Benjamin Sprenger
Sinclair Community College
7:00pm – 8:15pm
The brain is a highly complex organ, with a network of nerve cells that serve as a starting point for everything an individual senses, thinks, and ultimately the actions carried out. There are two responses that the brain is responsible for carrying out: conscious responses and autonomic responses, with fear being an example of the latter due to it usually being triggered unconsciously, leaving the individual to realize that the fear reaction has been triggered only after a myriad of physical responses have occurred (Debiec & LeDoux, 2004).
While the experience of fear is rather autonomic, humans are rather skilled at recognizing a variety of dangers that may be present in their environment. This is done through both direct and indirect exposure to a variety of stimuli over their lifetime. Rather than having to rely on experiencing each stimulus directly, humans are able to learn through witnessing the emotional reactions to fearful or dangerous stimuli experienced by other individuals. This indirect experience may be considered to be a product of humans being social beings, as the ability to read facial expressions of others regarding potential dangers in the environment allows for messages to be relayed without the need for verbal speech. Such a skill may be an evolutionary trait that has been delegated to the amygdala for autonomic processing, and develops between the ages of six months to one year of age (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012).
Research has discovered that during infancy, the gaze towards fearful expressions is held longer when compared to the time spent assessing either neutral or happy facial expressions (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012). This may be an important part of the autonomic response associated with fear processing, since a fearful facial expression may signal the presence of a threat in the environment, triggering a longer processing duration in order to identify the possible source of threat or danger (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012).
The neural structure that is responsible for the recognition of dangerous situations or the eliciting of fear is not relegated to only the human species, as research carried out with rhesus monkeys discovered that at the comparable chronological age (two months in rhesus monkey is roughly the equivalent of eight months in human infant terms), similar fear-related behaviors emerge (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012). When comparing the developmental ages of human infants and the rhesus monkeys, while the sensitivity to affiliative cues may occur during the same developmental period, rhesus monkeys appear to develop sensitivity to danger-related cues, stranger anxiety, and begin to spend more time away from their primary caregiver at an earlier rate when compared to human infants of the same developmental age (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012). Perhaps the earlier onset of these particular traits may be due to the environment in which each infant (rhesus monkey and human) grows up and the potential dangers present that elicit fear responses. In addition to the rhesus monkey discovery, other research revealed that similar fear processing occurs in rodents around the time the rat pups reach the age of twelve days old. At about two weeks of age, rat pups are able to avoid stimuli that are associated with an elicited fear response (Leppanen & Nelson, 2012).
The fight or flight response associated with fear assessment allows individuals to quickly evaluate their surroundings and assess the potential dangers in the environment. However, the stimuli do not necessarily need to be experienced previously in order to elicit fear or trigger the autonomic fear response, due to the ability for the brain to identify threat-related cues and discern potential threats into fear-related categories. The ability to identify dangerous items within the environment that have not previously been experienced is a time-saving and evolution-benefiting skill (Debiec & LeDoux, 2004).
While the development of fear-inducing objects can potentially be a life-saving skill, it can also lead to irrational or learned fears that may be maladaptive to one’s life. While fear is a useful response to actual danger being present or imminent, when the fear is either irrational or the amount of fear present is too excessive for the situation, a phobia may develop. Phobias are reactions to feared objects or situations that elicit both emotional and physical effects in response to the perceived threat. However, since phobias are considered a learned fear, they can also be “unlearned” through a variety of psychological treatments. Certain phobias, such as the fear of heights or spiders may be beneficial to the individual; however, they also pose the risk of severely limiting the activities an individual engages in throughout their lives.
Agoraphobia
Officially recognized around the early 1900s, agoraphobia has been postulated as being a response to the modernization of society, as there were new developments such as department stores and while providing ease in the attainment of goods, it also brought large congregations of people in one small area, which was a new experience for many (Lenz & MagShamhrain, 2012). Agoraphobia is a good example of a learned fear, as anxiety associated with the streets and open spaces does not seem to have an evolutionary benefit. Research suggests that it is not the space itself, but rather what the space represents to the individual (Lenz & MagShamhrain, 2012).
Gamophobia
Another example of a learned fear is gamophobia, or the irrational fear of marriage, characterized by feelings of panic, terror, and dread associated with the thought of getting married, being in a relationship, or a commitment with another individual. While the individual with gamophobia may have feelings for another person, once they learn that the other person likes them back, the person with gamophobia may change from liking the other person, to despising them based only on learning that their target of affection has feelings for them too (Curtis & Susman, 1994). The fear of relationships and commitment brings with it a decrease in the benefits that are associated with close relationships, such as “improved physical and mental health, expanded occupational success and potential income, and increased feelings of well-being” (Curtis & Susman, 1994).
Conclusion
Upon examining the information regarding the development of fears, it can be concluded that there are some healthy fears that trigger the autonomic response and the fight or flight response, as well as those fears that are learned. Humans appear to be similar to other mammals and even rodents in their ability to assess their environment for danger within their environment, developing in a similar timeframe as one another. Learned fears appear to have little to no evolutionary link, and some, such as gamophobia, may actually have detrimental physical and psychological effects. However, individuals with fears and phobias are not destined for a life of solitude, as there are a variety of psychological treatments that may be of benefit to individuals experiencing debilitating phobias.
References
Curtis, J. M., & Susman, V. M. (1994). Factors related to fear of marriage. Psychological Reports, 74(3), 859-863.
Debiec, J., & LeDoux, J. (2004). Fear and the brain. Social Research, 71(4), 807-818.
Lenz, T., & MagShamhrain, R. (2012). Inventing diseases: Kleptomania, agoraphobia and resistance to modernity. Society, 49(3), 279-283. doi:10.1007/s12115-012-9542-z
Leppanen, J. M., & Nelson, C. A. (2012). Early development of fear processing. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 200-204. doi:10.1177/0963721411435841
