The Psychology of fear part two

The causes of fear

There are many opinions on the causes of fear as well as there being different circumstances to which a fear an occur. People develop specific fears as a result of learning. This has been studied in psychology as fear conditioning. Fears can become generalised, as learnt from the  John B Watsons study on little albert in 1920. Here an 11month old boy was conditioned to fear a white rat, but this lead to him being scared of anything of similar looks; white, furry. In the real world, fear can be acquired by a frightening traumatic accident, which could have a similar effect to little ablerts rat. Forexample a child falls down a well but manages to be resued, this could lead to a phobia of water, heights, enclosed spaces, the dark... ect.

Other studies show that fear can be learnt regardless to if they have personally experienced trauma, or even just by observing fear in others. 

Although fear is learned, the capacity to fear is part of human nature. Many studies have found that certain fears are much more common than others. 


obviously in everyday we come across ways inwhich to induce fear for fun. a prime example are theme parks. People purposely put themselves in (while controled) rides in which they simulate high speeds, twists turns and generally anything to induce a high adrenaline level. i myself am abit of an adrenaline junkie when it comes to themepark rides. Another of my passions that are fear indusing is the whole of the horror genre. From films, tv shows, books, we spend millions every year to get a short sharp taste of fear. I like nothing more then watching films to see if any of them can get ur heartracing, or books that let ur imagenation run wild and get your heart pumping! none of this sparkly vampire shit that tweens these days seem to fall for, im talking heart pounding goosebumps horror. And the fact that we as a country celebrate a festival to which we homage to horror, death and scares! every year on halloween everyone faces what has come to be pure basics of horror. shops selling toy spiders and plastic snakes and everyones dresses as there favourite creature of the night.  We are a country that seems to get pleasure from fear.