcher In The Rye

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Phobias: Is an unreasonable yet strong fear of a certain objects, class of objects or situation. Nearly half of all people report having phobia. Common phobias include fear of crowds, darkness, heights and animals such a snakes or spides. Phobia sufferers experience fear and a strong desire to escape whatever they encounter the phobic object or situation. Most people are able to aviod the object of their phobia cause personal distress or when aviodance of it interferes with a person’s ability to carry out normal activities, mental health professionals classify it as ‘ Anxiety Disorders “. These sufferes may need specialized treatment to overcome their phobias.Many phobias have a special names.The fear of heights is ‘‘Acrophobia”. Agoraphobia is the dread of open…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Some people may even enjoy having a strange phobia, not forgetting that some fears that clients have are realistic but it is the reaction to the situation that can be addressed. Symptoms of a phobia include excessive or unreasonable fear, recognising the fear is excessive or unreasonable, the trigger of phobic response always causing anxiety and avoidance in whatever causes the phobic response. Physical and emotional reactions to a phobia include; shallow breathing and increased heart rate at just the thought of the possibility of encountering the phobia, anxious and tense, shame, embarrassment and possibly…

    • 2002 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jermaine

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages

    "Fear is a tyrant and a despot, more terrible than the rack, more potent than the snake".(Edgar Wallace) The quote means that fear can rule your life, they can be very dangerous if you let them take over. Phobias can control a person’s life. They can cause a person to act in an undesirable fashion and do undesirable deeds. The word phobia comes from the Greek word Phobos meaning fear. A Phobia is a continuous, excessive fear response to objects or situations that are for most people are scary or mildly scary. Phobias can be life controlling. They are controlling because phobias usually involve common life situations. “If the feared situation is frequently encountered, can greatly interfere in the general conduct of life...”(Friedman 157) “Even though phobias can be overcome, while a person has one they live to avoid it. Most people let the phobia terrorize their lives while they try to avoid it, Instead of just getting help to get past it.”(Denny 125) Even though that is easier said than done it is possible to overcome a phobia with time. Phobias are terrible life mental fears that if not taken care of can control your life.…

    • 1105 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychology 101: Learning

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages

    * A type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus…

    • 2154 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Hypnotherapy And Stress

    • 2166 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Simple phobias are from a single stimulus, for example fear of heights or enclosed spaces. Complex phobias are where there can be a number factors. For example, a person may have a fear of flying but within this are fears of a plane crash, enclosed places and a fear of losing control. Social phobias are those associated with what may happen when one is in the company of others (Module 5 Class Notes). There are primarily three categories: Agoraphobia, Social phobia and Specific phobia, which can then be subdivided into subtypes and finally conditions DSM-IV, 1994. Phobias may be the consequence of a number of factors. Stress and anxiety could result in the development of a phobia, directly linked to a specific stimulus. However, stress can also result in what is termed, ‘displaced phobias’. This is when an individual is experiencing stress in one aspect of their life but the phobia manifests in another. An example of this could be a person who is stressed in a work situation, developing a phobia of a bridge they pass everyday on their way to work. In this instance ‘displacing’ the stress from work, to the bridge. A phobia can also be caused by a cumulative impact of a series of negative experiences. For example, being held underwater as a child by a playful brother of sister. Later experiencing difficult or uncomfortable episodes with water, over time developing into a fear of being in water. Similar to anxieties, phobias can be learned or even…

    • 2166 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Phobias are the most common mental disorder. A phobia is a strong fear of something that usually isn’t dangerous.…

    • 626 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays