Specific Phobia Causes & Risk Factors

Conditions & Diseases: Psychological & Mental Health

Specific Phobia

Specific Phobia Causes and Risk Factors

The exact cause of specific phobia is not known, but the etiology (causes) of specific phobia is extensively studied. However, the mechanism that lies behind the development of specific phobia is extremely complex and involves a combination of several factors (genetic tendencies, brain chemistry, biological, psychological and environmental factors).

Environmental factors.
Specific phobia can develop as the result of a traumatic experience. This can include three situations:

1). Direct exposure to a traumatic event (known as direct learning experience). Some individuals develop a specific phobia as the result of a direct experience to a traumatic event. For example, an individual that was bitten by a dog can develop a dog phobia.

2). Witnessing a traumatic event (known as observational learning experience). Some individuals can develop a specific phobia by witnessing others experiencing a traumatic experience or displaying fear and anxiety in certain situations. For example, an individual that grows up with parents who fear height or witnesses a tragic accident when someone falls from a building can develop a heights phobia.

3). Hearing or reading about dangerous situations (known as informational learning). An individual can develop a specific phobia when hearing and reading about situations that can be dangerous. For example, a flying phobia can be triggered by frequently hearing of plane crashes. A child can develop an animal phobia if their parents repeatedly warn them about the danger of certain animals.

Specific phobia can develop as the result of the association between a neutral stimulus and an anxiety response. For example, when an individual drives on the highway and experiences an intense anxiety response or panic attack, they can associate the highway with the anxiety/panic attack. When the avoidance behavior occurs (the individual avoids the highway), the individual can learn to become phobic.

However, experiencing a traumatic experience not always result in the development of a specific phobia, and some individuals with specific phobia do not recall any obvious trigger, cause, or source of their phobia.

Psychological factors
Researchers that study phobias noticed that individuals that suffer from a specific phobia tend to pay more attention to threatened information than individuals without specific phobia. Individuals with a spider phobia tend to notice the presence of a spider in a room before anybody else. Also, it is common for individuals with specific phobia to have distortions regarding memories that envolve the phobic stimulus. They recall the phobic situation as more dangerous than it really was, or the feared animal larger, faster, or more aggressive than in reality. The memory distortions can be supported by impaired beliefs and interpretations attributed to feared objects or situations. The anxiety response experienced during a phobic situation can be maintained or increased by these impaired beliefs and interpretations.

Biological factors
Although there is relatively little research conducted on the biological factors of specific phobia, there are evidence that specific phobia tends to run in the family. First-degree relatives of individuals with specific phobia, animal type are more likely to have themselves an animal phobia, but they not necessary fear the same animal. First-degree relatives of individuals with specific phobia, situational type, are likely to develop situational phobias. However, individuals with specific phobia, blood-injections-injury type "have a particularly strong family pattern" (2).

Article by Alina Morrow
MS Psychology
Medical Writer
OmniMedicalSearch.com