Essays on Phobias

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Abstract Sexual aversion disorder is characterized by the presence of aversion and avoidance of making a genital contact with sexual partners. In the DSM-IV-TR, the characterization of the problem was extended by the inclusion of some of the features of phobias such as anxiety, fear, and disgust; thereby describing it as a phobia. However, the disorder was deleted during transition from DSM-IV-TR to DSM-5, probably due to the presence of scarce studies on the topic. Sexual aversion disorder is commonly found in women as compared to men, and it is commonly found in women in the ...

Phobia is an irrational uncontrollable fear, persistent manifestations of various fears. Traditionally, fear is an ancient companion of humankind. Most scientists believe that the feeling of fear is common to all higher animals, and, to a larger extent, to human beings with their finely developed psyche (Popescu 2013), 406. But if an animal can only be afraid of specific dangers, then a human being thanks to his imagination and the ability to analyze the environment has learnt to experience fear ahead of time (Popescu 2013), 406. What are people afraid of? Of course, each person has various reasons to ...

Anxiety is a temporary feeling of worry or fear. Once this feeling becomes permanent and annoy you even after the object of anxiety disappear, anxiety takes the form of disorder. Anxiety disorder has rather negative impact on person, who has this disorder and for his whole family as well. There are different types of anxiety disorders. Among them, specific phobias; they can be described as standing strong fear of a specific object or situation. For example, fear of spiders, heights, blood or darkness. Object is not the reason of fear. The reason is the result of meeting with the ...

Models of abnormality are frameworks that assist in explaining the behavioral, cognitive, biological and psychodynamics of individuals (Sue, Sue & Sue). Additionally, the models help to explain why illnesses occur and the treatments associated with these illnesses. Each model presents a different approach to resolving the psychological illness that an individual may be going through. For the purposes of this paper, the behavioral and cognitive models will be discussed, compared and contrasted.

Behavioral Model

The behavioral model in psychology is typically expressed as an alternative to the conventional medical frameworks that are used to explain individual behaviors. The therapies that are governed ...

Introduction

In the field of social and psychological research, the development of research tools to measure phenomena by attributing quantitative values to them and developing them into continuous variables is a crucial part of data collection and understanding of the phenomena. The reliability and validity of the measuring instruments thus developed is of utmost importance in establishing the value and capability of the constructs. We all can relate to our personal or friends and peers’ childhood experiences of anxiety as a child. The children are more vulnerable as a result of anxiety situations as they have little or no idea ...

Introduction

In our everyday life, we experience stress at every corner. Instances like losing a loved one, losing a job or even divorce can make an individual feel sad, lonely, scared, nervous or anxious. It is our normal response to such stimuli, and they are usually accompanied by physiological changes in our body systems. According to the diagnostic and statistical manual (DSM) of mental disorders, mental illness have been categorized into several groups. DSM-IV used axes to categorize mental disorders into five axes. The first axis included all the psychological diagnostic categories except for the mental retardation and personality disorder. ...

[Client’s name] [Institutional Affiliations]

There were several tests made to test the patient’s neuropsychological and personality state. And there are several moments that may look like a situational stress reaction. Since, there were several aspects in the test that make to stop and think. Actually, in the given case stress in not a diagnoses, it may be one of the reasons of some possible disorders. For example, although the patient has average superior level of Perceptual Reasoning (Lichtenberger & Kaufman, 2013), she has troubles with “reading” cards of the test. Judging from the facts, listed by the patient, ...

“Vertigo” is a film that has not been highly praised by critics, and that did not have much success at the cinemas, but is now widely regarded as a masterpiece of the genre. The film was shot in 1958 in the United States, the director - Alfred Hitchcock (Hitchcock).

Personally, I think that the main theme of the film is that our ideals, dreams are often not so ideal, not what we imagined them. The film's protagonist - a former policeman John Ferguson. He suffered from guilt complex because of an accident at work, he also decided to withdraw ...

