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Describe the symptoms of Specific Phobia and evaluate with the use of
empirical evidence, the potential causal mechanisms for the disorder
...
Along with general anxiety disorder and over anxiety
disorder, specific phobia is one of the most commonly diagnosed anxiety disorders, occurring
in at least five percent of children (King, Eleonora & Ollendick, 1998)
...
However, when
discussing the possible causal mechanisms of specific phobia, researchers predominantly
believe that it is a consequence of learning experiences, for example Watson and Rayner’s
(1920) fear conditioning theory (Muris, Merckelbach, de Jong & Ollendick, 2002)
...
This essay will describe the symptoms of
specific phobia and critically evaluate, using empirical evidence, the potential causal
mechanisms for this disorder
...
There
are five subtypes which are named in the recent publication of the DSM, including the types;
animal, natural environment, blood-injection-injury, situational and the fifth being other
(American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
...
Natural environment types include heights and storms
...

Finally, situational phobias include circumstances such as flying and enclosed spaces and
also other type which is the phobia of choking or vomiting (American Psychiatric
Association, 2013)
...
It’s also noted that the object or situation is repeatedly avoided and
this fear and avoidance is persistent over a period of 6 or more months
...

When discussing the causal mechanisms for specific phobia, psychologists have researched
theories which could explain the reasons for an individual acquiring specific phobia, and it is
recognized that learning mechanisms and developmental process play a vital role in the
etiology (Merckelbach, de Jong, Muris & van den Hout, 1996)
...
Watson and Rayner (1920) professed that it was possible to teach a child to
respond to a harmless conditioned stimulus with fear when paired with a frightening
unconditioned stimulus
...
When first presented with the rat, Little Albert
showed no signs of fear
...
After several trials, Albert made the association between the rat, the
loud noise and a fearful response
...
Although this hypothesis has valuable evidence, arguments against this classical
conditioning theory state that many individuals don’t remember a conditioning event and that
not all individuals develop a phobia following the stimuli (Fyer, 1998)
...
The third pathway introduced the concept
that a phobia can be influenced by the information and instruction from parents and close
peers
...
To identify direct conditioning, youths were asked whether or not a frightening
experience with the feared object, had previously occurred
...
Finally, to justify the information and instruction pathway, participants were asked
if parents, friends or teachers had told them negative stories about the feared object
(Ollendick and King, 1991)
...
It was also reported that it was necessary for at least one of the pathways to be present
with direct conditioning
...
One limitation of the
three pathway theory is the concept that experiments are based on self-retrospective reports
which can therefore be subjective to memory bias lowering reliability
...


Research and results into vicarious learning and modelling also strongly suggests that this
could play a dramatic part into the causal mechanisms
...
Those who showed fear frequently in front of their children
tended to have more fearful children, compared to those mothers who never showed any
signs of fears, their children had the lowest FSSC scores (Muris, Steerneman, Merckelbach &
Meesters, 1996)
...
Research in this area has
assumed that evolution selection processes over time have edged humans to evolve a
biological predisposition and learn to associate fear with a stimuli
...
This theory has being
named biological preparedness (Seligman, 1971)
...


Evidence from twin studies designs can show how genetic factors may influence whether or
not an individual acquires a specific phobia
...
Later research was
conducted into twin studies particularly by Laine, Boomsma, Ligthart, Van Wijk and
DeJongh (2013) who created a meta-analysis of the heritability of specific phobias using a
systematic search on published, relevant twin study literature between 1967 and 2012
...
Despite the
meta-analysis, conclusions were still made that more research is needed to increase validity
(Laine et al
...
An earlier study by Togersen (1979), found a significantly higher
concordance rate for monozygotic twins, compared to dizygotic twins, which would suggest
here that genetic factors have an influence on the etiology of specific phobia
...


Other biological accounts of specific phobia include neuroimaging studies involving the
brain
...
In the past, human neuroimaging studies have showed that
this activation of amygdala is in response to visual and vocal expressions of fear (Moris,
Frith, Perrett, Rowland, Young, Calder et al
...
It is predominantly linked with specific
phobia because the amygdala has being found to contribute to storing memories and
associating emotional events
...
, 2007)
...
(1993) showed the onset of specific phobia though visual stimulation and
changes in the cerebral regional blood flow
...
Like
others, this research doesn’t come without limitations
...


Aside from biological and learning approaches, comes the psychodynamic approach,
proposed by Freud (1909) and his case study Little Hans
...
It is produced through repressed ID
impulses and symbolic relevance
...
The case study Little Hans is an
example of this and showed the perceptions and dreams of 5 year old Hans
...
In the past Hans had
seen a horse fall down, and Freud (1909) concluded that it related to the deep-rooted fantasies
of Hans father falling down, so he was able to replace him
...
Researches often neglect the psychodynamic approach in favour of behavioural
theories due to little empirical evidence supporting
...

To summarise, specific phobia has been defined as an anxiety order caused when an
individual experiences an irrational fear towards a situation, resulting in uncontrollable
symptoms (American Psychiatric Association, 2013)
...
Contradicting Watson and Raynor’s (1920) theory that fear is
learnt, Rachman (1977) argued the simplicity of said hypothesis, proposing 3 pathways in
which fear is learnt; direct conditioning, vicarious conditioning and influence of information
(Ollendick & King, 1991)
...
Exploring biological accounts for causal
mechanisms of specific phobia has shown humans are biologically prepared for fear due to
evolutionary significance (Davey, 2014)
...
) with stimuli as a result of our pre-technological ancestors’ phobias
5

and it has been proven to show more evolutionary fear-relevant stimuli (snakes, spiders etc
...
Gainsaying
empirical research by Kendler and colleagues, (1992) who stated genetic factors in twins
influences the acquisition of fear, Torgensen (1979) professed environmental factors also
pose a strong link
...
To finally conclude, although many
theories hold empirical supporting all causal mechanisms, fear is strongly professed as learnt
however in order to create a more reliable conclusion more longitudinal studies are
paramount (Merckelbach et al
...


6

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