Made by DATEXIS (Data Science and Text-based Information Systems) at Beuth University of Applied Sciences Berlin
Deep Learning Technology: Sebastian Arnold, Betty van Aken, Paul Grundmann, Felix A. Gers and Alexander Löser. Learning Contextualized Document Representations for Healthcare Answer Retrieval. The Web Conference 2020 (WWW'20)
Funded by The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy; Grant: 01MD19013D, Smart-MD Project, Digital Technologies
The fear of crime refers to the fear of being a victim of crime as opposed to the actual probability of being a victim of crime.
The fear of crime, along with fear of the streets and the fear of youth, is said to have been in Western culture for "time immemorial". While fear of crime can be differentiated into public feelings, thoughts and behaviors about the personal risk of criminal victimization, distinctions can also be made between the tendency to see situations as fearful, the actual experience while in those situations, and broader expressions about the cultural and social significance of crime and symbols of crime in people's neighborhoods and in their daily, symbolic lives.
Importantly, feelings, thoughts and behaviors can have a number of functional and dysfunctional effects on individual and group life, depending on actual risk and people's subjective approaches to danger. On a negative side, they can erode public health and psychological well-being; they can alter routine activities and habits; they can contribute to some places turning into 'no-go' areas via a withdrawal from community; and they can drain community cohesion, trust and neighborhood stability. Some degree of emotional response can be healthy: psychologists have long highlighted the fact that some degree of worry can be a problem-solving activity, motivating care and precaution, underlining the distinction between low-level anxieties that motivate caution and counter-productive worries that damage well-being.
Factors influencing the fear of crime include the psychology of risk perception, circulating representations of the risk of victimization (chiefly via interpersonal communication and the mass media), public perceptions of neighborhood stability and breakdown, the influence of neighbourhood context, and broader factors where anxieties about crime express anxieties about the pace and direction of social change. There are also some wider cultural influences. For example, some have argued that modern times have left people especially sensitive to issues of safety and insecurity.
Ephebiphobia is the fear of youth. First coined as the "fear or loathing of teenagers", today the phenomenon is recognized as the "inaccurate, exaggerated and sensational characterization of young people" in a range of settings around the world. Studies of the fear of youth occur in sociology and youth studies.
Women's fear of crime refers to women's fear of being a victim of crime, independent of actual victimization. Although fear of crime is a concern for people of all genders, studies consistently find that women around the world tend to have much higher levels of fear of crime than men, despite the fact that in many places, and for most offenses, men's actual victimization rates are higher. Fear of crime is related to perceived risk of victimization, but is not the same; fear of crime may be generalized instead of referring to specific offenses, and perceived risk may also be considered a demographic factor that contributes to fear of crime. Women tend to have higher levels for both perceived risk and fear of crime.
In women's everyday lives, fear of crime can have negative effects, such as reducing their environmental mobility. Studies have shown that women tend to avoid certain behaviors, such as walking alone at night, because they are fearful of crime, and would feel more comfortable with these behaviors if they felt safer.
Genophobia or coitophobia is the physical or psychological fear of sexual relations or sexual intercourse. The word comes from the Greek nouns γένος "genos", meaning "offspring," and φόβος "phobos", meaning "fear." This word is also formed from the Greek noun "phobos" and the term coitus, referring to the act of copulation in which a male reproductive organ penetrates a female reproductive tract. The term erotophobia can also be used when describing genophobia. It comes from the name of the Greek god of erotic love, Eros. Genophobia can induce panic and fear in individuals, much like panic attacks. People who suffer from the phobia can be intensely affected by attempted sexual contact or just the thought of it. The extreme fear can lead to trouble in romantic relationships. Those afflicted by genophobia may stay away from getting involved in relationships to avoid the possibility of intimacy. This can lead to feelings of loneliness. Genophobic people may also feel lonely because they may feel embarrassed or ashamed of their personal fears.
Symptoms of genophobia can be feeling of panic, terror, and dread. Other symptoms are increased speed of heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling/shaking, anxiety, sweating, crying, and avoidance of others.
Gerontophobia is the fear of growing old, or a hatred or fear of the elderly. Many people have this phobia. The term comes from the Greek γέρων – "gerōn", "old man" and φόβος – "phobos", "fear".
Discriminatory aspects of ageism have been strongly linked to gerontophobia. This irrational fear or hatred of the elderly is associated with the fact that someday all young people will grow old and that old age is associated with death. This unwillingness to accept death manifests in feelings of hostility and discriminatory acts towards the elderly. This source is irrelevant as it too has aged out of the scope of sociological bearing >
Fear of children, fear of infants or fear of childhood is alternatively called pedophobia (American English), paedophobia or pediaphobia. Other age-focused fears are ephebiphobia and gerontophobia. Recognised outcomes of pedophobia include paternalism, adultism, and by extension, ageism.
Ergophobia or ergasiophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of (manual labor, non-manual labour, etc.) or finding employment. Ergophobia may also be a subset of either social phobia or performance anxiety. Sufferers of ergophobia experience undue anxiety about the workplace environment even though they realize their fear is irrational. Their fear may actually be a combination of fears, such as fear of failing at assigned tasks, speaking before groups at work (both of which are types of performance anxiety), socializing with co-workers (a type of social phobia), and other fears of emotional, psychological and/or physiological injuries.
