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ERIC Number: EJ1295231
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2021-Jan
Pages: 22
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0272-930X
EISSN: N/A
Imaginary and Realistic Fears: Palestinian and American Children's Understanding of Fear's Situational Elicitors and Behavioral Consequences
Kayyal, Mary H.; Widen, Sherri C.
Merrill-Palmer Quarterly: Journal of Developmental Psychology, v67 n1 Article 1 p1-22 Jan 2021
When asked to describe possible elicitors of fear, American children generate more stories about imaginary creatures than realistic ones; Palestinian children generate more realistic than imaginary causes (Kayyal et al., 2015). The current study reversed this task to investigate whether these patterns persist when American (n = 72) and Palestinian (n = 72) children (3-8 years, sex- and age-matched) freely labeled a story protagonist's emotion and generated a behavioral consequence. For each story, children heard a brief description about a protagonist who encountered an imaginary (e.g., monster) or realistic (e.g., snake) fear-eliciting creature. Americans labeled the protagonist's emotion for imaginary fear stories as scared significantly more often than for realistic ones; Palestinians labeled the protagonist's emotion for both types as scared with equal probability. Children in both groups associated "escape-related" behaviors (e.g., running away) with both imaginary and realistic fear elicitors, but they associated "inquisitive" behaviors (e.g., going to look) exclusively with imaginary fear elicitors. Thus, culture plays a role in what children identify as scary but not in the behavioral responses they associate with different fear elicitors.
Wayne State University Press. The Leonard N. Simons Building, 4809 Woodward Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201-1309. Tel: 800-978-7323; Fax: 313-577-6131; Web site: http://wsupress.wayne.edu/journals/merrill/merrillj.html
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Palestine; Massachusetts (Boston)
Grant or Contract Numbers: 1025563