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Phobia – Biological Theories The anxiety response in phobia involves the same structures & processes responsible for the stress response Some researchers.

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Presentation on theme: "Phobia – Biological Theories The anxiety response in phobia involves the same structures & processes responsible for the stress response Some researchers."— Presentation transcript:

1 Phobia – Biological Theories The anxiety response in phobia involves the same structures & processes responsible for the stress response Some researchers suspect that phobia involves abnormalities in these structures & processes www.psychlotron.org.uk

2 NS Reactivity Liebowitz et al (1985) –Gave social phobics and controls air with increased CO 2 content to stress them –Social phobics panicked significantly more often than controls These and many similar results suggest that some types of phobia involve hyper- reactivity of the sympathetic NS www.psychlotron.org.uk

3 Amygdala Abnormalities Part of the limbic system Involved in processing of fear & startle stimuli Source: Hairiri et al, 2002Amygdala www.psychlotron.org.uk

4 Amygdala Abnormalities Pine (1999) –Compared amygdala responsiveness in social phobics and normal controls –Found that social phobics had more responsive amygdalae Suggests that phobics may be more susceptible to fear-evoking stimuli www.psychlotron.org.uk

5 Amygdala Abnormalities Hariri et al (2002) –Compared PPs with different types of 5HT receptors –Examined right amygdala responses to angry/fearful faces –Abnormal receptor group were significantly more responsive Source: Hairiri et al, 2002 www.psychlotron.org.uk

6 Conclusions Genetic research suggests that phobia susceptibility may be inherited Some phobias appear more heritable than others (e.g. blood-injury; social) Some phobias (esp. social) may be linked to abnormally responsive sympathetic NS and hyper-reactivity to fearful stimuli www.psychlotron.org.uk


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