The term "ergophobia" comes from the Greek "ergon" (work) and "phobos" (fear).
Mental and emotional symptoms of lilapsophobia include
- Obsessive thoughts
- Difficulty thinking
- Feeling of unreality or being detached
- Fear of losing control or going crazy
- Anticipatory anxiety
- Terror
- Desire to flee or hide
Physical symptoms of lilapsophobia include
- Dizziness, shaking, palpitations, lightheaded, or faint
- Shortness of breath
- Accelerated heartbeat
- Chest pain or discomfort
- Shaking
- Feeling of choking
- Sweating
- Nausea
- Numbness or tingling sensations
Many lilapsophobes also suffer autophobia, fear of being alone. Sufferers often make arrangements with people they know to help soothe the fear.
Most people suffer from a form of fear of medical procedures during their life. There are many different aspects of this fear and not everyone has every part. Some of these parts include fear of surgery, fear of dental work and fear of doctors (involving fear of needles). These fears are often overlooked, but when a patient has one to the extreme it can be very damaging to their health.
Formally, medical fear is defined (by Steward and Steward, see Further reading) as "any experience that involves medical personnel or
procedures involved in the process of evaluating or modifying health status in traditional health care settings".
Islamophobia in Sweden refers to the set of discourses, behaviours and structures which express feelings of anxiety, fear, hostility and rejection towards Islam and/or Muslims in Sweden. Historically, attitudes towards Muslims in Sweden have been mixed with relations being largely negative in the early 16th century, improving in the 18th century, and declining once again with the rise of Swedish nationalism in the early 20th century. According to Jonas Otterbeck, a Swedish historian of religion, attitudes towards Islam and Muslims today have improved but "the level of prejudice was and is still high." Islamophobia can manifest itself through discrimination in the workforce, prejudiced coverage in the media, and violence against Muslims.
Mysophobia, also known as verminophobia, germophobia, germaphobia, bacillophobia and bacteriophobia, is a pathological fear of contamination and germs. The term was coined by William A. Hammond in 1879 when describing a case of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) exhibited in repeatedly washing one's hands. Mysophobia has long been related to compulsive hand washing. Names pertaining directly to the abnormal fear of dirt and filth include molysmophobia or molysomophobia, rhypophobia, and rupophobia, whereas the terms bacillophobia and bacteriophobia specifically refer to the fear of bacteria and microbes in general.
The term "mysophobia" comes from the Greek μύσος ("musos"), "uncleanness" and φόβος ("phobos"), "fear".
The fear of trains is anxiety and fear associated with trains, railways, and railway travel.
Fear of intimacy is generally a social phobia and anxiety disorder resulting in difficulty forming close relationships with another person. The term can also refer to a scale on a psychometric test, or a type of adult in attachment theory psychology.
The fear of intimacy is the fear of being emotionally and/or physically close to another individual. This fear is also defined as “the inhibited capacity of an individual, because of anxiety, to exchange thought and feelings of personal significance with another individual who is highly valued”. Fear of intimacy is the expression of existential views in that to love and to be loved makes life seem precious and death more inevitable. It often results from past traumas such as rape or childhood sexual abuse. Fear of intimacy is also related to the fear of being touched .
Fear of medical procedures can be classified under a broader category of “Blood, Injection, and Injury Phobias”. This is one of five subtypes that classify specific phobias. A specific phobia is defined as a “marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence (or anticipation) of a specific object or situation.” Often these fears begin to appear in childhood, around the age of 5 to 9. It seems to be a natural feeling to become squeamish at the sight of blood, injury or gross deformity, but many overcome these fears by the time they reach adulthood. Those who do not are more likely to avoid medical and dental procedures necessary to maintain health, jobs, etc. Research shows that when people encounter something that they have a specific phobia of many of them have a feeling of disgust which makes them not want to come near or experience that which is disgusting to them. This feeling of disgust, especially in the Blood, Injection, and Injury Phobias seems to be passed down in families. Women have been known to avoid becoming pregnant because it requires blood and medical examinations that they would rather avoid. Also, most phobic people have an increased heart rate upon encountering the thing they fear, but Blood, Injection, Injury phobic people also seem to have an increase of fainting after the initial speeding up of heart rate. Their heart rate will go up and then slow again, leading to nausea, sweating, pallor and fainting. This fainting can also lead to seizures, making life very difficult for those who have this fear. However, only 4.5% of individuals who have this phobia as a child will have this fear their entire lifetime.
For those who do experience this phobia in an extreme manner, specific coping treatments have been found to help them. Biological treatments, like medications used for other anxiety ailments, are generally found to be inappropriate for fear of medical procedures or other specific phobias. Psychological treatments are the treatment of choice because they are more accurate at addressing the problem. Some of these treatments used especially for fear of medical procedures include, Exposure-Based Treatments, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and Applied Tension to react against fainting.
