COGNITIVE APPROACH



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Cognitive psychologists propose that fearful emotional responses are a result of the incorrect interpretation or appraisal of events.

It is the interpretation of the event that triggers the event not the event itself.

Distorted appraisals can take two forms:

• Automatic negative thoughts, for example there is a spider, there are probably hundreds of spiders.

|Now you think of an example: |

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• Over generalization, the idea that you’ve had one bad experience in the past then this will be repeated in the future. For example, I had a panic attack in the cinema, the same thing will happen if I go there again.

|Now you think of an example… |

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According to cognitive explanations phobias generally persist because of the three following reasons:

1. Sensitisation – anxiety becomes associated with a particular object/situation so that simply thinking about it is enough to trigger anxiety

2. Avoidance – After sensitisation the person will avoid the situation/object to reduce the anxiety

3. Negative self-talk –

a. They will overestimate the outcome – what is the spider is poisonous

b. Catastrophising – there will be no antidote so I could die

c. Under estimate – they feel they wont be able to cope – I’d never be able to cope in a wheelchair

|You are a cognitive therapist and you are treating someone with claustrophobia – explain to the client using the criteria above how their phobia is persisting. |

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Agoraphobia

People wit agoraphobia are more sensitive to spatial layouts and the fact they may be too far away from their care taker. If access is blocked to their care taker then fear will be induced and they will feel an urgent need to get home.

Social phobia

People with social phobias tend to have negative thoughts about how other people think about them. They have developed over time schemas that include expectations that others will be negative and rejecting. They will become hypersensitive to picking up cues that and will interpret them as negatively. They focus on themselves and their own bodily responses make them less likely to interact socially and skillfully with others.

EVALUATIONS

• There is clear evidence that people who suffer from anxiety disorders also suffer from a range of catastrophic thinking which leads them to misinterpret events or situations.

• However it is difficult to know if these irrational thoughts cause the phobias or if the phobias cause the irrational thoughts.

• Nevertheless, the cognitive explanation has proved valuable to psychologists who want to discover exactly what people with phobias are thinking. This has led to better more effective treatments which aim to tackle this illogical thinking.

• One important factor concerning the cognitive explanations is that it is closely tied to the behavioural explanations. For example, the individual first is exposed to the fearful situation/event which then subsequently initiates the phobia (Conditioning theory). So the environment affects a person before the irrational thoughts about the future possibility begins

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