On page 71, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions in the second exercise to develop critical thinking.
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Think about the ideas in the readings "Fears, Reactions, Coping" and "Superhuman Powers". Discuss the following question in a blog comment.
- Do you think we learn fears and reactions, or are we born with them?
Useful language:
- It could be argued that … because …
Do try to use at least some of the useful language.
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Reference
This question reminds me of Palms blog post from last night, "What makes good children?" In that discussion, the question of whether behaviours and character attributes are innate or learned also comes up.
ReplyDeleteIt could be argued that we are born with many fears, such as that of snakes and dangerous animals. The explanation in the reading makes sense: our ancestors who feared snakes, spiders and perhaps any unknown animal would be less likely to get eaten, so any genetically built in fear would be passed on to their children.
Also, the brain mechanisms such as the release of chemicals when we feel fear, are not something that can be learned. They are built by our genes before we are even born, so if the mechanisms of fear are innate, it is logical that at least some fear reactions are also innate.
But it could also be argued that experience also plays a role in forming fears, that is, that at least some of our fears are learned. 100,000 years ago, no human being could have had a phobic reaction to cotton balls (one of my friends has this phobia) because they did not exist. So, I would argue that although the underlying mechanisms of fear are innate, at least some of the content is learned from what we experience. This is similar to language: our brains are programmed to soak up a language, but the particular language we soak up depends on where and when we were born: we all naturally learn our native language without ever having to study it, but we don't all learn English (or Thai, or Chinese, or Latin) without study.
I really agree with you. I will take the example of my relative. Before, he is ok with being alone in the dark room. But, after he has watched horror movie he cant even sleep that night and he now afraid of being in the room alone.
DeleteI think both of them can affect to our fear, but I tend to more support the idea that we learn fears and reactions.We cannot feel fear of somethings if we don't think it is dangerous, and this feeling we doesn't born with, it's from learning process. I can recall to my experience why I am afraid of pigeons. When I was in primary school, there are a lot of pigeons throughout the schools and I see some of them got a disease and one time it flew and hit me. That's why I think fears and reactions are develop through our learning process.
ReplyDeleteIt could be argued that we learn fears and reactions because in some dangerous situations we even have no time to think about that what we should to response it,For example,if an angry dog chases us,we will probably run faster than usually,in this case,our reaction is born.But it not means that all of our fear and reactions are born.when somebody tell us a terrible experience about himself,may be we will make a better reaction when we face that situation which our friends told us.For example,if my friend told me someplace is dangerous because he had robbed there,so,i will not go there by myself,in this way we learn fears and reactions not born.
ReplyDeleteIt could be argued that fears are innate. There are fears that we cannot teach by a sociaty such as the fear of height. Our basic fear are transfer through DNA from our anscestor. It also impossible to make someone becomes faster in a matter of a second because this includes many hormones and chemical to make us uses more than 20% of our own strength. Without DNA and many chemical reactions chain that is innate, these situation can't occure. Our human body is wonderful and there is still many things we don't know about our body.
ReplyDeleteHowever, some of fear can be learned too. Like the passage in the book where kids follow thier parent's fear. Also, the fear of the dark. Many people afraid of ghost that why they developed the fear of darkness. This came from the fact that they watch too much horror movies and afraid of something that cann't be proven.
It could be argued that we born with fears and reactions because most of situation about fears come from our experiences.
ReplyDeleteAccording to superhuman powers, if we face up with the angry dog, we will probably run faster. This is an example of reaction that come from our experience.
Moreover, the author give an example of human live in the past that human need to learn to response to dangerous situations quickly because they need to be survive. This is a good example of fear that can be learned from our experiences.
It can be considered that reactions and fears are what we learn after because people often develop fears and reactions by experiences them maybe not by themselves but by seeing others as well as in "Fears, Reactions, Coping" gives the example that if you see someone drown you may react by developing a fear of water. Also I've experienced the fear of water by myself that when I was young I saw my friends was drowning so I discovered that people can be died by water.
ReplyDeleteYes I think we are born with them the feeling of fear is the reaction that we don't need to learn to fear It could be argued that what to fear is a different aspect. and what to fear can be learned whether from other people or from event that you witnessed in the past can engender your fear.
ReplyDeleteIt could be argued that sometimes we might aware that what we we fear of at first. After others triggered you then you know what to fear.
It could be argued that we learn fears and reactions because when we born we do not know what things can do harm to us. When we face with dangerous situations we will start developing a fear to help us deal with dangerous things effectively. So the past experience tech us to develop fear. For example, when baby faces with sneak for the first time in his life he do not know what a sneak is, so he has no fear with sneak.
ReplyDelete