The Anatomy of Agoraphobia in contrast with Claustrophobia
(2010) PSYK01 20102Department of Psychology
- Abstract
- This paper describes a pilot study aiming to map the anatomy of agoraphobia based on Lewin’s equation, B = f (P, E), stating that behaviour (B) is a function of the person (P), the environment (E) and the interaction between them, and by adapting Drottenborg’s model of sensible aesthetics describing “beautiful” and “ugly” traffic environments in relation to arousal through the basic emotional processes. The study was carried out in the area of health psychology and the map was tested by the participation of 40 intellectually well functioning individuals. The results indicated strong relationships between contrasting fears, suggesting that we cannot have a fear without fearing its opposite; and that irrational fears experienced in outdoor... (More)
- This paper describes a pilot study aiming to map the anatomy of agoraphobia based on Lewin’s equation, B = f (P, E), stating that behaviour (B) is a function of the person (P), the environment (E) and the interaction between them, and by adapting Drottenborg’s model of sensible aesthetics describing “beautiful” and “ugly” traffic environments in relation to arousal through the basic emotional processes. The study was carried out in the area of health psychology and the map was tested by the participation of 40 intellectually well functioning individuals. The results indicated strong relationships between contrasting fears, suggesting that we cannot have a fear without fearing its opposite; and that irrational fears experienced in outdoor environments are triggered in unpleasant places lacking balance and natural elements, rather than in environments which are pleasant. Strong relationships were also found between the fears of large-scale (agora) versus small-scale (claustro) environments in relation to the tendency of being hysterical respectively careless under stress. No relationships were found between agora and claustro in terms of defensive behaviours. The results are to be regarded as bases for hypotheses for further research. The practical implications of this research are prophylactic devices for the healthy population and assessment tools for professionals working with the clinical population, to help them solve the problem of phobias from both sides: from within (the person) and from without (the environment). (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/1763278
- author
- Santrue, Ariadne LU
- supervisor
-
- Aki Johanson LU
- Mikael Karlberg LU
- organization
- course
- PSYK01 20102
- year
- 2010
- type
- M2 - Bachelor Degree
- subject
- keywords
- agoraphobia, claustrophobia, the law of contrast, physical environment, aesthetics, arousal, personality trait, behavioural constraint model, health psychology.
- language
- English
- id
- 1763278
- date added to LUP
- 2011-02-11 09:38:07
- date last changed
- 2011-02-11 09:38:07
@misc{1763278,
abstract = {{This paper describes a pilot study aiming to map the anatomy of agoraphobia based on Lewin’s equation, B = f (P, E), stating that behaviour (B) is a function of the person (P), the environment (E) and the interaction between them, and by adapting Drottenborg’s model of sensible aesthetics describing “beautiful” and “ugly” traffic environments in relation to arousal through the basic emotional processes. The study was carried out in the area of health psychology and the map was tested by the participation of 40 intellectually well functioning individuals. The results indicated strong relationships between contrasting fears, suggesting that we cannot have a fear without fearing its opposite; and that irrational fears experienced in outdoor environments are triggered in unpleasant places lacking balance and natural elements, rather than in environments which are pleasant. Strong relationships were also found between the fears of large-scale (agora) versus small-scale (claustro) environments in relation to the tendency of being hysterical respectively careless under stress. No relationships were found between agora and claustro in terms of defensive behaviours. The results are to be regarded as bases for hypotheses for further research. The practical implications of this research are prophylactic devices for the healthy population and assessment tools for professionals working with the clinical population, to help them solve the problem of phobias from both sides: from within (the person) and from without (the environment).}},
author = {{Santrue, Ariadne}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Anatomy of Agoraphobia in contrast with Claustrophobia}},
year = {{2010}},
}