...Social Phobia Psychology 201 Sec. 03 April 27, 2005 Social Phobia Did you know that over 7% of the population suffers from social anxiety disorder (social phobia) right this very minute? Social Anxiety is the third largest mental health care problem in the world today. Social anxiety is the fear of social situations and the interactions with other people that can automatically bring on feelings of selfconsciousness, judgments, evaluation, and criticism. Social anxiety is the fear and anxiety of being judged and evaluated negatively by other people, leading to feelings of inadequacy, embarrassment, humiliation, and depression. Social anxiety disorder is a much more common problem. People with social anxiety disorder do not believe that their anxiety is related to a medical or physical illness or disease. This type of anxiety occurs in most social situations, especially when the person feels on display or is the center of attention. The socially anxious person has extremely high anxiety when they are put into a position to make small talk to a stranger or interact in a group. The anxiety becomes worse when the person fears that they are going to be singled out. People with social anxiety find it to be a terrifying experience to interact with unfamiliar people, give any type of public presentation, or even be publicly noticed. In public places, such as work, meetings, or shopping, people with social anxiety feel that everyone is watching, staring, and judging...
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...Clinical features 3 mains: Social anxiety disorder (social phobia) A person with social phobia will typically report a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations, to the extent that his or her ability to work at school is almost impossible and too hard to cope with. Exposure to social situations always produces anxiety. Social or performance situations are avoided or endured with intense anxiety. This type usually tends to try avoiding anything and everything when it comes to socialising or putting themselves out in public. Agoraphobia Inquire about any intense anxiety reactions that occur when the patient is exposed to specific situations such as heights, animals, small spaces, or storms. Other areas of inquiry should...
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...Social Anxiety Social anxiety disorder, commonly referred to as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations. Affects eight percent of general population and 3.7% of U.S. citizens. That’s 5.3 million people in one country being affected by social phobia. Twice as many women as men are affected, but men often seek help more than women do. Ironically both men and women are equally apt to developing this disorder. (“Social Phobia (Social Anxiety Disorder), 2015) Social phobia usually develops in childhood or early adolescence. Typically it will not develop in anyone over the age of twenty five. (Leary and Kowalski, 4) Research has led to the discovery...
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...in the United States alone have social anxiety disorder. Social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia, is the fear of being in a social situation that involves being around other people. Any person has a 13% chance of developing social anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Teens are highly likely to develop this disorder. Social anxiety disorder is a life-changing disorder that affects the way people think, act, and how they are treated. Social Anxiety Disorder, also known as social phobia, is a type of panic disorder in which a person has a constant fear of being judged by others, being the center of attention, or being watched while doing certain activities. Social phobia can be triggered by having to speak to new...
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...Phobias and Addictions PSY/300 July 29, 2013 Abstract Week Two of PSY/300, which is the General Psychology class, has an assignment of writing a paper regarding phobias and addictions. It includes the meanings and the differences between classical conditioning and operant conditioning. The paper explains what phobias are as compared to addictions and how each of them affects behavior in individuals. It also explains what classical conditioning means to phobias as well as what operant conditioning means to addictions. Phobias and Addictions Every person is in one way or another, conditioned by either operant or classical conditioning. Phobias develop through classical conditioning, whereas addictions develop through operant conditioning. The classical conditioning theory involves learning a new behavior via the process of association, (McLeod, 2012). Operant conditioning is the other type of conditioning whereas an individual learns through a reward system. It is more or less association made between behavior and consequence of that behavior. Phobias and addictions develop through these two types of conditioning. Phobias develop through classical conditioning and addictions through operant conditioning. Through the past decades, psychologists studied these two relationships to develop a more understanding of these emotional disorders. Phobias and addictions are negative behaviors and usually come from classical conditioning or operant conditioning. Phobias happen...
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...agoraphobia after she was mugged whilst on her way to town. She has been referred to the community mental health team and following an assessment has been referred to the behavioural therapist within the team. She is undergoing systematic desensitisation as a form of treatment for her phobia. The behaviourism approach is applied to this case study. According to the behaviourism approach, Jane would receive systematic desensitization by using a hierarchy of fear that is created according to her phobia. This is a method that is used to help reduce an individual’s phobia, making them feel relieved and calm. It involves ranking their fear in the hierarchy from least fearful to most fearful. According to Jane’s phobia, her least fearful behaviour would be thinking about a dark room and her most fearful behaviour would be walking inside a dark room. Throughout this hierarchy, it may take Jane a long time for her fear to go away, depending on how strong her phobia is. It would also take...