<Institution> Every year, more than 4.5 million women experience physical violence from their partner (Vagianos, 2014). This number only presents the victims of one form of domestic violence. Although 15 percent of men also experience some form of domestic violence, women are still more likely to be victimized at 85 percent (Vagianos, 2014). This issue has been affecting the society for many years, and it continue to do so. In fact, in 2011, the number of American soldiers (6488) that were killed in the Afghanistan war was only half of the women who were killed by their partners ( ...

Edgar Allan Poe and the Concept of Death

One of the most puzzling detective writers, Edgar Allan Poe still remains to be a mystery for both experts in literature and common readers. In his stories E. Poe attempted to draw the image of death, an incredible and at the same time an inevitable enemy of the human race. Death is all-powerful as well as the feeling of fear or even horror of a human in the face of death. It is not accidentally that the author places his characters in a space isolated from the world – it can be a torture chamber, well, jail, old estate – where ...

A phobia is a very common condition that not always needs any treatment, but when it interferes with normal daily functioning of a person, it needs to be addressed by a professional, and in this case a person should seek appropriate treatment. A phobia is a fear or anxiety that has great strength, but does not have substantial reasons behind it, as the feared object or situations does not really pose great threat to a person experiencing such fear or anxiety (Mayo Clinic, 2014). Although sometimes a phobia is perceived as simply as strong fear, it is, in fact, ...

Psychology

Exposure Therapy for Fear of Spiders in an Adult with Learning Disabilities: A Case Report Introduction Past research has shown that people with learning disabilities are prone to a higher extent of being susceptible to phobias of various types. Exposure therapy is a type of treatment for phobias, where subjects are repeatedly exposed to the thing they are afraid of till the latent fear subsides, primarily as a result of the subjects associating non-threatening cues with the objects creating phobias. Past research has depended upon behavioral indices to determine success, overlooking the fact that people with learning disabilities could ...

Virtual Reality used in Treatment of Phobia

Virtual Reality in the treatment of phobias offers a new form of cognitive-behavioral therapy that involves systemic exposure to feared situations through a human-computer interaction. Research from renowned psychologists reveals that Virtual Reality is more successful compared to the traditional form of exposure therapy. After the diagnostic interview is conducted, and the psychologist establishes the service would be beneficial to the situation, the patient is placed in a computer generated three-dimensional world and guided through the selected environment. Duke University School of Medicine (2012) states that computer graphics and other display input technologies are integrated to give the patient a sense of reality. ...

Introduction

The study of mental processes and behavior, Psychology, is a rapidly growing field. Until recently Psychology was not accorded the importance it holds in our lives and in some parts of the world the importance of psychology is still largely under-rated. However psychology has time and again proved its effectiveness in cases where it has been used to correct mental problems and also improve lives. In a world where people are subjected to the pressure of achieving and where there are a lot of stress factors psychology is of great importance.

Body

Classical conditioning, a type of conditioning whose originator is Ivan Pavlov, involves ...

Needless to say that having a phobia is normal for every sane person, as everybody with a healthy mind is afraid of something. He or she could be afraid of some creature (fictional and/or real), of some event, some situation etc. Every fear or phobia of something is a kind of anxiety disorder, which is generally being defined as uncontrollable and prevalent fear of a situation or an object, which is needed to be avoided by a person. It is identified by the person’s mind as a real danger to his/her existence, even when a situation or an object appears to be objectively safe; therefore, ...

In psychology, there is a learning theory that states that as we learn, we adjust the manner in which we perceive our environment and the manner in which we interpret the incoming stimuli. Consequently, all this alters the way we interact, or behave. It is from this theory that one learns about behaviorism. The latter is the study or our behaviors after exposure to given stimuli within the environment. This helps us in understanding the effects given stimuli have on us. In the learning theory, we have classical and operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, one learns to associate one ...

A phobia is an extreme fear that will not go away. People may develop a phobia after having a bad encounter with a certain situation, object or activity. Therefore, trypanophobia is an extreme fear of needles. The number of people suffering from trypanophobia is increasing significantly since the people with this condition refuse to seek help from a doctor. People with needle phobias constantly experience panic attacks, lightheadedness, or fainting when they come across two needles. This fear prevents many people from obtaining required vaccinations, blood tests and other medical care, which make it a serious issue. Therefore, the paper will examine how Trypanophobia ...

