Specific Phobias Case Study Heidic Brennan
PSYCHOLOGY – CASE STUDIES – HEALTH ILLNES AND HEALING
Abnormality is deviating from what is considered the normal or usual behaviour as a society, normal is a statistical standard defined by what society are managing and what society considers socially acceptable or deviant or what the standard of adequate functioning meaning are they capable to cope with everyday life? There is a concept of ideal mental health this is a state of contentment we all strive to achieve. Abnormal behaviour can be understood by the biological and psychological models of abnormality these consider explanations to why people suffer with mental illness; mental illness is defined by a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking, the …show more content…
mental health act 2007 changed the definition of mental disorders to “Any disorder or disability of the mind”. Kraepelin (1913) published a classificatory system which was an important role in the development of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). Biological and psychological model approaches are opposite, one may understand a specific disorder better, but both can link together to understand the disorder properly, Biological Model explains the cause of the abnormality and the psychological model is the way people learn the abnormality, most psychiatrists accept the biological model whereas most clinical psychologists reject it for the psychological model. Psychopathology looks at mental illness and the patterns of thinking and whether this behaviour is maladaptive, the person cannot adapt to the environment, thus disrupting their behaviour as shown in the following case studies.
Phobia is a type of anxiety disorder which is persistent and unreasonable fear of an object or situation, Specific phobias is a fear of specific object or situation such as Gareth Brennan who has a ichthyophobia which is a phobia of fish, Gareth Brennan is a professional singer who suffers with a phobia of fish, he used to watch his dad gut and clean his catch in the sink but he became aware when plates started smelling like fish and he would not use them, it became obvious he had a phobia when he started throwing up at the sight of fish, his life was run by his fear he could not eat out because places may serve fish, he could not change supermarkets because he knew where the fish were kept so he would not accidently run into the fish counter, he had severe reactions upon seeing fish such as trembling and vomiting, it is statistically rare for people to have Ichthyophobia, it deviates from social norm as its not normal for people to be afraid of fish and people generally do not have the reactions that Gareth have upon seeing fish, this phobia causes his relationships to be strained, his performances to be ruined and it is making his friends and family uncomfortable because he can not lead a normal life, it is disruptive and harmful as he cannot control his own reactions to seeing a fish.
An psychological explanation to understand phobias are classical conditioning which is defined as a learning process which occurs when you have two stimuli and they are repeatedly …show more content…
paired together and which changes the subjects reaction to the second stimuli, a phobia could be acquired through classical conditioning by pairing a neutral stimuli with a something that really causes pain evidence for this theory is Watson and Rayner (1920) showed that phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning evidence for this is Little Albert experiment , Albert an 11 month old baby was shown random objects, and was allowed to play with a white toy rat and he had no fear however when Albert reached for the rat they would make a loud noise after repeatedly being paired together Albert feared furry animals and cotton wool this showed that stimulus was generalised into objects that were furry and white and the fear is learned. The biological model proposes that there is genetic factors involved in the cause of development of phobias (Torgersen,1983) people are more likely to be phobic towards certain stimuli than others such as phobias towards snakes or spiders rather than cards despite the more exposure in society, Seligman (1971) the basis of most phobias were real sources of dangers hundreds of thousands of years ago these stimuli, Darwin (1877) “fears of children which are quite independent of experience are the inherited effects of real dangers during ancient times” this is preparedness theory (Seligman, 1979) evidence for this theory is cook and Mineka (1989) they subjected a group laboratory monkey which haven’t seen flowers or snakes before to a video of other monkeys being scared of snakes, and another of the monkeys being scared of a bunch of flowers, they were indifferent however when a toy snake was shown after the video the monkeys feared the snake not the flowers, genetic predisposition is based on the concept of triggering events certain people have the gene of phobia trait may not develop in some of these specific people if they do not experience the triggering event. Also studies have also shown that those who suffer with phobias may have a problem with the regulation of serotonin levels in their brains; serotonin is a chemical which acts as a neurotransmitter.