Fear Of Strangers Research Articles

"Nobody Here Likes Her"-The Impact of Parental Verbal Threat Information on Children's Fear of Strangers.

Parental verbal threat (vs. safety) information about strangers may induce fears of these strangers in adolescents. In this multi-method experimental study, utilizing a within-subject design, parents provided standardized verbal threat or safety information to their offspring (N=77, Mage=11.62 years, 42 girls) regarding two strangers in the lab. We also explored whether the impact of parental verbal threat information differs depending on the social anxiety levels of parents or fearful temperaments of adolescents. Adolescent's fear of strangers during social interaction tasks was assessed using cognitive (fear beliefs, attention bias), behavioral (observed avoidance and anxiety), and physiological (heart rate) indices. We also explored whether the impact of parental verbal threat information differs depending on the social anxiety levels of parents or fearful temperaments of adolescents. The findings suggest that a single exposure to parental verbal threat (vs. safety) information increased adolescent's self-reported fears about the strangers but did not increase their fearful behaviors, heart rate, or attentional bias. Furthermore, adolescents of parents with higher social anxiety levels or adolescents with fearful temperaments were not more strongly impacted by parental verbal threat information. Longitudinal research and studies investigating parents' naturalistic verbal expressions of threat are needed to expand our understanding of this potential verbal fear-learning pathway.

Oikophobia and the crisis of modern Western civilization

The subject of this article is the phenomenon of oikophobia, which in recent decades has attracted the attention of philosophers, political scientists, sociologists and psychologists who tend to interpret it as the origin of many crisis phenomena affecting the modern Western civilization. The term has been used in political contexts to refer critically to political ideologies that are perceived as responsible for repudiating one's own culture, history, traditions and laud others. The simplest way of defining oikophobia is as the opposite extreme of xenophobia. As xenophobia means the fear or hatred of strangers or foreigners, reversely oikophobia means the fear or hatred of home or one's own society or civilization, oikos being the ancient Greek word for home, house, household. The article reveals the essence and content, characteristic manifestations of oikophobia in its narrow and broad meanings, the historical, cultural and intellectual background and sources of its origin and development. The author identifies signs of oikophobia in a number of key political, philosophical and ideological paradigms and concepts. Based on our findings, we suggest that various manifestations of oikophobia, especially those that may provide the ideological basis for mass protest movements, pose a serious challenge to public policy and government institutions not only in Western countries, but also in Russia. Government bodies and non-governmental organizations involved in the process of policy formulation in the spheres of security, information and education should pay attention to the threats and challenges that government institutions in the USA, Great Britain and a number of other Western countries have already dealt with. In our opinion, one of the most relevant areas of interaction between the Russian government and civil society in the field of countering the manifestations of oikophobia should be formulating general criteria for identifying Russophobia, which could be applied not only in the field of scientific research and educational practices, but also in the field of lawmaking and law enforcement.

PRESCHOOL CHILDREN’S FEARS AND POSSIBILITIES REDUCING THEM

The article discusses the problem of fears experienced by 3-4-year-old children. Theoretical analysis of fears and anxieties is presented on purpose to find out the possibilities to solve the problem of fears in children; recommendations to educators and families raising 3-4-year-old children who face the problem of fears are presented. The article raises a problematic question: what are common fears of preschoolers and what are possibilities to reduce fears? Research aim: to reveal the fears experienced by preschoolers and possibilities to reduce them. Research objectives: to substantiate the phenomenon of the fear in a preschool age, to determine the opinion of parents raising preschoolers, and the opinion of children about the fears they have experienced, to reveal possibilities to reduce preschoolers’ fears. Applied methods: analysis of scientific literature, written survey, oral survey, qualitative and quantitative analysis of the obtained data. Research results: preschoolers experience various fears: fear of strangers, unfamiliar places, things, phenomena. Fears of preschool children are specific and related to a child’s age and experience. Many fears go away with the time by themselves. Fearful children become anxious, angry and it is harder for them to concentrate. Children’s fears are related to separation from parents, unfamiliar environments and individuals, animals, supernatural things. Parents acknowledge that their children face a variety of fears and they try to help their children to overcome these fears. Interviews with children revealed that children are most often afraid of other children, animals, imaginary creatures, unknown situations or individuals. Children associate the overcoming of their fears with the help of people close to them (parents and teachers). Close family relationship, opportunity to talk, joint activities with other children, pedagogical help and keeping to the rhythm of the day help to overcome fears. In this process it is important cooperation between family and educational institution, development of teachers’ competencies and attention to individual needs of a child. Overcoming fears is related to joint efforts of parents and teachers, preparation of educational environment, proper presentation of educational materials.

Social perception of migrants from “Belarus” from the perspective of voits and mayors from the area of the border strip under the state of emergency (case study)

The crisis on the border between Belarus and three EU countries, i.e. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, which has been ongoing since the spring of 2021, was an unprecedented attempt in Europe to destabilize the situation inside the Community. Poland faced a challenge it had not faced before. The challenge was faced not only by state authorities and services dedicated to the protection of the Union’s external border, but above all by the residents of the border areas. The influx of illegal migrants inspired by the Belarusian authorities and, as a result, the introduction of the state of emergency affected their lives to the greatest extent, disrupting its rhythm, while the migrants appearing in the farms introduced a hitherto unknown fear of strangers. In this context, the issue of perception and evaluation of the migration crisis and the actions taken by the government from the point of view of local authorities: mayors and village heads of border areas bordering Belarus seems to be extremely interesting cognitively. An empirical survey carried out on a purposive, exhaustive sample of village heads and mayors of municipalities in the border area was devoted to this problem. It should be noted here that the project had the character of a case study. It was diagnostic (exploratory) in nature at this stage and needs to be deepened in the course of further research. The results obtained allow to positively confirm the formulated research hypotheses. The problem of illegal migrants was perceived by the respondents as an issue requiring decisive and immediate action by state institutions. Cooperation with Mateusz Morawiecki’s government and its field bodies was positively assessed. The mayors mostly approved of the emergency measures treating them as necessary to resolve the crisis.

