ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY
PHOBIA
 Persistent avoidance behavior
secondary to irrational feel of a
specific object, activity, or situation.
 Excessive irrational fear of a specific
object, circumstance, or situation.
PHOBIA CLASSIFICATION
 Agoraphobia
 Social Phobia
 Specific Phobia
 Other phobic anxiety disorder
 Phobic anxiety disorder, unspecified
PRE DISPOSING FACTORS OF PHOBIA
PSYCHO ANALYTICAL THEORY
 Freud believed that phobias develop
when a child experiences normal
incestuous feeling toward the
opposite sex parent (Oedipal/Electra
complex) and fears aggression from
the same-sex parent (castration
anxiety)
LEARNING THEORY
 Classic conditioning in the case of
phobias may be explained as follows:
stressful stimulus produces an
“unconditioned” response of fear.
COGNITIVE THEORY
 Cognitive theorists believe that some
individuals engage in negative and
irrational thinking that produces
anxiety reactions.
 The individual begins to seek out
avoidance behaviors to prevent the
anxiety reactions, and phobias result.
BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS
 Temperament
 Life experience
CLINICAL FEATURES
 Cannot be explained the reason away.
 Fear leads to an avoidance of the
feared situations.
TYPES OF PHOBIA
 SIMPLE PHOBIA (SPECIFIC PHOBIA)
irrational fear of a specific object or
stimulus.
 Commonly seen in children.
 Exposure to phobic object result in
panic attacks.
TERM
 Ailurophobia – Cats
 Alophobia – Pain
 Anthophobia – Flowers
 Anthropophobia – People
 Aquaphobia – Water
 Arachnophobia – Spider
 Astraphobia – Lightning
 Belonephobia – Needles
 Brontophobia – Thunder
 Claustrophobia – Closed spaces
 Cynophobia – Dogs
 Dementophia – Insanity
 Equinophobia – Horses
 Gamophobia – Marriage
 Herpetophobia – Lizard, Reptiles
 Homophobia – Homosexuality
 Murophobia – Mice
 Mysophobia – Dirt, germs,
contamination
 Numerophobia – Numbers
 Nyctophobia – Darkness
 Ochophobia – Riding a car
 Ophidiophobia – Snakes
 Pyrophobia – Fire
 Scoleciphobia – Worms
 Siderodromophobia – Railroads or
Train travel
 Taphophobia – Being buried alive
 Thanatophobia – Death
 Trichophobia – Hair
 Xenophobia – Strangers
 Zoophobia – Animal
SOCIAL PHOBIA
 Irrational fear of performing activities
in the presence of other people or
interacting with others.
AGORAPHOBIA
 Irrational fear of being places away
from the familiar setting of home, in
crowds, or the situations in which the
patients cannot leave easily.
COURSE
 Phobia are more common in women.
 Onset is sudden without any cause.
 The course is usually chronic.
MANAGEMENT
 Supportive therapy
 Individual psychotherapy
BEHAVIORAL THERAPY
 Systematic desensitization
 Implosion therapy (flooding)
 Regroup/family therapy
PHARMACOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT
 ANXIOLITICS – Benzodiazepines
 ANTIHYPERTENSIVE AGENTS – Beta
blockers, propranolol and atenolol,
have been tried with success in clients
experiencing anticipatory
performance anxiety or “stage fright”
  ANTIDEPRESSANTS – Tricyclic
imipramine and the monoamine
oxidaze (MAO) inhibitor phenelzine
have been effective in diminishing
symptoms of agoraphobia and social
phobia and the SSRI’s have become
the first-line treatment of choice for
social phobia.
NSG DIAGNOSIS
 Fear related to causing
embarrassment to self in front of
others; to being in a place from which
one is unable to escape.
 Social isolation related to fears of
being in a place from which one is
unable to escape, evidenced by
staying alone, refusing to leave room
or home.