Health psychology/Phobias & anxiety · Anxiety / phobia

Specific phobia

What it means

Marked, persistent, out-of-proportion fear of a specific object or situation (e.g. animals, heights, flying, blood-injection-injury), with avoidance or extreme distress.

Worked example

Acrophobia (heights), arachnophobia (spiders), claustrophobia (enclosed spaces).

In the exam

A woman panics and refuses to use lifts, taking the stairs up 12 floors; she recognises the fear is excessive but cannot control it.

What settles it

Specific phobia is cued by a particular object/situation. Agoraphobia is fear of situations where escape/help is difficult; social phobia is fear of judgement.

Classically confused with

Agoraphobia

Source: ICD-11; DSM-5