fears Flashcards
physiological fear
- racing heart
- sweaty palms
- butterflies
- shaky
behavioural fear
- urge to flee
- frozen
- defensive
cognitive fear
- worry
- can’t think straight
- impending sense of doom
assessed
- directly
- retrospectively
- e.g. child interviews, questionnaires, parent/teacher report
normal childhood fears are:
- commonly experienced
- relatively mild
- appear and disappear spontaneously
- follow predictable pattern
- decrease with age
Gullone 2000 interview review
- 4-19 year olds
- average no. of fears 2-5/child
- general themes: animal, injury, unknown, social concerns
Baur 1976 what are you afraid of most?
- ages 4-12
- ‘what are you most afraid of’
- 4-6: monsters/ghosts
- 6-8: nightmares
10-12: injury/physical danger
injury fears increase with age
ollendick1983: fear survey schedule for children FSSC
- 80 items
- measure of children’s fear in response to specific situations
- none/some/a lot
- measures number, severity and types of fears children experience
gave rise to 5 reliable factors
Ollendick FSSC 5 reliable factors
- fear of danger and death
- fear of failure and criticism
- fear of the unknown
- fear of animals
- stress and medical fears
FSSC methodological issues
- outdated and contemporary threats not yet included e.g. climate change not a thing yet
- lacks cultural inclusivity
- can only measure what is included
- doesn’t count frequency of fears or how uncomfortable children find the though of a situation
Ollendick et al: FSSC in context
- almost 1200 children
- 7-16 - 3 groups
- average of 14 fears reported
- most common: dangerous situations and physical harm
moderators of childhood fears
- gender
- cultural variation
- socioeconomic effects
gender and fears -Ollendick again
- girls report more fears than boys
- fears were highest for death/danger items
gender effects - more
discrimiantions
why?
- things that mostly discriminated between boys and girls: rats, spiders snakes, alone, dreams
why?
gender role orientation: children are socialised differently according to biological sex - raised to develop attributes in line with this - may influence fear
high femineity and low masculinity = more anxiety and avoidance
- gender orientation greater predictor than biological sex
cultural variation and fears
western
western countries = consistent:
- fear decreases with age
- girls more
- content appears to have similar developmental pattern
(but some details differ based on location e.g. sharks - australia)
cultural variation within countries
hispanic youth display higher fear and anxiety than white youth
Ollendick cross cultural variation
- 1200 cross cultural sample 7-17
- FSSC
- higher fear in nigeria and china compared to america and australia
- always highest for girls except for in nigeria
- west: fears decrease with age
- nigeria: decrease not evident
- china: peak anxiety in late childhood
ghosts - china
foolish - usa
ocean - nigeria
guns - australia
why? cross cultural variation
collectivist cultures emphasis self control, social inhibition, compliance with social norms === greater anxiety
socioeconomic effects on fear
- Lower SES = more fears Croake
- Lower SES: animals, strangers, abandonment, death, violence
Middle/upper SES: heights, ill health, rollercoasters, pet’s safety
why socioeconomic differences?
children in low SES are exposed to more uncertainty and more threats which can lead to enhanced fear and anxiety
developmental patterns
- childhood fears may develop and dissappear and predictable points
infant fears
loud noises, separations, unusual stimuli
4-8 fears
ghosts, imaginary creatures and animals
10-12 fears
social fears and self injury
age fear patterns map onset of phobias
height and water phobias = start in infancy
animal phobias = start ages 7-9
social phobias = pre adolescence
innate fears
- spider and snakes etc
- evolutionary - could kill
Bauer 1976 fears
monsters and ghosts decrease with age
injury and danger increases with age
Westernberg developmental patterns
- 882 ps
- 8-18 years
- physical e.g. monsters, animals fears decrease over age
- social fears increase with age
fears can be ..
- learned through conditioning experiences
- innate, predisposed
evolutionary approach
- natural sections favours individuals who rapidly learn about threats that pose danger = survival
- fear system evolved to focus on threats at the ages at which those threats were of the greatest risk
- some are innate - not leaned
- some we are prepared to acquire with little to no learning
cognitive approach
- fear originates from conceptualisation of threat
- this depends on child’s cognitive and physical abilities
- as cognitive abilities e.g. memory, self control, TofM fear and anxiety becomes more sophisticated
- range of fear-provoking stimuli broadens and cognitive features of anxiety e.g. worry broadens
infant fear: separation
evolutionary account: keeps child within protective distance of carer = maximum survival
cognitive account: at 9months children are able to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar faces so stranger fear develops
infant fear: environmental stimuli
evolutionary account: young children are defenceless so fear lots of environmental stimuli
cognitive account: cognitive capabilities = limited, so fear is of immediate environmental threats
middle childhood fear: imaginary creatures/dark
evolutionary acocount: childrena re now exploring env independently, important to fear predators/danger for survival
cognitive account: developments of magical thinking = monster fear
middle childhood fear: small animals
evolutionary account: fear system has evolved to prioritise threats of animals/unknown
cognitive account: emerges as physical mobility and awareness of external environment increases
adolescence fears: social
evolution: social position within group can mean survival or not
cognitive: abstract thinking and understanding of cause and effect - allows for these fears to emerge
adolescense fears: injury and general worry
evolution: fear system evolved to prioritise rapid learning about threats within social world
cognitive: increased egocentrism leads to sensitivity to evaluations and insults to self
cognitive view evidence
- 250 ps
- 3-14
- asked about worries
- assessed ability to catastrophise
- correlation found between child’s age/cognitive development and ability to elaborate on worries and show fear
cognitive mediation model
greater age = greater cognitive development = greater worry elaboration = greater personal worry
- increased age and cognitive maturation gives rise to ability to worry
evolution evidence
- very hard to study
- fears may be present from birth
- 8-10 months scared of snakes and spiders cross culturally, and amongst other animals
- supports theory that innate to survive
- infants form faster associations between snakes and fear than with snakes and happiness
- find spiders and snakes in visual search quicker than flowers and mushrooms
- but we can not prove that this is actually fear
- don’t avoid looking
- no avoidance
- parent reporting - may just reflect parental fear
rapid detection mechanism
- may just have characteristics that infants are more likely to pay attention to
perceptual template
rapidly detects things that have shape/movement of snakes/spiders