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...phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation in which the sufferer commits to great lengths in avoiding, typically disproportional to the actual danger posed, often being recognized as irrational. In the event the phobia cannot be avoided entirely, the sufferer will endure the situation or object with marked distress and significant interference in social or occupational activities. Symptoms involve an irrational, persistent fear of a specific object or situation that's out of proportion to the actual risk. This includes a fear of situations (such as airplanes or enclosed spaces); nature (such as thunderstorms or heights); animals or insects (such as dogs or spiders); blood, injection or injury (such as knives or medical procedures); or other phobias (such as loud noises or clowns). There are many other types of specific phobias. It's not unusual to experience phobias about more than one object or situation. It’s only natural to want to avoid the thing or situation you fear. But when it comes to conquering phobias, facing your fears is the key. While avoidance may make you feel better in the short-term, it prevents you from learning that your phobia may not be as frightening or overwhelming as you think. You never get the chance to learn how to cope with your fears and experience control over the situation. As a result, the phobia becomes increasingly scarier and more daunting in your mind. Exposure: Gradually and...
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...Discuss the relationship between stress, anxiety, habits and phobias and describe how you would treat these issues with hypnotherapy. All of the above disorders in varying degrees form part of the human experience of life. They are all related to one another and they are all caused by fear of change or fear and change. A habit can cause stress and lead to a panic attack and a phobia may cause both stress and anxiety. These disorders are all linked by how our minds are capable of coping with situations. Often these disorders may be inherent or they may be influenced by the environment. In order to understand the relationship between stress, anxiety, habits and phobias, it is necessary to first define what each one is and how it affects us. I will also explain methods of treatment and the ethical issues that I believe would need to be considered. Stress Any situation which causes a person to feel frustrated, angry or anxious will cause feelings of stress. Stress is our body's natural reaction to fear or change. Stress can manifest in several ways, a trigger can cause a reaction, eg a dental appointment etc or there may not be a trigger as the symptoms are always evident, a lack of self esteem, feelings of inadequacy or failure. Stress can also be a learned behaviour from our parents or environment. Stress can be negative causing illness and inhibiting people from moving forward and enjoying their lives. Stress can also be a positive thing, when a person pushes...
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...Claustrophobia is defined by Psychology Wiki, as an anxiety disorder that involves the fear of enclosed or confined spaces. Claustrophobe’s may suffer from panic attacks, or fear of having a panic attack, in situations such as being in elevators, trains or aircrafts. Well, how about Hyperbaric Chambers, MRI machines and many other medical necessities that are a critical part of the ability to adequately diagnose and treat patients. I am a Licensed Practical Nurse with my certificate in hyperbaric medicine and I currently work in a Hyperbaric Medicine Clinic and am faced with this fear from patients almost daily. Most of our patients can “get through” the treatments fairly well by thinking about other things or by distractions such as watching a movie of their choice from our movie library. Then there’s that special case, the ones who can‘t or won‘t and flat-out refuse almost to the point of panic when doing so. Imagine being faced with a life threatening injury, infections, such as gas Gangrene or another flesh-eating bacterial skin infections. Also, carbon monoxide poisoning so sever that if you don‘t get treatment for it, it can put strain on your heart damaging the cardiac muscles and CO poisoning can also leave you with a lifetime of lingering sequelae of headaches and nerve damage and can lead to early death if not treated. Or as a diabetic, a grade three diabetic ulcer that is getting to the point were your wound is infected and the infection is...
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...disorder more than men. Phobic disorder is a very common mental disorder of our time. How we develop them is based on the individual itself, from a traumatic event during a person’s childhood, to the perception of something that was brought to their attention. Depending on the person that is suffering from a phobia will determine the level of help, if needed, to overcome a phobia. Phobias are the extreme fear of a specific object, situation, or activity. Having a phobia can determine whether a person is able to live a normal life. Some phobias are extreme and some are very mild. Most extreme phobias alter a person’s life dramatically for example the fear of the color red. If someone were to think of how many red things we encounter on a daily basis, being afraid of that color would confine you to your home, and also harm you. On the other hand, common phobias like the fear of heights wouldn’t do so much damaged to your life because that is a more understanding phobia. Most people that suffer from phobias also have another psychological issue going on. Phobias can be developed by many different stimuli in a person’s life but the cause of a phobia is unknown. Phobias develop in a person when something has happen to that person or a situation that a person has experienced like getting...
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...Phobias In 2014 there were more than 400 recognised phobias by psychologists. Good morning ladies and gentlemen today i am going to talk to you about phobias. So what is a phobia? A phobia is an extreme fear of or to something. A phobia is learned through heaps of fear resulting in a phobia that lasts for a long time. Where did the word phobia came from? It came from the latin word phobos which meant fear and a lot of fear and a tad more fear. There are three main types of fears: specific phobias, social phobia and agoraphobia.Specific phobias are ones that are phobias with living creatures, for example spiders, bats, snakes and flying.These are some of the phobias under specific phobias. Social phobias, these phobias are phobias that come in when you are with friends or even at school. Agoraphobia, this is a type of phobia that makes you scared of yourself in situations where there is no escape, it may include traveling in buses, cars, planes, large shopping malls.This may cause panic disorder. Some phobias originate from traumatic childhood experiences whilst others we are not sure about. How can you get rid of your phobia? Well you can have exposure therapy which is the most effective way, but you can also have hypnosis treatment, but that is not the best because people have been know to do the opposite and be so confident it nearly kills them! Here are a few facts to show you that phobias are not always bad they can be good also. Nearly 17% of people...
