Phobias Phobias are persistent and irration

Phobias are persistent and irrational fears elicited by specific stimuli such as spiders or confined spaces. The perceived danger theory proposes a dual belief system in which phobic people believe that nothing bad will happen to them if they do what they fear (e.g. touched a spider) but they persistently avoid doing so (Williams, Kinney, Harap and Liebmann 511). Other theories are that phobia results from anticipated anxiety in which a phobic escapes a situation to avoid feeling afraid, and the self-efficacy theory which is that avoidance arises from a strong belief that the person cannot carry out the avoided activity.

Seligman's preparedness hypothesis states that "evolutionary pressures select for an adaptive predisposition to associate fear with potentially dangerous stimuli" which would explain why some phobias, such as fear of spiders and snakes, are more widespread in the population than phobias of more evolutionary recent things such as cars and dentists (Mulkens, de Jong and Merckelbach 464). However, another model suggests that phobia of spiders is due to a disgust sensitivity because spiders are associated with dirty places: the disease-avoidance model.

Elevated disgust sensitivity is also considered to be the vulnerability factor for blood-injection-injury phobia, which shares many characteristics with other specific simple phobias (Schienle et al 87). However, while these other phobia sufferers show marked and persistent fear during t

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