16. Normative Development of Fears Flashcards
Normal childhood fears are what four things?
1. C____ e____
2. Relatively m____
3. A____ and d____ s____
4. Follow a p____ pattern including d____ with a____
- Commonly experienced
- Relatively mild
- Appear and disappear spontaneously
- Follow a predictable pattern including decreasing with age
Fears of i____ increase with age
Injury
Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised measures number, severity and type of normal fears children experience. The five reliable factors are:
1. Fear of da____ and de____
2. Fear of fa____ and cr____
3. Fear of the un____
4. Fear of an____
5. St____ and me____ fears
- Fear of danger and death (e.g. being hit by a car or truck)
- Fear of failure and criticism (e.g. looking foolish)
- Fear of the unknown (e.g. going to bed in the dark)
- Fear of animals (e.g. snakes)
- Stress and medical fears (e.g. getting an injection from the doctor)
What are four methodological issues with the Fear Survey Schedule for Children
1. Some items ou____ and co____ threats not included
2. May not capture cu____ va____
3. Can only measure what is in____
4. Might not index actual fr____ of fears
- Some items quite outdated and contemporary threats (e.g. climate change) not included
- May not adequately capture cultural variation in childhood fears
- Can only measure what is included, not an exhaustive list
- Might not index actual frequency of fears
Ollendick et al. (1989) found top fears related to what two things?
1. D____ s____
2. P____ h____
Dangerous situations and physical harm
What are three moderators of childhood fears?
1. G____
2. C____ v____
3. S____ effects
- Gender
- Cultural Variation
- Socioeconomic effects
Ollendick et al. (1989) found children who identified as ____ report more fears than children who identified as ____
girls, boys
Fear levels may vary as a function of cu____ gr____ me____
cultural group membership
____ SES children report more fears
Lower
Fear of m____ and g____ decreases with age
Monsters and ghosts
Some fears can be learned through c____ experiences
Conditioning
There may be specific periods during development when we learn about certain types of fear more r____
readily
Some common fears may be i____, or we might be p____ to learn them very rapidly and at an e____ age
innate, prepared, early
Fill in the gaps about evolutionary approach:
1. Natural selection favours individuals who ra____ learn about threats that pose a danger to se____ because this facilitates su____
2. Fear sy____ evolved to focus on threats at ages at which those threats would have been greatest risk to our an____
3. Some fears may be in____ and may not need to be learned a____ al____
4. And/or we may be prepared to rapidly ac____ some fears with little or no pr____ learning
- rapidly, self, survival
- system, ancestors
- innate, at all
- acquire, prior
Fill in the gaps about cognitive development approach:
1. Fear and anxiety originates from co____ of threat
2. Conceptualisation of threat depends on a child’s co____, ph____, so____ and em____ abilities
3. As these abilities e.g. biological regulation, memory, self-control, theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning, develop, the things children fear becomes more so____
4. With increasing age/development, the ra____ of fear-provoking stimuli br____ and more co____ features of anxiety (e.g. worry) emerge
- conceptualisation
- cognitive, physical, social, emotional
- sophisticated
- range, broadens, complex
Infants rapidly detect and show greater visual attention to s____ and s____ than to control images
snakes and spiders
Rather than fear, children looking at snakes and spiders may be due to p____ b____
Perceptual bias
What are three common fears in early/middle childhood?
1. Im____ cr____
2. Fear of da____
3. Fear of sm____ an____
- Imaginary creatures
- Fear of dark
- Fear of small animals
What are three main fears in adolescence?
1. S____ fears and e____
2. Fear of i____ to s____
3. M____ g____ w____
- Social fears and evaluation
- Fear of injury to self
- More generalised worry
Muris et al. (2002) found increased age and cognitive maturation lead to enhanced ability to el____ on w____, in turn increasing risk for emergence of pe____ w____
enhanced ability to elaborate on worries, in turn increasing risk for emergence of personal worry
what does Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised measure?
N____, s____ and t____ of n____ fears children experience
Measures number, severity and type of normal fears children experience
Ollendick found Children experience some fear of, on average ____ stimuli
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Gender impacts the i____ and c____ of fear
intensity, content
Gender effects may be explained by bi____ se____ differences and/or ge____ ro____ or____
biological sex, gender role orientation
P____ fears decrease with age, while s____ fears increase with age
Physical, social
Rather than fear, snakes/spiders may hold a ‘sp____ st____’ – they may capture young infants visual attention ra____ and this may then allow ra____ le____ of fear
special status, rapidly, rapid learning
Young infants may have evolved a ‘pe____ te____’ which allows them to rapidly de____/at____ to things that have sh____/mo____ characteristics typical of sn____/sp____
perceptual template
detect/attend
shape/movement
snakes/spiders
The greater a childs a____ and the greater a childs level of c____ d____, the more able they were to ca____ and generate a f____ and w____
age, cognitive development
catastrophise, fear, worry
