The DOI matches its Crossref record; 58 of the 59 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Etiology of childhood phobias: current status of Rachman’s three pathways theory
Abstract
Despite advances in the assessment and treatment of childhood phobias, little is known about their etiology. Rachman has proposed that phobias are acquired through three different pathways: direct conditioning, modeling or instructions/information. We evaluate the empirical support for Rachman's theory in relation to the origins of childhood phobias. Although we find support for Rachman's theory, a number of methodological and theoretical issues are emphasized. For example, insufficient attention has been given to the reliability and validity of retrospective subject reports on the acquisition of childhood phobias. Also some findings on the origins of childhood fears and phobias are more consistent with a nonassociative account of phobia onset, thus providing an interesting challenge to Rachman's theory.
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“Parents of phobic preschoolers may be especially inclined to provide learning contexts associated with fear as many parents experience phobias themselves (King et al., 1998; Murray & Foote, 1979).”
From Specific Phobia in Young Children: Associations between the Origins of Fear and Clinical Expression of Phobia Symptoms. (2025) · cites this paper as King et al., 1998
In the citing paper
“This study extends upon the current literature by considering and comparing the combinations of pathways, including direct and indirect combined and both indirect pathways combined, which are hypothesised to occur naturally during daily interactions (King et al., 1998; Murray et al., 2009); including all reported phobia subtypes; and addressing some of the methodological limitations of previous re”
From Specific Phobia in Young Children: Associations between the Origins of Fear and Clinical Expression of Phobia Symptoms. (2025) · cites this paper as King et al., 1998
Citations
Cites
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The conditioning theory of fearacquisition: A critical examination
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Imagery in therapy: an information processing analysis of fear
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- Menzies, R. (1997). Water phobia. In G. L. C. Davey (Ed.), Phobias. A handbook of theory, research and treatment, (pp. 129–127). Chichester: Wiley
- Thorpe, S. J., and Salkovskis, P. M. (1997). Animal phobias. In G. C. L. Davey (Ed.), Phobias. A handbook of theory, research and treatment, (pp. 81–105). Chichester: Wiley
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Olsson, A., & Phelps, E. A. (2007) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn1968 · Cited by 622
Dimensions of artificial intelligence anxiety based on the integrated fear acquisition theory
Li, J., & Huang, J. (2020) · Technology in Society · doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.101410 · Cited by 541
“In addition to the above three pathways, Men-zies and Clarke emphasized that some phobic fears are innate, for example, fear of heights [44]; this is the fourth pathway of fear acquisition, which is different from previous fear acquisition theory [40].”
Extending animal models of fear conditioning to humans
Delgado, M. R., Olsson, A., & Phelps, E. A. (2006) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2006.01.006 · Cited by 366
“Both clinical accounts that retrospectively target the etiology of phobic fears to fear-relevant stimuli (King et al., 1998) and experimental studies involving stimuli ascribed fear provoking qualities through storytelling (Field et al.”
BackgroundThe development of anxiety disorders in childhood: an integrative review
Murray, L., Creswell, C., & Cooper, P. J. (2009) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291709005157 · Cited by 367
“The second concerns communication to the child of information regarding the threatening properties of the environment, usually termed informational acquisition (for reviews see Bandura, 1986 ; Rachman, 1990 ; King et al. 1998;Muris et al. 2002 ; Field, 2006;Mineka& Zinbarg, 2006 ; Fisak & Grills-Taquechel, 2007).”
Learned Fear of “Unseen” Faces after Pavlovian, Observational, and Instructed Fear
Olsson, A., & Phelps, E. A. (2004) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00762.x · Cited by 348
Metadata
- Authors
- King, N. J., Eleonora, G., & Ollendick, T. H.
- Affiliations
- Monash University (AU)
- Virginia Tech (US)
- Corresponding author
- King, Neville J.
- ORCID
- Ollendick, Thomas H.
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1998-03
- Volume
- 36
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 297-309
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2062543094
- Cited by
- 136
- References
- 59
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 0.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Keywords
- childhood phobia, etiology, modeling, information acquisition, retrospective reports, fear acquisition
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Child, Conditioning, Psychological, Female, Humans, Imitative Behavior, Male, Phobic Disorders, Mental Recall, Retrospective Studies
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