Psychology / Explaining Phobias
Autor: bubbles2008 03 May 2013
Words: 1598 | Pages: 7
April 15, 2013
The concerns of this paper will be in explaining phobias as in the fear of dogs is the topic.
The fear of dogs is just one phobia that an individual can have. There is the fear of heights, horses, water (drowning), needles, spiders, death, and germs, flying, and closed in spaces.
The concerns will help explain the principles of operational, classical, and observational learning. Learning the different types of behavioral theories helps in the understanding of the types of stages. Understanding the phobias from the cause to a cure will even be a concern.
Sally is a 23-year-old woman who has a severe phobia of dogs. She has had this phobia since she had a negative experience with dogs when she was in the second grade. She goes out of her way to avoid dogs and places that dogs may be. This causes her to experience anxiety when she meets someone new and is invited to an unfamiliar area.
According to Freud’s theory, phobias are anxiety reactions of the id that have been repressed by the ego. The currently feared object is not the original subject of the fear (Fritscher, 2008 para. 1).
“A dog phobia is simply an irrational fear although to the individual, having a phobia such as this is far from being irrational. Depending on the type of phobia, the degree of the problem, and the individual, physical symptoms might appear such as feeling dizzy, nauseated, screaming, excessive sweating, heart palpitations, shortness of breath, or even freezing up in fear. The one problem with a phobia is when people experience an overwhelming sense of fear and anxiety” (2006).
“For some people this kind of problem is more of an annoyance but in some cases, the phobia is literally debilitating. When a dog phobia is severe, professional help is usually needed to learn coping techniques. If the dog phobia is disrupting life and consuming every thought, it is time to seek help. Obviously, no person deserves to live with such intense and disabling fear. Instead of running to the car, avoiding parks, moving to the opposite side of the street, or taking other actions to avoid being near a dog, people can learn how to take back control of life” (10 Most Common Phobias, 2006 para 3).
“The most common type of treatment for a dog phobia is with behavioral-cognitive therapy. Most often referred to as “systematic desensitization” or “exposure therapy,” people have a high succ ...