Terrors of Childhood

Fear is not inherent in man's nature. It is a defect born of experi- ence, suckled by confusion. A young child can be startled by a sudden noise or loss of support, but it is not of itself ever afraid. The fears of children who see bogeymen in the dark are unnatural, can be prevented. These are deductions from experiments conducted by Dr. John B. Watson and Dr. Bess Cunningham, under the auspices of the Institute of Educational Research, with the purpose of finding a way to break down the terrors of childhood.

When a child, lying awake, thinks he sees a horrifying shape in the cor- ner, or hears all night long in the dark and rain a man go riding by, the direct cause of his fear is always slight. Light huddles the darkness in a queer way, or someone has told him a story about highwaymen. It is only the trick of associating a slight concrete thing with a vast intangible one that makes such fear formidable. The fears of children invariably depend on this sort of confused association, Dr. Watson's experiments have shown.

To ascertain whether infants were susceptible to fear, a snake was shown to 15 children, aged from 14 to 27 mos. Seven betrayed no fear 'at all; they tried to grasp the snake and play with it or else disregarded it. The eight others showed guarded reactions; only two were afraid. Both were older than any of those in the first group.

To trace the transference of fear from one object to another, a rabbit was given a child and at the same time an iron bar was banged against a piece of metal. This was repeated. The child confused the noise, which he feared, with the rabbit, made the same response to both. This process of association was also used to effect cures. One baby, long under observation, was afraid of fur or anything resembling fur. The cure consisted in bringing animals into his presence while he ate., A lump of sugar was given to him and an animal brought close at the same time. After a period, his relish of the sugar offset his fear of the animal.

Through such methods, the experimenters approached the problem of banishing the bogeyman. Should they be completely successful, much tearful wailing, much downright agony will be done away with.