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) which Is an serious anxiety-related condition where a person experiences frequent intrusive and unwelcome obsessional thoughts, often followed by repetitive compulsions, impulses or urges, Compulsives usually recognise their behaviours and know they are senseless, however if prevented from completing them, they experience intense anxiety which only is reduced when the compulsive ritual is completed (Shafran, 1999) Diance suffered from scrupulosity which people suffer from persistent and irrational thoughts about not being devout or moral enough, Diance had concerns she was repeatedly sinning, the behaviours started when Diance was 25, she was sitting in her church when the anxious feelings started she doesn’t know when this started but she just know she was looking at a women wearing a V-neck sweater, after her first episode she couldn’t look at people in potentially revealing clothes as she feared she was sinning, when people across from her would cross their legs Diance thought it was because she had been looking at their genitals, Diance life was overrun but her obsessional thoughts, she couldn’t hug family members and stopped attending family functions, Diance’s behaviour is abnormal because scrupulosity has not yet been determined how common it is, however there is 2.2 million adults suffering with OCD, functioning of a daily life is hard in Diance case she couldn’t date as she couldn’t touch people, her relationships became strained and unbearable as she thought she was always sinning, ideal mental health is not met because Diance hasn’t got complete self- esteem and she doesn’t have complete perception of reality because she believes that is sinning every time she sees someone wear revealing clothes. Psychodynamic Model regards obsessions as a defence mechanism that serves to occupy the mind and displace the threatening thoughts with tolerable subtitles. Cognitive Explanation of OCD suggests suffers attempt to neutralise the intrusive thoughts by behaving or thinking in ways to reduce anxiety, they are used so often that they become obsessional or compulsive actions or thoughts, Cromer (1998) states that “at the same time, because the neutralising strategy was effective, the individual becomes convinced that the initial intrusive thought must have indeed have been dangerous and in need of elimination , that thought now feels even more reprehensible and worrisome; as a result it begins to occur so frequently that it too becomes an obsession”. Biological explanations to understanding OCD is genetic influences and biochemistry influences, Genetics may be a basis to OCD as Comings and Comings’ (1987) find that people with OCD have often got relatives with some sort of anxiety disorder which suggests that OCD can be Genetically caused, giving psychotherapeutic drugs that are effective in boosting serotonin activity accounts for the fact that OCD may be result of low serotonin (McDougle et al., 1999) Both of them may be casual factors in OCD as dopamine and neuropeptides may also be involved in the disorder (Szechtman et al., 1999).
The biological model contains infection, Genetics, biochemistry and neuro-anatomy, Seligman (1974) theory that fears may have already been there since ancient times, had a very support and evidence to his arguments however McNally(1987) pointed out that the subjects in the experiments may already have the fears before the experiments that the fear was already learnt, Biochemistry supported the cause of OCD however is this a reliable correlation is this a cause of effect? However the biological model may be better to establishing a physical illness however it can apply to schizophrenia which can run in family genes kindler et al (1985) relatives of people with schizophrenia are 18 times more likely to develop the disorder, however biological model doesn’t apply as well to phobias, the biological model can be criticised for neglecting important factors such as psychological, social, anxiety and isolation in this case medical principles may be inappropriate in understanding the causes of certain mental disorders. Psychological Model contains Behavioural, cognitive and psychodynamic, operant conditioning which is Behavioural explanation which was supported by the little albert experiment however Davison & Neale (1996) found difficulty in replicating findings from the study and also found that many sufferers have not had previous traumatic experience, this counters the argument that phobias can be learnt through operant conditioning, however Cognitive model has support for explaining OCD such as Cromer (1998) and Newark et al (1973) who believed that it’s the distorted thoughts of the individual which cause the abnormality, psychodynamic model states that if any of the stages are not fulfilled or are not met with excessive pleasure this may be the reason why problems arise in later stages of development. However support for this theory is limited and vague. Biological and Psychological both provide good explanations of mental health, but it may be probable that if put both models together could gain a full understanding of the origins of mental disorders which would require information from all of the explanations and the models together.
