Mental Health Concepts: Phobias, Therapy, and Scientific Status

Phobic Disorders: Types and Definitions

A phobia is defined as an irrational fear that produces a conscious avoidance of the feared subject, activity, or situation. The affected person usually recognizes that the reaction is excessive. According to the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic criteria, phobic disorders can be divided into three types: social phobia (now called social anxiety disorder), specific (simple) phobias, and agoraphobia.

Behavioral Therapies and Classical Conditioning

Behavioral therapies are based on the theory of classical conditioning. The premise is that all behavior is learned; faulty learning (conditioning) is the cause of abnormal behavior. Therefore, the individual must learn the correct or acceptable behavior. An important feature of behavioral therapy is its focus on current problems and behavior, and on attempts to remove behavior the patient finds troublesome.

Examples of behavior therapy include:

• Systematic Desensitization
• Aversion Therapy
• Flooding

Coping Strategies: Problem-Solving vs. Emotion-Focused

Coping strategies refer to the specific efforts, both behavioral and psychological, that people employ to master, tolerate, reduce, or minimize stressful events. Two general coping strategies have been distinguished:

• Problem-solving strategies are efforts to do something active to alleviate stressful circumstances.
• Emotion-focused coping strategies involve efforts to regulate the emotional consequences of stressful or potentially stressful events.

The Nature and Limits of Psychology as a Science

This section discusses the science of psychology as well as a subdiscipline entitled cognitive pathology. The author develops the powerful theoretical structure of cognitive pathology sufficiently to exhibit certain constraints on the character of the knowledge claims made by the psychology of the past century. The author closes with a brief confrontation of the theme of the centennial of psychology by asking whether, after the century-long march of psychology under the banner of "independent, experimental science," the field actually is (1) independent and (2) a science.

Examples of Pseudopsychology

Examples of pseudopsychology include palm reading, horoscopes, as well as graphology. Graphology is the analysis of a person's handwriting. Proponents of graphology believe that much can be learned about a person simply from their writing.

Psychology vs. Psychiatry: Key Differences

Psychology is the study of people: how they think, how they act, react, and interact. Psychology is concerned with all aspects of behavior and the thoughts, feelings, and motivation underlying such behavior. Psychiatry is the study of mental disorders and their diagnosis, management, and prevention. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have qualified in psychiatry.