Atypical behaviour: stripped typical vs atypical behaviour

• 
  the object/situation that a person fears is not that frightening
  
• 
  the reaction is out of proportion to the actual threat
  

If a fear is intense, persistent and irrational it can be diagnosed as a phobia.

PHOBIA	DEFINITION
AGORAPHOBIA	Fear of being in a place or situation where the sufferer feels escape would be difficult or where they feel trapped e.g. shopping centre.
SOCIAL PHOBIA	Fear of social situations – sufferers are very anxious about what others may think of them or how they will be judged e.g. in restaurant.
SCHOOL PHOBIA	Fear of attending school - it can be a fear of leaving the safety of home and/or fear of embarrassment e.g. speaking in class.
ACROPHOBIA	Fear of heights or being in situations that are considered too high up e.g. on step ladder, first floor of hotel.
ARACHNOPHOBIA	Fear of spiders, but also a fear of coming across spiders which leads to obsessive behaviours such as checking places for spiders.

These five phobias are the only phobias that you have to know about. Be careful not to get them mixed up – especially the three with a similar spelling. Try hard to get the spellings right because if the name of a phobia is badly mis-spelt the examiner will not be able to give you a mark for it.