Normative development of fears

Question 1

How do we respond to fear?

Answer 1

Fight
Flight
Freeze

Question 2

How is childhood fear measured?

Answer 2

Assessed directly (and often retrospectively) using child interviews, questionnaires, parent/teacher report

Question 3

What are the characteristics of normal childhood fears?

Answer 3

Commonly experience
Relatively mild
Appear and disappear spontaneously
Follow a predictable pattern
Decrease with age

Question 4

What does Gullone (2000) review show?

Answer 4

Reviewed interview studies with 4-19 year olds
Average number of fears is 2-5 per child
Tend to elicit general themes e.g. animals, death/injury, the unknown, social concerns

Question 5

What happened in Bauer (1976) study?

Answer 5

Aged 4-6, 6-8,20,12
Asked ‘what are you afraid of most?’

Categories
o Injury/ physical danger
o Monsters and ghost
o Animals
o Bedtime fears
o Frightening dreams

Fears of injury ↑ w/ age
Fears in most categories ↓ w/ age esp. monsters

Question 6

What does Ollendick’s study (1983) show?

Answer 6

80 item measure of children’s fear in response to a range of spec. stimuli/situations called Fear survey schedule for children - revised
* Measures number, severity and type of normal fears children experience

Five reliable factors
o Fear of danger and death (e.g. being hit by a car or truck)
o Fear of failure and criticism (e.g. looking foolish)
o Fear of the unknown (e.g. going to bed in the dark)
o Fear of animals (e.g. snakes)
o Stress and medical fears (e.g. getting an injection from the doctor

Question 7

What are the methodological issues of studying childhood fears?

Answer 7

1. Some of the items = outdated + contemporary threats (e.g. climate change) not included (Fishkin et al, 1997; Lengua et al., 2005)
2. Doesn’t capture cultural variation in childhood fears
3. Only measure what is included, not an exhaustive list (see Muris et al.,, 1997)

Question 8

What do Ollendick et al.’s study (1989) show?

Answer 8

N = 1185 children (395 aged 7-10, 449 aged 11-13, 341 aged 14-16)
Recruited in US and Australia
Average of 14 fears reported (see also Ollendick et al., 1996)
o Top fears relate to dangerous situations and physical harm

Question 9

What are the three moderators of childhood fears?

Answer 9

1. Gender
2. Cultural variation
3. Socioeconomic effects

Question 10

How is gender a moderator of childhood fears?

Answer 10

Ollendick et al. &1989
Identified as girls report more fears than children who identified as boys. Fears highest for death/danger items

Gullone & King (1993): Items that most strongly discriminated between boys and girls
Rats, spiders, snakes, mice, creepy houses, being alone, bad dreams

Brody et al. (1990) = gender role orientation stronger predictor of fear than child’s biological sex

Question 11

How is cultural variation a moderator of childhood fears?

Answer 11

Across “Western” countries lots of consistency:
* Number of fears decreases with age
* Girls more fearful than boys
* Content of fears appears to show similar developmental pattern (but also some idiosyncrasies e.g. sharks in Australia)

Ollendick et al. (1996)
* 1200 7-17 year old in Nigeria, China, US and Australia
* Found iff. in intensity + patterns of fears
o Nigeria > China > America = Australia
o Girls > boys apart from Nigeria
o Fears ↓ w/ age = only US + Australian samples.
o No age diff. in Nigerian sample
o Peak in anxiety in late childhood (10-14yrs) in Chinese sample
* Common fears primarily death/danger related but ↑ social-evaluative + safety-related fear in Nigerian and Chinese samples
* Idiosyncratic fears – ghosts in China, looking foolish in US, ocean in Nigeria, guns in Australia

Could be the result of socialisation practices especially in collectivist cultures.

Question 12

What does idiosyncratic fears mean?

Answer 12

distinctive fear to a specific area

Question 13

How are socioeconomic effects a moderator of childhood fears?

Answer 13

Coroake (1969) = ↓ SES children report ↑ fears

Differences in content of fears
* Low SES = animals, strange people, abandonment by parents, death, violence, knives
* Middle/Upper SES = heights, ill health, rollercoasters, pet’s safety

Exposed to ↑ spec. threats + enhanced general feelings of fear and anxiety in ↓ SES environments

Question 14

What are developmental patterns in fear?

Answer 14

How different fears might emerge at different times across childhood. Suggests that fears are a predictable developmental pattern.

o Infants = environmental stimuli (loud noises, separation, unusual stimuli)
o 4-8: Ghosts, imaginary creatures, and animals
o 10-12: social fears, self-injury

Question 15

What does Field and Davey (2001) show?

Answer 15

• Evidence that pattern maps onset of phobias
  o Height/water phobia begins in infancy
  o Animal phobias start between 7-9
  o Social fears in pre-adolescence
  o H/E = some researchers argue that some fears like snakes may be innate + present from very early in development

Question 16

Name consistent research w/ predictable patter but mixed, hard to interpret results

Answer 16

Buer (1976)
o fear of monsters and ghosts ↓ with age
o Fear of bodily injury and physical danger ↑ with age

Muris et al. (2000): 4-12 year olds
o Fears and scary dreams more common in 7-9 year olds compared to 10-12 year olds
o Worry more common in 10-12 year olds than 4 – 6 year olds

Question 17

Describe the evolutionary approach towards fears

Answer 17

Natural selection = supports indvdls who rapidly learn about threats = danger to self because this facilitates survival bc ↑ survival.

