Three Types of Phobias

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Recommended: The evolution of psychology

Introduction
The term phobia is often related to “ When you genuinely fear something for no rational reason” [1] There are three types of phobias; specific, social and agoraphobia. To develop a fear which is irrational allows room to explain reasons to develop a phobia. Classical conditioning and observation are two methods of developing phobias.
Instructional fear acquisition allows us to work out if things are scary; as humans we may even evolve to fear certain things after some time. The brain regions involved are the insular cortex and the amygdala. [1] The numerous methods in treating phobias could be systematic desensitisation, cognitive behavioural therapy and a last resort being antidepressants. From the article there is still very minimal discussion regarding the development of irrational fear and the effectiveness of treatments for phobias. However the different types of phobias are very important in understanding the categories in which individuals can be subjected to.
Throughout the article questions still remain; how is there a development of fear by the definition of irrational? What are the most effective treatments of phobias? And is there a correlation directly to human evolution?
Discussion
Anxiety is a normal reaction to stress, which in some situations can become excessive and affect their day-to-day activities in a undesirable way. There are a numerous different anxiety disorders ranging from post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and phobias. Although in the article there is no mention of anxiety but in order to understand the rationale behind irrational fears we have to understand how the brain works in order to relate this to treatment and how development of phobias are created. Th...

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4.Yujuan Choy. Treatment of specific phobia in adults. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272735806001164 (accessed 14 January 2014).
5.Paul J. Fitzgeralda, Jocelyn R. Seemannb, Stephen Marena, b,. Can fear extinction be enhanced? A review of pharmacological and behavioral findings. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0361923013001962 (accessed 14 January 2014).
6.Bobbie Hasselbring. How do antidepressants work?. http://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/depression/questions/how-do-antidepressants-work.htm (accessed 17 January 2014).
7.Elaine S Chong, Erin Hovanec. Understanding brain disease and disorders, 2nd ed. New York: Rosen Publishing Group; 2012.
8.Brain structure and function . http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/army/rotc_brain_function.pdf (accessed 21 January 2014).

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