Normative development of fears Flashcards
What does fear feel like for:
1. Physiological
2. Behavioural
3. Cognitive
4. Differences in terms of subjective feelings people feel
- Physiological
- sweaty palms
- butterflies
- racing heart
- shaky - Behavioural
- defensive
- urge to flee
- frozen - Cognitive
- worry
- can’t think straight
- impending doom - Differences in terms of subjective feelings people feel
- upset
- panicked
- terrified
- thrilling
What are we afraid of?
Different situation stimuli can cause fear
It tends to be things that maybe represent a danger to our safety or well-being
Common fears include: heights, particular animals, social fears
What are three ways children respond to fear?
- fight response
- flight response
- freeze
Childhood fears:
1- how are they assessed
2- characteristics of normal childhood fears?
3- what did Gullone (2000) study reveal?
1- Assessed directly (and often retrospectively) using child interviews, questionnaires, parent/teacher report. (these measures have limitations- shown in essential reading)
2- Normal childhood fears are:
- Commonly experienced/universal
- Relatively mild
- Appear and disappear spontaneously
- Follow a predictable pattern in terms of content
- Decrease with age
3- Gullone (2000) 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.
Bauer (1976)
Method and Results
Method
- Interview study
- Aged 4-6 (n = 19), 6-8 (n = 15), 10-12 (n= 20).
- ‘What are you afraid of most?’
- Then put answers into categories
Results
- categories include injury, monsters, animals, bedtime fears, frightening dreams
- Between age of 4 and 12 it depends on the category of fear
- Fears in most categories decrease with age, especially for monsters
- Fears of injury/ physical danger increase with age
Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised (FSSC-R)
Ollendick (1983)
What is it?
One of the most commonly used measures
80 item measure of children’s fear in response to a range of specific stimuli/situations (none, some, a lot).
Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised
- What does it measure?
- What are the five reliable factors it includes?
Measures number, severity and type of normal fears children experience.
Five reliable factors:
- 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)
Methodological Issues with the Fear Survey Schedule for Children - Revised (FSSC-R)
- Some of the items are 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, King & Frary, 1989
Method
- 1185 children and adolescents (395 aged 7-10, 449 aged 11-13, 341 aged 14-16).
- Recruited in USA and Australia.
- Average of 14 fears reported
- Top fears relate to dangerous situations and physical harm.
Moderators of Childhood Fears
- Gender
- Cultural variation
- Socioeconomic effects
Ollendick, King & Frary, 1989
Results
- Children who identified as girls report more fears than children who identified as boys.
- Fears highest for death/danger items.
Gender effects
1- Gullone & King (1993)
2- what might gender effects be explained by?
3- Gender role orientation theories
1- Gullone & King (1993) - items that most strongly discriminated between boys and girls:
— Rats, spiders, snakes, mice, creepy houses, being alone, bad dreams.
2- Gender effects may be explained by biological sex differences and/or gender role orientation.
— High femininity and low masculinity associated with greater anxiety and avoidance (Ginsburg & Silverman, 2000; Muris, Meesters & Knoops, 2005).
— Gender role orientation stronger predictor of fear than child’s biological sex (Brody, Hay & Vandewater, 1990).
3- Gender role orientation theories: Children raised to develop interests, attitudes, and values considered consistent with their biological sex (according to social norms). Results in masculine and feminine sex-typed behaviours and characteristics.
Cultural Variation:
1- what is there across “Western” countries?
2- how do fear levels vary?
3- what has been found within-countries?
1- 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).
2- Fear levels may vary as a function of cultural group membership.
3- Cross-cultural differences have been found within-countries:
— e.g., in the USA, Hispanic youth display higher fear and anxiety than White youth
Ollendick et al. (1996)
- sample
- differences in?
- socialisation practices?
- 1200 participants aged 7-17 years in Nigeria, China, USA and Australia
Differences in intensity and patterns of fears:
- Nigeria > China > America = Australia.
- Girls > boys apart from Nigeria.
- Fears decreased with age only in USA and Australian samples. No age differences in Nigerian sample and peak in anxiety in late childhood (10-14yrs) in Chinese sample.
- Common fears primarily death/danger related but more social-evaluative and safety-related fear in Nigerian and Chinese samples.
- Idiosyncratic fears – ghosts in China, looking foolish in USA, ocean in Nigeria, guns in Australia.
Socialisation practices?
- Collectivist cultures emphasise self-control, social inhibition and compliance with social norms which might fuel greater fear and anxiety.
Socioeconomic effects
1- what do lower SES children report?
2- differences in content of fears
3- what are low SES characterised by
4- what are children in low SES environments exposed to?
1- Lower SES children report more fears
2- 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.
