A phobia is the fear of a specific something that possess no actual danger or damage. This paper will be taking about how the five perspectives in psychology apply to people with phobias. From what I have read/from what I have always known about phobias is that the terror they experience is mechanical, unreasonable, nerve-wrecking and overwhelming.
How does the five perspectives in psychology relate to people with phobias? Of course, everything happens for a reason. There will always be a reason behind everything that happens/will happen to us. Everybody looks at a certain thing differently, with biased opinions, fears etc. We need the different POVs to understand human behaviour, specifically, Phobias. .
Behavioural Perspective.
The behavioural perspective claims that abnormalities or normal and odd human behaviours can be learned. Claustrophobia can be learned (amongst other reasons). A person's fear of closed spaces could've started as a dislike, but as the person feeds into that perception the fear becomes wider, it becomes serious. The more they tolerate the fear it worsens. .
Psychodynamic Perspective.
As mentioned in class, the Psychodynamic Perspective revolves around Sigmund Freud's belief of the unconscious mind. This relates to early traumas, early events, childhood experiences etc. Everything that happens to a person, everything that affects how a person behaves is interrelated. An example of a phobia applicable to the perspective (according to how I see it) is Haphephobia, the fear of being touched. Like what I read in books about childhood trauma, the victim will reach a point that he/she forgets about the shock. He/she could have gone through an experience so heavy that he/she had no choice but to block it (the memory of it).or he/she could've survived. Of course, the experience will have after effects, and developing a phobia for being touched could be the product.
Cognitive Perspective.