What is the root or the cause of Arachnophobia? A fear of arachnids that can leave a person paralyzed by an unrealistic depiction of what a spider is and what it is capable of. In order to truly understand why this phobia is so prominent we delved deep into an array of articles. As we read, reviewed and tested these writings we looked for answers to our questions. Why do individuals experience fear of spiders? What is the reasoning behind their fear? What influences an individual’s phobia? In turn we gathered data from multiple sources, and viewed different written perspectives.
Jason M. Armfield, and Julie K. Mattiske had explained in their book, “Behaviour Research and Therapy”, how a warped perception of dangerousness, uncontrollability, unpredictability, and disgustingness plays a key role in how an individual reacts to a spider in any given situation. In order to validate their argument the article pulls evidence from a strongly agree or disagree questionnaire “relating to spider anxiety and learning history”(904). “The major finding of this study was that the uncontrollability, disgustingness, unpredictability and dangerousness associated with spiders each had a significant relationship with people’s fear of spiders. The strongest relationship was between uncontrollability and fear”(906).
Secondly, Matts Fredrickson, Peter Annas, and Gustav Wik’s main focus in “Parental History, Aversive Exposure and The Development of Snake and Spider Phobia In Women”, was the effect that parental history has on an individual’s fear of spiders. The article explains that there are two types of influences. Direct, which is when one is frightened by the phobic object by being directly affected by it. Or indirect, when one sees another being frightened by the phobic object or is warned of the phobic object. The article also states that “fear exposure predated phobia development.”(23).
These articles broadened our perspective on how phobia of spiders originates and develops. The authors of the article in the book, “Behaviour Research and Therapy” make a strong claim by categorizing the reasons for arachnophobia into four parts, while also claiming that two out of the four had more of an effect. However, this bold claim allowed for us to search for these same parts when constructing our survey questions or conducting our interviews.
While the second article “Parental History, Aversive Exposure and The Development of Snake and Spider Phobia In Women”, claims that there are two types of influence. When creating our questions for both our interviews, we framed our questions in order to find out whether these influences vary in effecting spider fear. After reading these two primary sources, we were able to have background information on the development of arachnophobia. Also, with this foundation of knowledge we were able to view the information and data we gathered in a more educated perspective.