3- low SES are characterised by more uncertainty
4- Children in low SES environments are exposed to more specific threats and enhanced general feelings of fear and anxiety.
Developmental Patterns
- What age to fears develop?
- Some evidence that this patterns maps…
- BUT
- Infants: environmental stimuli (loud noises, separation, unusual stimuli).
- 4-8 years: ghosts, imaginary creatures, and animals.
- 10-12 years: social fears, self-injury.
- Some evidence that this patterns maps on to the age of onset of phobias (Field & Davey, 2001; Muris & Field, 2011):
- Height/water phobia begins in infancy
- Animal phobias start between 7-9
- Social fears in pre-adolescence
BUT
Some researchers argue that some fears may be innate and present from very early in development e.g. snakes, spiders.
Developmental Patterns:
- Bauer (1976)
- Muris, Merckelbach, Gadet & Moulaert (2000):
Bauer (1976):
- Fear of monsters and ghosts decreases with age
- Fear of bodily injury and physical danger increases with age
Muris, Merckelbach, Gadet & Moulaert (2000):
- Fears and scary dreams more common in 7-9 year olds compared to 10-12 year olds.
- Worry more common in 10-12 year olds than 4 – 6 year olds.
both of these studies are between 4-12 years so we have some sense of developmental patterns between these ages.
Development Patterns:
Westenberg, Drewes, Goedhart, Siebelink & Treffers, 2004
Method and Results
Method
- 882 participants aged 8-18 years.
- Assessed social and physical fears using the FSSC-R.
Results
- Physical fears tended to decrease across the 3 age groups. So physical fear came less common with age.
(This is in line with what we expect from a typical developmental pattern)
- Social fears were increasing with age
(Again fits with what we expect for developmental pattern)
- The outlier being punishment which decreases from that middle childhood time point to adolescence
What did the video clip on development of fears show?
- Suggests some fears can be learned through conditioning experiences i.e. verbal information, vicarious learning.
- Some fears may be innate or we might be prepared to learn them very rapidly and at an early age.
Evolutionary Approach:
1- which individuals does natural selection favour?
2- how does the fear system evolve?
3- what might some fears be?
4- how might we be prepared to rapidly acquire some fears?
1- Natural selection favours individuals who rapidly learn about threats that pose a danger to self because this facilitates survival.
2- Fear system evolved to focus on threats at ages at which those threats would have been greatest risk to our ancestors.
3- Some fears may be innate and may not need to be learned at all
4- We may be prepared to rapidly acquire some fears with little or no prior learning.
Cognitive Development::
1- where does fear and anxiety originate from?
2- what does conceptualisation of threat depend on?
3- what happens as cognitive abilities develop?
4- what about fear-provoking stimuli and cognitive features of anxiety?
1- Fear and anxiety originates from conceptualisation of threat.
2- Conceptualisation of threat depends on a child’s cognitive and physical abilities (Vasey, 1993).
3- As cognitive abilities (e.g. biological regulation, memory, self-control, theory of mind, counterfactual reasoning) develop, fear and anxiety become more sophisticated.
4- Range of fear-provoking stimuli broadens and cognitive features of anxiety (e.g. worry) become more prevalent.
Fears in infancy:
- common fears
- evolutionary account
- cognitive account
Common Fears
- Environmental stimuli e.g. loud noises, water, heights, strangers, some animals e.g. snakes/spiders.
- Separation anxiety e.g. loss of physical support and comfort.
Evolutionary Account
- Young children are defenseless so adaptive to fear wide range of environmental stimuli.
- Fear and avoidance keeps infant within protective distance of caregiver, maximising survival.
Cognitive Account
- Cognitive capacities are limited so fear is directed at immediate, concrete environmental threats.
- By 9 months, children develop ability to differentiate between familiar and unfamiliar faces so separation anxiety, fear of strangers emerges.
Fears in early/ middle childhood:
- common fears
- evolutionary account
- cognitive account
Common Fears
- Imaginary creatures, fear of the dark.
- Fear of small animals.
Evolutionary Account
- Young children begin to explore environment more independently, increasing risk from predators and dangerous environments.
- Fear system evolved to prioritise rapid learning about threats from animals/unknown situations.
Cognitive Account
- 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.
Fears in adolescence:
- common fears
- evolutionary account
- cognitive account
Common Fears
- Social fears and evaluation.
- Fear of injury (physical/mental) to self.
- More generalised worry.
Evolutionary Account
- Social position within a group may mean difference between survival or not.
- Fear system evolved to prioritise rapid learning about threats in the social world.
Cognitive Account
- Abstract thinking and understanding of cause-effect broadens range of fear-provoking stimuli and allows more cognitive features of fear to emerge.
- Increased egocentrism leads to sensitisation to evaluations/insults to self.