REFERENCES
Comings, D.E & Comings, B.G (1987) hereditary agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive behaviour in relatives of patients with gillies de la Tourette’s syndrome. British journal of psychiatry, 151, 195-199
Darwin, C (1877) the expression of emotion in man and animals, John Murray; London
Frances, A (1995) ‘Specific Phobias’ in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Fourth edition. Washington; American psychiatric association pp. 274-286
Goodman, W.k (1991) Obsessive-compulsive disorder; diagnosis and treatment, Journal of clinical psychiatry, 60, 27-32
Gross, R.D (2001) Psychology A new introduction for A2 Level, Hodder and Stoughton; London
Kindler, K.
et al. (2014).The genetics of schizophrenia: a current genetic –epidemiologic perspective . [ONLINE] Available at: http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/2/261.full.pdf. [Accessed 14 April 2014].
Kraepelin, E. (1913) Clinical Psychiatry: A Textbook for physicians (translated by A. Diffendorf). Macmillan; New York
Mcdougle, C.J et al (1999) possible role of neuropeptides in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychoneuropendocrinology, 24-1-24
McNally, R. (2014) Experimental approaches to cognitive abnormality in posttraumatic stress disorder.[ONLINE] Available at: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy394U/Bower/13%20Theories%20of%20PTSD/Exper%20approach%20McNally.pdf. [Accessed 14 April 2014].
Mental Health act 2007 (2007) chapter 12 Mental health act 2007 [online] Available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/12/pdfs/ukpga_20070012_en.pdf (Accessed : 14 April 2014)
Rosenhan DL et al (1995) Abnormal psychology 4th edition, Norton & Company; New York
Shafran, R (1999) Obsessive – compulsive disorder. The psychologist, 12, 588-591
Szectitiman. H et al (1999) role of dopamine systems in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) – implications from a novel psych stimulant – induced animal model. Polish journal of pharmacology, 51,
55-61
Watson, J.B & Rayner, R (1920) Conditioned emotional reactions, Journal of experimental psychology, 3.1 -14
Abnormality is deviating from what is considered the normal or usual behaviour as a society, normal is a statistical standard defined by what society are managing and what society considers socially acceptable or deviant or what the standard of adequate functioning meaning are they capable to cope with everyday life? There is a concept of ideal mental health this is a state of contentment we all strive to achieve. Abnormal behaviour can be understood by the biological and psychological models of abnormality these consider explanations to why people suffer with mental illness; mental illness is defined by a condition which causes serious disorder in a person’s behaviour or thinking, the …show more content…
mental health act 2007 changed the definition of mental disorders to “Any disorder or disability of the mind”. Kraepelin (1913) published a classificatory system which was an important role in the development of the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (DSM). Biological and psychological model approaches are opposite, one may understand a specific disorder better, but both can link together to understand the disorder properly, Biological Model explains the cause of the abnormality and the psychological model is the way people learn the abnormality, most psychiatrists accept the biological model whereas most clinical psychologists reject it for the psychological model. Psychopathology looks at mental illness and the patterns of thinking and whether this behaviour is maladaptive, the person cannot adapt to the environment, thus disrupting their behaviour as shown in the following case studies.
Phobia is a type of anxiety disorder which is persistent and unreasonable fear of an object or situation, Specific phobias is a fear of specific object or situation such as Gareth Brennan who has a ichthyophobia which is a phobia of fish, Gareth Brennan is a professional singer who suffers with a phobia of fish, he used to watch his dad gut and clean his catch in the sink but he became aware when plates started smelling like fish and he would not use them, it became obvious he had a phobia when he started throwing up at the sight of fish, his life was run by his fear he could not eat out because places may serve fish, he could not change supermarkets because he knew where the fish were kept so he would not accidently run into the fish counter, he had severe reactions upon seeing fish such as trembling and vomiting, it is statistically rare for people to have Ichthyophobia, it deviates from social norm as its not normal for people to be afraid of fish and people generally do not have the reactions that Gareth have upon seeing fish, this phobia causes his relationships to be strained, his performances to be ruined and it is making his friends and family uncomfortable because he can not lead a normal life, it is disruptive and harmful as he cannot control his own reactions to seeing a fish.
