The Power of Fear in Relation to Past Traumatic Events
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Makayla Melendez
College:
The College of Health Professions and Human Services
Major:
Forensic Psychology
Faculty Research Advisor(s):
Christine Doyle
Abstract:
Fears are common, almost inevitable. A fear is an unpleasant feeling caused by the belief that something is dangerous. It is known that everyone has fears, but where do they stem from? A bad childhood experience? Learned from adults in life? Or has it just always been that way? In this study participants consisted of men and women above the age of 18. Participants were asked to state if they had fears and if they would consider themselves a fearful person. Participants were asked a number of questions to try and support the hypothesis that fears stem from a traumatic childhood experience. There was no significance reported in people having a fear caused by a bad/traumatic childhood experience and people that reported always being afraid of said fear in relation to thinking about the fear or experiencing the fear. These findings do not support the hypothesis that fears stem from traumatic childhood experiences. Humans experience fear in a multitude of different ways. Fears also arise in many ways, some in ways people never even notice. A limitation in this study would be that since the survey was conducted online, participants could have lied with their responses about which things are feared especially if it was considered an “embarrassing” fear. Future research could include more in depth questions on how participants obtained fears, going into the specifics of the first time that fear was experienced.