Individuals with scopophobia generally exhibit symptoms in social situations when attention is brought upon them like public speaking. Several other triggers exist to cause social anxiety. Some examples include: Being introduced to new people, being teased and/or criticized, embarrassing easily, and even answering a cell phone call in public.
Often scopophobia will result in symptoms common with other anxiety disorders. The symptoms of scopophobia include an irrational feelings of panic, feelings of terror, feelings of dread, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, nausea, dry mouth, trembling, anxiety and avoidance. Other symptoms related to scopophobia may be hyperventilation, muscle tension, dizziness, uncontrollable shaking or trembling, excessive eye watering and redness of the eyes.
The word "pedophobia" comes from the Greek roots παιδ- "paid-" "child" and φόβος "-phóbos" "fear".
Aichmophobia () is a kind of specific phobia, the morbid fear of sharp things, such as pencils, needles, knives, a pointing finger, or even the sharp end of an umbrella and different sorts of protruding corners or sharp edges in furnitures and building constructions/materials. It is derived from the Greek "aichmē" (point) and "phobos" (fear). This fear may also be referred to as belonephobia or enetophobia.
Sometimes this general term is used to refer to what is more specifically called fear of needles, or needle phobia. Fear of needles is the extreme and irrational fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles.
Not to be confused with similar condition (Avoidance behavior) the Visual looming syndrome, where the patient does not fear sharp items, but feels pain or discomfort at gazing upon sharp objects nearby.
Spectrophobia (from Latin: "spectrum", n. specio, an appearance, form, image of a thing; an apparition, spectre) or catoptrophobia (from Greek κάτοπτρον "kátoptron", "mirror") is a kind of specific phobia involving a morbid fear of mirrors. This phobia is distinct from eisoptrophobia, which is the fear of one's own reflection.
Gerascophobia is an abnormal or incessant fear of growing old or ageing.
Gerascophobia is a clinical phobia generally classified under specific phobias, fears of a single specific panic trigger. Gerascophobia may be based on anxieties of being left alone, without resources and incapable of caring for oneself. Sufferers may be young and healthy.
Symptoms include the fear of the future and the fear of needing to rely on others to do daily functions. Many also fear they will not play an active role in society when they get older.
The term "gerascophobia" comes from the Greek γηράσκω, "gerasko", "I grow old" and φόβος, "phobos", "fear". Some authors refer to it as gerontophobia, although this may also refer to the fear of the elderly.
The "DSM-IV-TR" provides the following criteria for the diagnosis of a specific phobia:
The book "Phobias" defines a panic attack as "a sudden terror lasting at least a few minutes with typical manifestations of intense fear". These manifestations may include palpitations, sweating, trembling, difficulty breathing, the urge to escape, faintness or dizziness, dry mouth, nausea and/or several other symptoms. As with other specific phobias, patients suffering from cynophobia may display a wide range of these reactions when confronted with a live dog or even when thinking about or presented with an image (static or filmed) of a dog. Furthermore, classic avoidance behavior is also common and may include staying away from areas where dogs might be (i.e., a park), crossing the street to avoid a dog, or avoiding the homes of friends and/or family who own a dog.
A childhood phobia is an exaggerated, intense fear “that is out of proportion to any real fear” found in children. It is often characterized by a preoccupation with a particular object, class of objects, or situation that one fears. A phobic reaction is twofold—the first part being the “intense irrational fear’ and the second part being “avoidance.”
Children during their developmental stages experience fears. Fear is a natural part of self-preservation. Fears allow children to act with the necessary cautions to stay safe. According to Child and Adolescent Mental Health, “such fears vary in frequency, intensity, and duration; they tend to be mild, age-specific, and transitory.” Fears can be a result of misperceptions. When a child perceives a threatening situation, his or her body experiences a fight or flight reaction. Children placed in new situations with unfamiliar objects are more likely to experience such reactions. These fears should be passing, a result of childhood development.
A childhood fear develops into a childhood phobia when it begins to interfere with daily living. “Acute states of fear can elicit counterproductive physiological reactions such as trembling, profuse perspiration, faint feelings, weakness in joints and muscles, nausea, diarrhea, and disturbances in motor coordination” It is not uncommon for frightened or anxious children to regress in a phase of development. For example, a kindergartener might begin to baby talk or wet the bed when faced with a threatening or particularly frightening situation. Childhood phobias exist in many different varieties and intensities and have a wide range from tolerable to incapacitating.
Like many phobias, lilapsophobia is caused by an unwanted experience, specifically tornadoes or hurricanes that cause injuries, destruction, or loss of loved ones to self or others they know. People who survive those storms should seek professional advice, especially to determine if a person is suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. This phobia can even be caused by learning news about tornadoes or hurricanes using the media, like television, internet, radio, or newspaper, even though they happened far away from homes.
If a person learns that someone in the family has the phobia, then that person is more likely to suffer from it.
The following symptoms can be exhibited when a person suffering from equinophobia either thinks of a horse or is physically near one:
- Feeling of terror
- Anxiety (even if the horse is calm)
- Trembling
- Panic
- Palpitations
- Shortness of breath
- Sudden increase in pulse rate
- Nausea
- Crying
Sufferers of equinophobia may also fear other hoofed animals such as donkeys, mules, and ponies.