Abstract

This study examines important ideas and concepts relating to an 8-week basic computer studies program that that writer partook in. It describes how information was gathered and how new ideas were acquired in relation to the basic features of the computer and the role of computers in the wider society as well as the way of utilizing some basic and fundamental programs of computing. The report identifies that the writer was able to acquire important competencies over the period. However, it began with many fears, phobias and insecurities that related to the kind of services that were being ...

This article is based on the research done by Joseph Wolpe attempting to understand the root of a type of Neuroses in the form of an intense Phobia. The article states that phobia’s were original thought to be the result of an individual experiencing an extreme childhood trauma that linked intense irrational fear to an object or act. They were treated by a process known as psychoanalysis, in which the patient worked through the source of the fear with a therapist. A phobia goes far beyond the rational fear of being afraid for your safety due to, for example, a spider being ...

Psychology

Anxiety disorders are occurrences in our human life today. They can affect everyone in the society, and its effects are extensive in the society as well. There are several factors that play a significant role in the existent and development of anxiety disorders among human beings (WITTCHEN, STEIN, & KESSLER, 2009, p. 13). One of the elemental factors that relate to anxiety disorders is biological preparedness. The anxiety disorder presented includes fears and phobias towards different aspects in the environment. Graham explains the uneven distribution of the fears through various evolutionary and mechanistic explanations. Psychological or behavioral mechanisms explain the ...

Where do Phobias come from?

Study conducted on mice showed that phobias are genetically transmitted from one generation to the next through chemical changes that occur in DNA or through experiences from ancestors. The study was conducted on mice, which were trained to fear cherry blossoms odour by use of electric shocks prior to breeding. The offsprings developed a fear of the cherry blossom odour in spite of never experiencing them proving that the experience can be transferred genetically to the offsprings.

Christmas: a Social Anxiety Minefield

Christmas can cause anxiety in people through worry about finances, potential drunkenness, and involvement in social events. The symptoms of this anxiety include ...

The Professor's name

In a daily routine life, people unconsciously learn by using classical and operant conditioning. The source of many fears, such as fear from animals and fear from public appearance is closely connected with the classical or operant conditioning. However, not only negative experiences are associated with conditioning, but positive one as well. Classical and operant conditioning are essential for understanding the close connection between our inner self and the surrounding. One of the elementary principles of learning is classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning where, in time, one stimulus takes over the possibility of ...

The article, “Adult School Phobias” edited by Miller and King informs on experiences of women empowerment through literacy. The article reiterates on women stories of anxiety and the adult education practice to assist them. According to Miller and King most, women experience pain, debilitating emotion, isolation, and pain in their school life. Fear and anxiety is inherent in the course of learning to hinder a person’s thoughts to lead to phobias. Some of the phobias associated with school and learning include fear of ridicule, fear of incompetence, fear of the unknown, and fear of the school environment. Women try ...

Abstract

The research deals with the problem of phobias, the types of this irrational behavior, the history of research as well as the key founders and co-researchers who contributed significantly to studying this psychotic disorder. It was also studied whether phobias have relationship with age and gender of those being prone to the disorder. The questions of reasons, symptoms and treatment were given a particular focus in the concluding part of the project. The question of whether phobias are acquired in the course of life or transmitted genetically was scrutinized based on the opinions of world’s finest psychology experts, professors ...

Introduction

A phobia is an irrational fear to natural phenomenon such that it is abnormal as compared to the behavior of normal people. It is normally triggered by a specific stimulus and hence is a consequence of conditioning. An addiction is a dependence on a substance or action for acquisition of pleasure with little regard for the possible negative effects. Conditioning is the training of the human, or any animal’s, system to respond in a specific manner when exposed to a specific stimulus. It can be voluntary or involuntary on the part of the subject hence the two types of conditioning: operant and classical.

