Developmental Psychology - Development of Fears

How are childhood fears assessed?

Directly through:

• Interviews

• Reports

• Questionnaires

What are the characteristics of normal childhood fears?

• Commonly experienced.

• Relatively mild.

• Appear and disappear.

• Follow a pattern (decreasing with age).

What did Bauer find about longevity of childhood fears?

Fear in most categories decreases with age.

What is the Fear Survey Schedule for Children (Ollendick, 1983)?

An 80-item measure of children's fears in response to various stimuli.

What are the methodological issues with the Fear Survey Schedule?

• Items are outdated.

• Cannot capture cultural variation.

• Missing items.

• May not address the actual frequency of fears.

What were the findings of Ollendick et al. (1989) about fear?

• Children experience an average of 14 fears.

• Top fears are related to danger and harm.

What are the moderators of childhood fear?

• Gender.

• Cultural variation.

• Socioeconomic effects.

How does gender affect childhood fear?

• Girls report more fears than boys (Ollendick et al., 1989).

• Differences may be due to biological sex differences or gender role orientation (Gullone & King, 1993).

How does cultural variation affect childhood fear?

• Fear patterns are consistent across Western countries (girls more fearful, fears decrease with age).

• Fear patterns and intensity vary between cultural groups (Ollendick et al., 1996):

  • Nigeria > China > America.

  • Girls > Boys (except in Nigeria).

  • Culturally specific fears:

    • Ghosts (China).

    • Foolishness (US).

    • Ocean (Nigeria).

    • Guns (Australia).

How does socioeconomic status (SES) affect childhood fear?

• Lower SES children report more fears.

  Exposure to specific threats and a generally more fearful environment may explain this.

What are the developmental patterns of childhood fears?

• Infants: Environmental stimuli (loud noises, separation).

• 4-8 years: Ghosts, imaginary creatures, animals.

• 10-12 years: Social fears, injury.

Patterns have been thought to predict onset of phobias. Some research is consistent with a predictable pattern but results are mixed

What did Bauer (1976) find about age-related changes in fear?

• Fear of monsters and ghosts decreases with age.

• Fear of injury and danger increases with age.

What did Muris et al. (2000) find about fears and worries by age?

• Fears and nightmares are more common in 7-9 year-olds than 10-12 year-olds.

• Worry is more common in 10-12 year-olds than 4-6 year-olds.

How do fears develop?

Some fears are innate or can be rapidly and early learned through conditioning.

Where do Fear and Anxiety originate from?

The conceptualisation of threat depends on children’s cognitive & social abilities. Complex features of anxiety increase with age.

Where do fears in infancy come from?

• Environmental Stimuli (due to being defenceless)

• Separation Anxiety (due to fear and avoidance)

What is an explanation for being fearful of snakes & spiders?

May be evolutionary (for avoiding threatening animals) since it is universal.

What is evidence that infants response to snakes & spiders is evolutionary?

Infants rapidly detect and show greater visual attention to snakes and spiders than to control images. (LoBue & DeLoache, 2010)

What evidence exists against fears of snakes and spiders being innate?

• Experiments lack corroborating evidence of fear.

• Some studies show children enjoy interacting with snakes and spiders.

• May reflect a perceptual bias rather than fear. (snakes and spiders capture attention - children respond faster to “snake-shaped” patterns)

What did Muris et al., (2020) find about the effect of age & cognitive matureness on worry?

Increased age and cognitive matureness lead to enhanced ability to elaborate on worries, increasing the risk for personal worry.

Describe differences in fear content between children & adolescence

Children:

• Imaginary creatures

• dark

• small animals

Adolescence:

• Social Fears/Evaluation

• Injury

• General Worry