PSY 230 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Specific Phobia, Sertraline, Alprazolam

• School: Stony Brook University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 230
• Professor: Apajita Mohanty

Document Summary

Learn to master situations that cause mild, then gradually greater, anxiety. Teach & test a relaxation strategy before to reduce distress/panic during exposure. Aim is to achieve relative relaxation before next step. Identify specific goals and break them into smaller, manageable steps. A phobia is a fear-mediated avoidance that is out of proportion to the object or situation. Phobias are disruptive and involve intense distress. Marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation. The phobic object or situation almost always provokes an immediate fear or anxiety. The phobic object or situation is actively avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety. The fear or anxiety is out of proportion with the actual danger posed by the specific object or situation and to the sociocultural context. The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting 6 months of more. The disturbance is not better explained by another mental disorder. 4x as many women report specific phobias.