An psychological explanation to understand phobias are classical conditioning which is defined as a learning process which occurs when you have two stimuli and they are repeatedly …show more content…
paired together and which changes the subjects reaction to the second stimuli, a phobia could be acquired through classical conditioning by pairing a neutral stimuli with a something that really causes pain evidence for this theory is Watson and Rayner (1920) showed that phobias can be acquired through classical conditioning evidence for this is Little Albert experiment , Albert an 11 month old baby was shown random objects, and was allowed to play with a white toy rat and he had no fear however when Albert reached for the rat they would make a loud noise after repeatedly being paired together Albert feared furry animals and cotton wool this showed that stimulus was generalised into objects that were furry and white and the fear is learned. The biological model proposes that there is genetic factors involved in the cause of development of phobias (Torgersen,1983) people are more likely to be phobic towards certain stimuli than others such as phobias towards snakes or spiders rather than cards despite the more exposure in society, Seligman (1971) the basis of most phobias were real sources of dangers hundreds of thousands of years ago these stimuli, Darwin (1877) “fears of children which are quite independent of experience are the inherited effects of real dangers during ancient times” this is preparedness theory (Seligman, 1979) evidence for this theory is cook and Mineka (1989) they subjected a group laboratory monkey which haven’t seen flowers or snakes before to a video of other monkeys being scared of snakes, and another of the monkeys being scared of a bunch of flowers, they were indifferent however when a toy snake was shown after the video the monkeys feared the snake not the flowers, genetic predisposition is based on the concept of triggering events certain people have the gene of phobia trait may not develop in some of these specific people if they do not experience the triggering event. Also studies have also shown that those who suffer with phobias may have a problem with the regulation of serotonin levels in their brains; serotonin is a chemical which acts as a neurotransmitter.
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) which Is an serious anxiety-related condition where a person experiences frequent intrusive and unwelcome obsessional thoughts, often followed by repetitive compulsions, impulses or urges, Compulsives usually recognise their behaviours and know they are senseless, however if prevented from completing them, they experience intense anxiety which only is reduced when the compulsive ritual is completed (Shafran, 1999) Diance suffered from scrupulosity which people suffer from persistent and irrational thoughts about not being devout or moral enough, Diance had concerns she was repeatedly sinning, the behaviours started when Diance was 25, she was sitting in her church when the anxious feelings started she doesn’t know when this started but she just know she was looking at a women wearing a V-neck sweater, after her first episode she couldn’t look at people in potentially revealing clothes as she feared she was sinning, when people across from her would cross their legs Diance thought it was because she had been looking at their genitals, Diance life was overrun but her obsessional thoughts, she couldn’t hug family members and stopped attending family functions, Diance’s behaviour is abnormal because scrupulosity has not yet been determined how common it is, however there is 2.2 million adults suffering with OCD, functioning of a daily life is hard in Diance case she couldn’t date as she couldn’t touch people, her relationships became strained and unbearable as she thought she was always sinning, ideal mental health is not met because Diance hasn’t got complete self- esteem and she doesn’t have complete perception of reality because she believes that is sinning every time she sees someone wear revealing clothes. Psychodynamic Model regards obsessions as a defence mechanism that serves to occupy the mind and displace the threatening thoughts with tolerable subtitles. Cognitive Explanation of OCD suggests suffers attempt to neutralise the intrusive thoughts by behaving or thinking in ways to reduce anxiety, they are used so often that they become obsessional or compulsive actions or thoughts, Cromer (1998) states that “at the same time, because the neutralising strategy was effective, the individual becomes convinced that the initial intrusive thought must have indeed have been dangerous and in need of elimination , that thought now feels even more reprehensible and worrisome; as a result it begins to occur so frequently that it too becomes an obsession”. Biological explanations to understanding OCD is genetic influences and biochemistry influences, Genetics may be a basis to OCD as Comings and Comings’ (1987) find that people with OCD have often got relatives with some sort of anxiety disorder which suggests that OCD can be Genetically caused, giving psychotherapeutic drugs that are effective in boosting serotonin activity accounts for the fact that OCD may be result of low serotonin (McDougle et al., 1999) Both of them may be casual factors in OCD as dopamine and neuropeptides may also be involved in the disorder (Szechtman et al., 1999).