Discuss Phobias and Addictions as Related to Classical and Operant Conditioning

Classical ...

Introduction

Behavioral health, also referred to as mental health, is the way that a person thinks, and their emotional reaction to situations. Behavioral health also includes the different methods of promoting wellbeing, and the prevention of mental illnesses. According to Holmes (2014), behavioral health is much more than the absence of mental illness. It includes a person’s ability to enjoy life that is determined by their psychological resilience, and their ability to balance their life. It also includes a person’s flexibility to new ideas and their level of self actualization. Examples of behavioral disorders include Anxiety, Depression, Attention Deficit Disorder, Post ...

Clinical case formulation

Annie described her childhood as being chaotic. Her description included night terrors that commenced when she was approximately aged four-years, reoccurring again at ages eight and twelve. Annie stated she began having panic attacks when she was about fifteen years old. She said it was “ about the time her hormones started kicking in” She began self-analyzing he abuse and familial discord in her life and began seeing a psychiatrist. Her initial feelings were those of relief. Her counselors began a course of treatment that included private counseling, family counseling and medication. She followed a course of medication for approximately six or ...

Hypnosis, also known as hypnotherapy is a psychological state or a trance-like state in which one has heightened concentration and focus. Normally, hypnosis uses intense concentration, guided relaxation and focused attention to attain an enhanced state of awareness which is sometimes known as a trance. When in this state, the person’s attention is focused to an extent that, everything in motion around that person is ignored or temporarily blocked out. With the help of a health professional such as a trained therapist, people can focus their attention in this naturally occurring state. Notably, being hypnotized is characterized by relaxation, concentration, expectation, and suggestion. ...

Benjamin Sprenger

Sinclair Community College 7:00pm – 8:15pm The brain is a highly complex organ, with a network of nerve cells that serve as a starting point for everything an individual senses, thinks, and ultimately the actions carried out. There are two responses that the brain is responsible for carrying out: conscious responses and autonomic responses, with fear being an example of the latter due to it usually being triggered unconsciously, leaving the individual to realize that the fear reaction has been triggered only after a myriad of physical responses have occurred (Debiec & LeDoux, 2004). While the experience of fear is rather autonomic, ...

Behavior Therapy

Behavior therapy is the use of learning procedures to eliminate maladaptive behaviors such as schizophrenia, phobias, and anxiety (Myers, 2010, p. 652; Passer & Smith, 2010, p. 592). Behavior therapy is based on the thinking that observable behavior is the problem, rather than a symptom of some invisible, underlying issue (Passer & Smith, 2010, p. 592). Behavior therapy helps people to unlearn some behaviors such as fear of public speaking or anxiety. It can also help in arresting other conditions such as autism. The major approaches used in behavior therapy are classical conditioning and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of ...

In the study of behavioral psychology, it is important to understand the motivation behind phobias and addictions. Phobia is an irrational fear associated with a certain stimuli, while addiction is a state developed from engaging in habit-forming behaviors. However, both phobia and addiction come as a result of learning. The two most important processes that cause phobia and addiction are classical and operant conditioning. Although both concepts result in learning, the processes differ. Classical conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus pairs up with an unconditioned response. A good example is Ivan Pavlov’s study with dogs. In the study, the dogs associated ...

Disorders have been present as long as the existence of human kinds. As time passed, human beings have been able to come up with better ways of dealing with the disorders. Technological advancements and innovations have been able to form a milestone in approaching these disorders. Some disorders have no curative measures, but there are medicines that have been able to suppress the disorders thus enhancing the duration of time a person lives with the condition.

Description of the disorder

American Psychiatric Association has formulated a system referred to as The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, abbreviated as DSM-IV-TR. This manual is used to ...

Introduction

In this paper, I would like to introduce Sarah, a 15-year-old girl, mid-adolescent, 9th grader, who seems to have a rather normal life on the surface, but is definitely in need of help if one examines closely. One of the attributes that is alarming is that she is extremely school phobic, which is perhaps understandable for a first grader, but unusual and wrong for a somewhat grown-up 9th grader. Sarah is a high school girl studying in a co-ed high school in her town. She had to take a remedial course because of her struggles with school work. She has a distant dream of going to ...

