• Question: Somebody asked you "how come I am scared of heights and so is my brother but neither of our parents are?" and in your answer you explained how you don't think that phobias are genetic; yet it has been proven that certain psychological problems are x times more likely to develop in a person if their parents or ancestors had it. If this is the case, how are phobias not inherited too? Do different things affect different parts of the brain and therefore only ones that affect a certain type of the brain are passed down through genes?

    Asked by morgancope to Suzi on 17 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Suzi Gage

      Suzi Gage answered on 17 Jun 2011:

      Hi @morgancope
      What a brilliant question.
      My honest answer is I’m not sure. Some psychological problems can come from a complex interaction of genes, but it’s generally thought that this only increases your likelihood of getting these problems, it is not simply the case that if you have the genes, you will definitely get the problem.

      Also although some problems may have a genetic basis, this doesn’t then prove that all do, you have to run experiments to find out whether this is the case. It’s all too easy to ‘blame’ all our of shortcomings on our genes, but is this really the case?

      The environment both before and after your birth are a really important time for your brain, with regards to some psychological problems. Sometimes a complicated birth can lead to problems which won’t appear until you’re nearly an adult.

      It may be that phobias are inherited a little bit (you may need a set of genes AND then and environmental input). But they can just as easily come from a traumatic experience early in childhood. In the case of the person and his brother, maybe when they were really young their parents took them on a walk and they got close to the edge of a cliff and something scared them (a loud noise). They won’t remember it now, but somewhere in their brain the link between heights and fear was formed. This is one possible way for phobias to form, but as I said I’m certainly not sure whether it is correct, and as far as I’m aware there’s no firm theory for how phobias are created.

      What do you think about this? It’s a really complicated issue, let me know if you’d like me to go in to any more detail.

      Thanks for the question – I’m going to link to it from the original question too if that’s OK
      🙂

Comments

  • Photo: morgancope

    morgancope commented on :

    I think you have given me a very clear explanation and I pretty much agree with you completely – thankyou!
    In response to your theory on how fears are formed; do you think that somebody would have to have a bad experience of something (for example: hearing a loud noise that scared them at the edge of a cliff, like you said) for a phobia about that to form? I mean some people are scared of certain things that they don’t really know much about and they have just heard a lot of bad things about, but usually they are not absolutely terrified. Sorry if that sounds confusing haha.
    Also, if I were to study this, what “type of science” would I actually be studying? Is it classed as psychiatry or what? Thanks again 🙂

  • Photo: Suzi

    Suzi commented on :

    I don’t think you’d have to have a bad experience to get a phobia, it’s one possible way that they may form.

    The study of phobias would be a part of psychology I would think, rather than psychiatry. I can recommend psychology as a good thing to study at University, as that’s what I studied 🙂