Lecture 16: Normative development of fears

Question 1

What distinguishes childhood fears from phobias?

Answer 1

• Childhood fears: Common, mild, follow a predictable pattern, and often disappear with age.
• Phobias: Intense, irrational fears that interfere with daily functioning.

Question 2

What are the three main methods for assessing childhood fears?

Answer 2

1. Interviews: Asking children directly about their fears.
2. Questionnaires: Fear Survey Schedule for Children (FSSC-R) by Ollendick (1983).
   Measures severity, type, and number of fears.
3. Parent/Teacher Reports: Adults provide retrospective assessments of children’s fears.

Question 3

What are the main physical, emotional, and behavioral responses to fear?

Answer 3

• Physical: Sweaty palms, racing heart, shaky, butterflies in the stomach.
• Emotional: Impending doom, worry, inability to think clearly.
• Behavioral: Frozen, fleeing, or defensive actions.

Question 4

What are the five fear factors in the FSSC-R?

Answer 4

1. Danger/Death.
2. Failure/Criticism.
3. The Unknown (e.g., dark).
4. Animals.
5. Medical Stress.
   Methodology: Self-report questionnaire filled out by children.

Question 5

What are the typical developmental patterns of childhood fears?

Answer 5

1. Infancy: Fear of loud noises, heights, and separation.
2. Early Childhood (4–8 years): Fear of ghosts, imaginary creatures, and animals.
3. Middle Childhood (10–12 years): Fear of self-injury and social fears.
4. Adolescence: Complex fears tied to identity and social evaluation (Field & Davey, 2001).

Methodology: Longitudinal observations and retrospective studies.

Question 6

How does gender influence childhood fears?

Answer 6

1. Girls report more fears than boys (Ollendick, King, & Frary, 1989).
2. Methodology: Surveys with 1,185 children aged 7–16.

Question 6

What cultural variations exist in childhood fears?

Answer 6

• Fear intensity varies across countries (Ollendick et al., 1996):
• Nigeria > China > US = Australia.
• Collectivist cultures report more social fears.

Methodology: Cross-cultural surveys comparing fear intensity and content.

Question 7

How does socioeconomic status (SES) influence childhood fears?

Answer 7

• Lower SES: More fears of violence, strange people, and abandonment.
• Middle/Upper SES: Fears of heights, illness, and pet safety (Croake, 1969).

Methodology: Interviews with parents and children across SES backgrounds.

Question 8

What does the evolutionary approach to fear suggest?

Answer 8

• Fear facilitates survival by prompting rapid responses to threats (Ohman et al., 1985).
• Preparedness explains rapid acquisition of fears like snakes and spiders.

Methodology: Experimental studies using visual detection tasks.

Question 9

What did LoBue & DeLoache (2010) find about perceptual bias for threats?

Answer 9

• Infants detect snakes and spiders faster than neutral images.

Methodology: Visual detection tasks comparing infants’ reaction times to threat and neutral stimuli.

Question 10

How does cognitive development influence childhood fears?

Answer 10

• Fears evolve as children conceptualize threats (Vasey, 1993).
• Older children’s fears involve worry and self-control.

Methodology: Cognitive assessments combined with interviews.

Question 11

What did Muris et al. (2002) find about cognitive maturation and worry?

Answer 11

• Cognitive development enhances ability to catastrophize.

Methodology:
Sample: 248 children aged 3–14.
Piagetian tasks and structured interviews to assess worry and cognitive processes.

Question 12

What are the findings of Bauer (1976) on childhood fears?

Answer 12

• Fears of monsters decrease with age, while fears of injury increase.

Methodology: Interviews with children aged 4–12.

Question 13

What did Ollendick, King, & Frary (1989) discover about top childhood fears?

Answer 13

Danger and physical harm were the most common fears.

Methodology: Survey of 1,185 children in the US and Australia.

Question 14

What is preparedness theory in fear development?

Answer 14

• Humans are biologically predisposed to acquire fears of evolutionary threats like snakes and spiders (Ohman et al., 1985).

Methodology: Controlled experiments testing rapid fear acquisition.

Question 15

What role does cultural transmission play in childhood fears?

Answer 15

• Parents’ fear responses shape children’s fear behaviors through modeling and reinforcement.

Methodology: Observational studies and parental surveys.

Question 16

What are the key moderators of childhood fears?

Answer 16

• Gender.
• Cultural background.
• Socioeconomic status (SES).

Methodology: Large-scale surveys and cross-cultural studies.

Question 17

How does fear serve an adaptive purpose?

Answer 17

• Fear promotes survival by facilitating fight, flight, or freeze responses in the face of threats.

Methodology: Evolutionary studies and naturalistic observations.

Question 18

What did Gullone & King (1993) find about gendered differences in fear stimuli?

Answer 18

• Girls were more likely to report fears of spiders and bad dreams, while boys reported fears of physical harm.

Methodology: Surveys conducted with children across multiple age groups.

Question 18

What does the perceptual bias in infants reveal about fear?

Answer 18

• Infants as young as 9–12 months exhibit a preference for detecting snakes and spiders over neutral stimuli (LoBue & Rakison, 2013).

Methodology: Visual detection experiments.

Question 19

How do social-evaluative fears emerge during adolescence?

Answer 19

• Adolescents experience fears related to identity and peer evaluation, such as fear of embarrassment or rejection (Field & Davey, 2001).

Methodology: Self-report surveys and interviews focusing on social fears.

Question 20

What are the overall patterns of childhood fear development?

Answer 20

1. Fear content and intensity evolve predictably with age.
2. Cognitive development and cultural transmission influence fear responses.
3. Evolutionary preparedness shapes biases toward specific stimuli.

Question 21

How does the “perceptual template” in infants contribute to fear development?

Answer 21

• Infants are predisposed to recognize shapes associated with threats, such as the coiled shapes of snakes (Rakison & Derringer, 2007).

Methodology: Experimental tasks presenting infants with snake-like vs. neutral shapes.

Question 22

How does SES influence children’s fear priorities?

Answer 22

• Lower SES: More fears of immediate dangers like violence and abandonment.
• Higher SES: Focus on abstract fears like pet safety and illness (Croake, 1969).

Methodology: Comparative interviews between SES groups.

Question 23

How do gender roles influence fear expression in children?

Answer 23

• Social expectations may discourage boys from expressing fears, contributing to differences in reported fear levels (Ollendick, King, & Frary, 1989).

Methodology: Observational studies and interviews analyzing gender differences in fear reporting.