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...Systematic desensitisation The main behaviourist treatment for phobias. Developed by Wolpe, it is based on classical conditioning with patients learning in stages to replace fear responses with feelings of calm rather than previous associations between phobic objects/situations and fear. The two opposing emotions of anxiety and relaxation are percieved as incapable of coexisting simultaneously. Systematic desensitisation uses a progressive step by step approach to feared objects and situations and takes about a month to advance through the whole desensitisation hierarchy. Before treatment begins, a hierarchy is constructed that goes from the least to the most feared types of contact with objects/phobias. Example Snake phobics may begin treatment by looking at a picture of snakes in a sealed tank and progressively work towards actually holding one. Research Jones used SD to eradicate ‘little peter’s’ fear of white fluffy animals and objects for example rabbits and cotton wool. The rabbit was presented to the patient at closer distances each time his anxiety levels subsided to permit movement onto the next stage and Peter was rewarded with food to develop a positive association towards the rabbit. Eventually he developed affection for the rabbit which then generalised onto similar animals and objects. Flooding A behavioural therapy used to remove phobias through direct confrontation of a feared object or situation. The idea is that patients cannot make their usual avoidance...
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...fear of the ghosts, and even in some extreme instances a fear of pickles. One of the most common fears is Aquaphobia which is defined as a social phobia that is a persistent, unwarranted, and irrational fear of water. This fear is not to be confused with Hydrophobia which represents the fear of water developed in later stages of Rabies (Olesen, 2015). Nearly 19.2 million Americans suffer from specific phobias such as Aquaphobia. Those who suffer from this phobia see themselves dying in water, drowning, or believe that they will come face to face with something unforeseen in the water that could lead to their demise. The fear of drowning is a common sensible fear; however it becomes something more once the person feels an overwhelming sense of anxiety around all bodies of water like oceans and bathtubs. To better understand this phobia we must look at the causes, symptoms, and treatments. Aquaphobia like many other phobias can be caused by an initial traumatic incident that has happened to a person. This can include a time where someone almost drowned or fallen into a body of water. For example if one were pushed into a body of water when they were not expecting it this could be considered as a traumatic experience for them that could lead to an irrational anxiety about water. Not only can experiencing the traumatic incident cause this phobia but witnessing it as well can cause Aquaphobia. Watching someone drown in water or experiencing the death of a loved one at the hands of...
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...Word Count: 2168 Discuss the Relationship between Stress, Anxiety, Habits and Phobias and Describe How You Would Treat these Issues with Hypnotherapy. In this essay I shall seek to define stress, anxiety, habits and phobias. I shall explore their individual attributes and symptoms and how they may be related. I will also explain methods of treatment for such neurotic conditions, as I have seen fit and the ethical issues that I believe would need to be considered. Stress and anxiety are often coined together, almost into one phrase; where there is one, you will find the other. However there is a distinction between them and as a therapist it is crucial that one is aware of this. Stress is a response to an external stimulant, resulting in feelings of frustration, anger and/or anxiety. Stress is in fact a biological reaction to outside pressures that can vary from work, family, or social changes, to simple changes in one’s environment, to major life changes. All these situations stimulate the age old “fight or flight” response, pumping the body with adrenaline and heightening the senses in preparation to respond. Of course this is not always a negative reaction, in evolutionary terms it would have been this reaction that has allowed the human race to continue to exist and flourish, however, there is a point at which this ceases to be healthy and begins to have negative consequences. As a result, stress is categorised into six varieties, varying in the severity of their implication...
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...Word Count 2265 Discuss the relationship between stress, anxiety, habits & phobias and describe how you would treat these with hypnotherapy. Introduction In this essay I will be looking into the similarities and differences between stress, anxiety, habits and phobias. I will discuss the symptoms both physically and mentally of a person presenting with any of the above, and the impact these symptoms have on the person’s everyday life. I will look at the various ways in which Hypnosis can help to relieve and treat these symptoms, and also look at the ethical issues that need to be carefully assessed before any treatment can be delivered. Stress, anxiety, fear or phobias tend to be bracketed into the same category, when in fact, although they do have links with each other, they are all distinct in their own right, and come with their own display of characteristics. It is therefore paramount, that the therapist understands the differences in order to offer the correct treatment. Stress Stress is a response to a specific incident that is happening at that time and is categorised into different categories: Hypostress: Boredom, unchallenged, lacking in motivation. If people are in tedious or repetitive jobs in which they gain no motivation, then this could lead onto them being unmotivated in other areas of their life. Eustress: This is short term and gives us the boost to complete tasks. This is positive stress that increases both performance & motivation...
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