A persistent and disaproportionate fear of some specific object or situation that presents little ot no actual danger. Generally there is a great deal of avoidance of said object or situation.

• Marked fear or anxiety about a specific object/situation
• Marked object/situation almost always provokes fear response
• Marked object/situation is persistently avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety
• Fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the specific object/situation
• The fear, anxiety, and avoidance lasts for 6 months or more
• Causes clinically significant distress or maladaptive behavior

• Animal
• Natural Enviornment
• Blood-Injection-Injury
• Situational 
• Other ie: chocking, vomiting

• Very common
• Lifetime prevalence = ~12%
• More common in women than men
• Blood-Injection-Injury phobia occurs in about 3-4% of population
• Age of onset varies widely for different phobias

• Learned behavior or classical conditioning
• Vicarious classical conditioning (Viewing others experience trauma)
• Individual differences in learning (Positive life  experiences as protective factors vs Non-positive initial factors as diathesis) 
• Evolutionary Preparedness (Due to evolution being predisposed to ceratin phobias because the marked object/situation posed a real threat to our early ancestors)

• Inhibited remperament 
• Modest genetic contribution 
• s allelle of seratonin (5-HTT) show greater fear conditioning vs individuals who don't carry s allelle

• Exposure therapy
• Participant modeling
• Virtual reality components
• Cognitive techniques and medications do not increase effectiveness