Unearthing the nonassociative origins of fears and phobias: A rejoinder

In recent years numerous disagreements and controversies have ensued over the place of Pavlovian or associative conditioning in the etiology of specific phobias and other fear-related clinical syndromes. A major source of disagreement emerged from clinical observations suggesting that environmental aversive conditioning events could not be identified for many specific phobias. Part of the controversy can also be traced to disagreements over what constitutes a direct conditioning event and over what exactly is being conditioned in phobic acquisition. More fundamental, however, is confusion over the critical process variables involved in the conditioning etiology of human phobias and fear-related clinical syndromes. We address some of the recent controversies surrounding associative conditioning accounts of phobic onset in light of recent proposals that nonassociative factors account for the etiology of many specific phobias. The viability of the nonassociative position is questioned and alternatives are suggested that emphasize the complex and multifaceted processes involved in the etiology of specific phobias.