simple phobias include common fears such as fear of spiders flying insects ,small animals, heights, enclosed spaces flying and thunder. They are rarely fear of inanimate objects. The specific fears often have a tendency to generalise, to associated objects /situations: for example, a wasp phobic may experience anxiety when seeing black and yellow colour combinations. Generalisation of fears may obscure initial problem identification unless assessment is sufficienly detailed.
In simple phobias, contact, or anticipated contact, With the phobic, object, or situation is feared above all, but in social phobia the key fear is frequently the perceived negative evaluation by others and its consequences generally, in simple phobias, overt avoidance is the patient s main coping strategy, while in social phobia avoidances often involve a range of overt and subtle avoidances [e.g. of conversing, of groups of people ] and pops [ e.g. alcohol ] to cope with situations.