The biological model contains infection, Genetics, biochemistry and neuro-anatomy, Seligman (1974) theory that fears may have already been there since ancient times, had a very support and evidence to his arguments however McNally(1987) pointed out that the subjects in the experiments may already have the fears before the experiments that the fear was already learnt, Biochemistry supported the cause of OCD however is this a reliable correlation is this a cause of effect? However the biological model may be better to establishing a physical illness however it can apply to schizophrenia which can run in family genes kindler et al (1985) relatives of people with schizophrenia are 18 times more likely to develop the disorder, however biological model doesn’t apply as well to phobias, the biological model can be criticised for neglecting important factors such as psychological, social, anxiety and isolation in this case medical principles may be inappropriate in understanding the causes of certain mental disorders. Psychological Model contains Behavioural, cognitive and psychodynamic, operant conditioning which is Behavioural explanation which was supported by the little albert experiment however Davison & Neale (1996) found difficulty in replicating findings from the study and also found that many sufferers have not had previous traumatic experience, this counters the argument that phobias can be learnt through operant conditioning, however Cognitive model has support for explaining OCD such as Cromer (1998) and Newark et al (1973) who believed that it’s the distorted thoughts of the individual which cause the abnormality, psychodynamic model states that if any of the stages are not fulfilled or are not met with excessive pleasure this may be the reason why problems arise in later stages of development. However support for this theory is limited and vague. Biological and Psychological both provide good explanations of mental health, but it may be probable that if put both models together could gain a full understanding of the origins of mental disorders which would require information from all of the explanations and the models together.
REFERENCES
Comings, D.E & Comings, B.G (1987) hereditary agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive behaviour in relatives of patients with gillies de la Tourette’s syndrome. British journal of psychiatry, 151, 195-199
Darwin, C (1877) the expression of emotion in man and animals, John Murray; London
Frances, A (1995) ‘Specific Phobias’ in diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Fourth edition. Washington; American psychiatric association pp. 274-286
Goodman, W.k (1991) Obsessive-compulsive disorder; diagnosis and treatment, Journal of clinical psychiatry, 60, 27-32
Gross, R.D (2001) Psychology A new introduction for A2 Level, Hodder and Stoughton; London
Kindler, K.
et al. (2014).The genetics of schizophrenia: a current genetic –epidemiologic perspective . [ONLINE] Available at: http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/2/261.full.pdf. [Accessed 14 April 2014].
Kraepelin, E. (1913) Clinical Psychiatry: A Textbook for physicians (translated by A. Diffendorf). Macmillan; New York
Mcdougle, C.J et al (1999) possible role of neuropeptides in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychoneuropendocrinology, 24-1-24
McNally, R. (2014) Experimental approaches to cognitive abnormality in posttraumatic stress disorder.[ONLINE] Available at: http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy394U/Bower/13%20Theories%20of%20PTSD/Exper%20approach%20McNally.pdf. [Accessed 14 April 2014].
Mental Health act 2007 (2007) chapter 12 Mental health act 2007 [online] Available at: www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2007/12/pdfs/ukpga_20070012_en.pdf (Accessed : 14 April 2014)
Rosenhan DL et al (1995) Abnormal psychology 4th edition, Norton & Company; New York
Shafran, R (1999) Obsessive – compulsive disorder. The psychologist, 12, 588-591
Szectitiman. H et al (1999) role of dopamine systems in obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) – implications from a novel psych stimulant – induced animal model. Polish journal of pharmacology, 51,
55-61
Watson, J.B & Rayner, R (1920) Conditioned emotional reactions, Journal of experimental psychology, 3.1 -14