Fear system evolved to focus on threats @ ages where
threats = ↑ greatest risk to our ancestors (Ohman et al., 1985)

Some fears = innate + may not need to be learned at all (Poulton & Menzies, 2002)

We may be prepared to rapidly acquire some fears with little or
no prior learning*

Question 18

Describe cognitive development as an approach to fears

Answer 18

originates from conceptualisation of threat= Conceptualisation of threat depends on a child’s cognitive + physical abilities (Vasey, 1993)

cognitive abilities e.g. biological regulation, memory, self-control = ↑ sophisticated

Range of fear-provoking stimuli broadens + cognitive features
of anxiety (e.g. worry) = ↑ prevalent

Question 19

What are common fears in infancy?

Answer 19

Environmental stimuli

Separation anxiety

Question 20

What is the evolution assumption of common fears in young children?

Answer 20

Young children = defenseless so adaptive to fear wide range of environmental stimuli

Fear + avoidance = keeps infant within protective distance of caregivers ↑ survival

Question 21

What is the cognitive development explanation of common fears in infancy?

Answer 21

Cognitive capacities = limited so fear is directed at immediate, concrete environmental threats

By 9mths = children develop ability to differentiate between
familiar and unfamiliar faces so sep anx, fear of strangers emerges

Question 22

What are common fears in early/middle childhood?

Answer 22

Imaginary creatures, fear of the dark

Fear of small animals

Question 23

What is the evolution explanation of common fears in early/middle childhood?

Answer 23

Young children = begin to explore environment more independently increasing risk from predators + dangerous environments

Fear system evolved to prioritise rapid learning about threats from animals/unknown situations

Question 24

What is the cognitive development explanation of common fears in early/middle childhood?

Answer 24

Development of magical thinking and poor fantasy-reality distinction may account for fear of monsters

Fear of animals/unknown emerges with increased physical mobility and awareness of external environment

Question 25

What are common fears in adolescence?

Answer 25

Social fears and evaluation

Fear of injury (physical/mental) to self

↑ generalised worry

Question 26

What is the evolution explanation of common fears in adolescence?

Answer 26

Social position w/in a group = difference between survival or not

Fear system = rapid learning about threats in the social world

Question 27

What is the cognitive development explanation of common fears in adolescence?

Answer 27

Abstract thinking + understanding of cause-effect increase range of fear provoking stimuli + allows ↑ cognitive features of fear to emerge

↑ egocentrism leads to sensitisation to evaluations/insults to self

Question 28

What happened in Muris et al’s (2002) study? N =

Answer 28

N = 248 children aged 3-14 years

Measured main worry using interview + ability to catastrophise

Cognitive maturation measured using using Piagetian conservation tasks

Results = ↑ age and cognitive maturation lead to enhanced ability to elaborate on worries, in turn ↑ risk for emergence of personal worry

Question 29

Describe for evolutionary fear in infants

Answer 29

Some fears = present from birth or very early in development

8-10mths, evolutionary accounts = infants
show neg. responses + rapid detection indicative
of innate fear of snakes + spiders
* Negative responses are universal across cultures
* Seen across a variety of nonhuman animals

Infants responses fit w/ evolutionary explanations abt adaptive significance of avoiding animals that might threaten their survival

Question 30

Describe supporting evidence for evolutionary accounts

Answer 30

Infants = faster associations between snakes + fearful stimuli than between snakes and happy stimuli

• 16mth olds look longer at a snake video than a video of another animal (paired side-by-side) while listening to a fearful voice but not happy voice (DeLoache & LoBue, 2009)

Infants rapidly detect and show greater attention to snakes + spiders than to control images e.g. flowers, mushrooms
- 9-12 mth olds turn more quickly to look at snakes than flowers when images presented side by side (LoBue & DeLoache, 2010)

Question 31

Is it a fear of snakes or a perceptual bias?

Answer 31

No corroborating behavioural evidence of fear (LoBue & Rakison, 2013):
They don’t avoid looking at videos of snakes relative to other animals
They aren’t more reticent to touch images of snakes/spiders
Parents report child fear but = reflect parents’ attitudes + not children’s emotions

Some studies = young children display evidence that
they like snakes/spiders
Spend more time interacting with live animals than novel toys during free play session (LoBue et al., 2013)
Attempt to “pick up” moving snake images when on a screen

Question 32

Evidence for perceptual bias

Answer 32

Children show greater/faster attention to coiled lines or curvilinear shapes which are ‘snake-shaped (LoBue, 2014)

If snake images are uncoiled or just the snake face is shown then attention is no different compared to other stimuli (LoBue & DeLoache, 2011)

Young infants = evolved a ‘perceptual template’ allows them to rapidly detect/attend to things that have shape/movement characteristics typical of snakes/spiders