1. Pavlov’s experiments and his discovery of classical conditioning helped us understand what lies beneath certain dysfunctional behaviors, such as phobias. He didn’t just explain the path in which phobias and fears are developed, but also gave us the pattern that can be used for eliminating those fears. Classical conditioning is the form of learning which can serve us till this day as a model for examining general principals of behavior modification. He discovered important phenomena in classical conditioning such as generalization, differentiation etc. He also provided his understanding of psychopathological phenomena gave his typology of nervous system ...

Anxiety, pain, worry, fear, confusion, and other related things are common to people of all ages. Everyone experience such things in life, and no one can claim to be invulnerable to these things – even to their simplest form. However, it is attested that these things could also become drastically unpleasant. Considering anxiety, this can become a [serious] disorder when the symptoms become chronic and interfering with one’s daily life and ability to act/function (Grohol, 2010). When it worsens, an individual can no longer work, eat, and even do the essential responsibilities a human being should be doing in life. Like ...

The reading informs us about the types of anxiety disorders, and an explanation of how to detect simple anxiety from the certain state when it transfers into a disorder. One of anxiety disorders is phobia, this is a permanent state when a person has a strong fear of other people, objects, or actions. Many people can live with their phobias, or better say learned how to live with them, so they would not face much inconveniences. Others, incapable to accept or fight their fears may turn the situation into much worse state. It is extremely difficult to control your emotions if you are ...

Development Through Operant or Classical Conditioning

Phobias and Addictions: Development Through Operant or Classical Conditioning How and why phobias and addictions develop are a continual area of research for psychologists and their colleagues in related fields. While many theories exist as to why people have phobias or become addicted, including genetic predisposition and others, the roles of classical conditioning and operant conditioning in the conditions of phobias and addictions is an important area to explore because it provides more information on why the conditions exist and new possibilities in treatment. Phobias can be developed through classical conditioning and addictions can be developed through operant ...

Psychology

Phobias are common in people but why in a modern urban world would people be afraid of snakes or dangerous spiders? Öhman, Flyki, and Esteves (2001) have done several experiments to try to understand why and how people with phobias of snakes and/or spiders react to photographs of them. The experiments used photographs of snakes, spiders, flowers or mushrooms in order to time the difference in people’s ability to identify the items that frightened them versus the items that did not have any fear-relevance for them.

The experiments were based on identifying the selective attention of the participants. That ...

Evolution – The Reality of Existence

This paper deals with two articles and two conversational scripts, each of which tries to emphasize the predominant role and the process of evolutionary development that dates back to our ancestors, and which cascades down to our own lives and plays a role in determining our current behavior and lifestyle. The first article titled Potential Evolutionary Role for Same-Sex Attraction (Association for Psychological Science, 2010), published in the Science Daily on Feb 4, 2010, tries to highlight the role of human evolution in promoting homosexuality amongst men. The article -- based on the research findings of two evolutionary psychologists, ...

Phobias

Do you have any irrational fears? I am sure that the majority of you do, as we are all human beings, unique and so alike at the same time. Today I want to raise an interesting subject, which definitely concerns every one of us – phobias. I am sure that this topic will leave no one indifferent, as our fears is something that people don’t know how to control, which creates certain troubles for us. In my speech I am going to introduce you to the world of phobias – their nature, types and treatment methods so as we could ...

Question 1

Anxiety disorders are conditions which are characterised by an excessive or unrealistic amount of anxiety and/or fear. Often, phobias are a form of anxiety disorder which classically demonstrates an excessive amount of fears for spiders, the dark, clowns or indeed, anything. Phobias are usually classified as being either a social or a specific phobia – the latter being a fear of specific things or events, and the former being a fear of social situations that could pertain to a negative outcome. Sometimes, the condition is characterised by behaviours which can be considered to be obsessive such was repeatedly washing your hands and often, anxiety disorders induce ...