PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Body Dysmorphic Disorder, Arachnophobia, Anxiety Disorder
Document Summary
Fear of heights, claustrophobia, arachnophobia, fear of snakes. Explain these ^ fears with preparedness - our evolutionary history affects how we fear these things; genetic predisposition to these kinds of fears. Desensitization hierarchy - used to treat phobic response, in fear of snakes, people will be desensitized to pictures of snakes, talking about snakes etc - counter conditioning. Ocd: more complex form of anxiety disorder; anxiety increases when we prevent checking, cleaning, etc behaviours. Often treated with the same drugs used to treat depression. Cleaning, checking, rituals- used to control or reduce anxiety. Anxiety is converted into a bodily symptom in these disorders. Body dysmorphic disorder- obsessed with perceived body image. Can progress to the point at which it is delusional (concrete rmly held thought) Conversion paralysis, conversion blindness, conversion deafness; man who had conversion blindness was colourblind to the colour red after an accident where he lived and his mother died, resulted in a lot of blood.
