Although the topic of contamination appeared many years ago, people have only recently developed fears of contaminants. Fear of contamination is when a person is scared of anything that has the possibility of being a contaminant. It is important for psychologists to understand the fear of contamination because it can affect an individual’s physical, mental and social health. The purpose of this paper is to understand and describe the different factors that contribute to fear of contamination as well as conduct an experiment to further interpret this concept.
In the article “Fear of contamination” written by Rachman (2004), the article outlines four main types of contaminants which include soiled, infectious, harmful substances and mentally …show more content…
Mentally pollutant describes one that is left with the feeling of being dirty, impure and a lasting memory of the contamination (Rachman, 2004). Some characteristics of fear mentioned in the article are compulsive cleaning and obsessional-compulsive cleaning disorder (OCD) (Rachman, 2004). Compulsive cleaning aims to physically remove the contaminant while OCD is targeted towards relieving the mental aspect of fear. The three types of fear that are mentioned in this article are fear of physical, mental and social harm. In the social harm due to fear of contamination, individuals will often think about how they are contaminating the people around them and will try to avoid the contamination in order to be accepted. People who are the source of contamination have a fear of being socially rejected and avoided. For example, if a person is sick and wants to be included in a social gathering with their friends, they will try their best to act healthy because they do not want to pass the germs to others. Also, they do not want their friends to know that they are sick to avoid being rejected by the group. Normal fears of contamination are ones where people are not scared about germs produced by their own self but are scared of
In the article “Fear of contamination” written by Rachman (2004), the article outlines four main types of contaminants which include soiled, infectious, harmful substances and mentally …show more content…
Mentally pollutant describes one that is left with the feeling of being dirty, impure and a lasting memory of the contamination (Rachman, 2004). Some characteristics of fear mentioned in the article are compulsive cleaning and obsessional-compulsive cleaning disorder (OCD) (Rachman, 2004). Compulsive cleaning aims to physically remove the contaminant while OCD is targeted towards relieving the mental aspect of fear. The three types of fear that are mentioned in this article are fear of physical, mental and social harm. In the social harm due to fear of contamination, individuals will often think about how they are contaminating the people around them and will try to avoid the contamination in order to be accepted. People who are the source of contamination have a fear of being socially rejected and avoided. For example, if a person is sick and wants to be included in a social gathering with their friends, they will try their best to act healthy because they do not want to pass the germs to others. Also, they do not want their friends to know that they are sick to avoid being rejected by the group. Normal fears of contamination are ones where people are not scared about germs produced by their own self but are scared of