Phobias By: Cecilia Comber Silvana Oberti Roberto Lambertini

What is a Phobia? A phobia, by definition, is an irrational fear of an object or a situation. A phobia can range from something as small as triskaidekaphobia, which is a fear of the number 13, to something as big as phengophobia, which is a fear of daylight or sunshine.

What is a phobia? Also, phobias can range from something very common, such as acrophobia, a fear of heights, to something extremely rare, such as porphyrophobia, a fear of the color purple. Phobias affect both men and women form all ethnicities and ages.

Symptomology The main symptoms and signs a perosn exhibits include hot or cold feelings, sweaty palms, nervousness, anxiety and in severe cases, strong panic attacks. A person with a phobia to an object would show the symptoms while in presence with the feared object, while a person with fear of a situation would fear thinking of it.

Etiology from the learning perspective Behaviorists believe that a phobia is created because the person has been conditioned to fear the object. A good example of that would be the Little Albert experiment. Little Albert was conditioned to fear rabbits at first, then the fear generalized to become doraphobia, a fear of fur.

Treatments from the Learning Perspective The Behaviorists have 3 ways of curing a phobia: –Systematic Desensitization –Flooding –Token Economy

Systematic Desensitization This technique is one of the most successful ways of curing a phobia. It involves having a person first think of the object or situation. Once the subject has gotten used to doing that, they're presented with a picture of the object or situation, then slowly put with the object or in the situation.

Flooding This method, being one of the least commonly used, isn't all that effective. It involves flooding the person with emotion until they are forced to overcome the fear on their own. For example, a arachnophobic would be put in a room full of spiders.

Token Economy This method works particularly good for patients with fears of places or situations. It involves reinforcing the person positively the closer they get to the situation.

Etiology for the Cognitive Perspective The cognitive perspective views phobias as being part of a line of faulty thinking. They believe that this anxiety was caused from previous experiences in life, which can include their own personal experiences or viewing others experiencing it. Cognitive scientists believe that once the fear is established, it is maintained because it has a direct influence with the persons current and future cognitive functioning.

Treatment for the Cognitive Perspective The main treatment Cognitive Scientists use to cure phobias, specifically social phobias, is cognitive therapy. This type of therapy involves a cognitive therapist addressing and “fixing” the faulty thinking involving the fear.

Etiology There has been evidence that phobias are sometimes common in families and that genetics may be involved in all of this. When a person is exposed to their fear or feared situation, biological changes in the body occur. When a person is exposed to a phobia there is a change in the brain activity and certain hormones are released such as cortisol, insulin, and growth hormone. There is also an increase in physical arousal symptoms, for example increased heart rate and blood pressure. Neurotransmitters are the biochemicals that allow nerve cells in the brain to communicate. Researchers have found out that too much or too little of this or other chemicals may create anxiety and not limit the body’s reaction to fear. The amygdala is a nuclear complex located in the dorsomedial portion of the temporal lobe. A part of the amygdala known as the lateral nucleus is responsible for fear responses. There are many more circuits leading from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex than vice versa. This causes humans to have little control over their fears. Damage to the hypothalamus may also be the cause of phobias. This can be seen in phobic children, for example, as they are born with a decrease in the neuron activity in the amygdala and hypothalamus. The hippocampus has to do with memory, so damage to it could cause someone to incorrectly remember an event which was fearful to them. The medial prefrontal cortex creates extinction, which weakens a fear response to a conditioned stimulus over time. So damage here allows a fear response to stay there for years after the first encounter with the stimulus. Some of the people with agoraphobia have a mild heart condition known as mitral valve prolapse, which causes heart palpitations that might cause panic attacks. Genetics play an important role when it comes to the formation of phobias. There has been some investigation regarding hereditary phobias but more recently there has been evidence that phobias may be related to a mutation in chromosome 15. People with this mutation are born with it but it doesn’t show up until later in life.

Treatments There has not been much research done regarding biological treatments for phobias and many psyhologists belive that there are better ways of treating phobias, but recently this has changed. Scientists are now giving their patients with phobias selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors like paroxetine or antianxiety medications such as diazepam. Some drugs such as Xanax and Valium are used in short-term situations. Beta-blockers are also sometimes given lessen the fear response. Antidepressants are also prescribed sometimes because is has been proven to be helpful in preventing panic attacks that take part in phobias such as agoraphobia. This way, the patients can deal with the problem itself without having to deal with the panic attacks that come from it. All the drug treatments cause a decreased blood flow in the amygdala and hippocampus, just as some other forms of phobia treatments do. The biological treatments are sometimes not recommended for long-term use because it is said to cause little benefit with long term use, unlike with some of the other perspectives.