Agents of Socialization, Anxiety, College Women, and Fear of Rape.

This paper examines the impact of messages about sexual danger women receive from parents, peers, media, school officials, and past victimization on fear of stranger and acquaintance rape. Analyzing survey data for 630 undergraduate women, we find that parental warnings, internalized mean world view, university crime alerts, and being more prone to anxiety are significant predictors of fear of rape across models, while effects of media and victimization are limited. When high and low proneness to anxiety subgroups are considered separately, numerous differences emerge. Results suggest the need to include formal measures of anxiety in future fear of crime research.

Xenophobia amidst and post-COVID-19 pandemic.

Xenophobia amidst and post-COVID-19 pandemic.

Worshipping the Other: a literary anthropological study of the Datuk Gong cult in Malaysia

ABSTRACT In Malaysia, Malays and Chinese are considered to be two distinct ethnic groups. Therefore, the popular cult of Malay-Muslim Datuk Gong among Chinese religious believers – a worship of ‘the Other’ – is a fascinating ethno-religious phenomenon. Adopting the approach of literary anthropology to examine discrete writings on Datuk Gong produced by different individuals over a century, this article explores the multiple meanings of ‘worshipping the Other’ to Malay(si)an Chinese. Such worship reflects a dual respect and fear of nature and ethnic strangers, an imagination to integrate ethnic differences with the natives into a virtual kinship, a sense of harmonious community among diverse neighbours, a deep anxiety of diaspora identity and a feeling of powerlessness in ethnic conflicts with the dominant groups. Applying Pierre Bourdieu’s theory on ‘habitus’ and ‘fields’, the article argues that instead of passively participating in the Datuk Gong worship, Chinese believers actively interpret it to construct diverse ‘Selves and Others’ based on the different habitus and fields they occupy.

On becoming socially anxious: Toddlers' attention bias to fearful faces.

Early attention bias to threat-related negative emotions may lead children to overestimate dangers in social situations. This study examined its emergence and how it might develop in tandem with a known predictor namely temperamental shyness for toddlers' fear of strangers in 168 Chinese toddlers. Measurable individual differences in such attention bias to fearful faces were found and remained stable from age 12 to 18 months. When shown photos of paired happy versus fearful or happy versus angry faces, toddlers initially gazed more and had longer initial fixation and total fixation at fearful faces compared with happy faces consistently. However, they initially gazed more at happy faces compared with angry faces consistently and had a longer total fixation at angry faces only at 18 months. Stranger anxiety at 12 months predicted attention bias to fearful faces at 18 months. Temperamentally shyer 12-month-olds went on to show stronger attention bias to fearful faces at 18 months, and their fear of strangers also increased more from 12 to 18 months. Together with prior research suggesting attention bias to angry or fearful faces foretelling social anxiety, the present findings point to likely positive feedback loops among attention bias to fearful faces, temperamental shyness, and stranger anxiety in early childhood. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Re-reading xenophobic discourses from an ubuntu perspective: a study of the plight of ‘makwerekwere’ in Mhlongo’s After Tears

ABSTRACT Classification of African migrants in South Africa as undesirable, economic parasites, illegals, among other derogatory terms, characterises current xenophobic discourses and foregrounds frontiers that divide people in Africa. Xenophobia violates the philosophy of ubuntu/Vumunhu/Umunhu and the parable of the Good Samaritan which define humanity as diverse but collective. Drawing from this philosophy and parable as prisms through which xenophobic discourses can be analysed, we interrogate notions of African/ness and neighbour/liness in contemporary South Africa. African humanity is heterogeneous and existing xenophobic attitudes and practices provide sites for academic inquiry to generate deep understanding. Mhlongo’s After Tears identifies fault lines which need to be sutured vis-à-vis the current fear and hatred of strangers. The varied forms of xenophobia reflect nuanced but interconnected dynamics, such as historical legacies and socio-economic divisions that mask differences, which feed into makwerekwere metadiscourse. African immigrants become imagined as real sources of problems in South Africa today.

Clustering for Automated Exploratory Pattern Discovery in Animal Behavioral Data.

Traditional methods of data analysis in animal behavior research are usually based on measuring behavior by manually coding a set of chosen behavioral parameters, which is naturally prone to human bias and error, and is also a tedious labor-intensive task. Machine learning techniques are increasingly applied to support researchers in this field, mostly in a supervised manner: for tracking animals, detecting land marks or recognizing actions. Unsupervised methods are increasingly used, but are under-explored in the context of behavior studies and applied contexts such as behavioral testing of dogs. This study explores the potential of unsupervised approaches such as clustering for the automated discovery of patterns in data which have potential behavioral meaning. We aim to demonstrate that such patterns can be useful at exploratory stages of data analysis before forming specific hypotheses. To this end, we propose a concrete method for grouping video trials of behavioral testing of animal individuals into clusters using a set of potentially relevant features. Using an example of protocol for testing in a “Stranger Test”, we compare the discovered clusters against the C-BARQ owner-based questionnaire, which is commonly used for dog behavioral trait assessment, showing that our method separated well between dogs with higher C-BARQ scores for stranger fear, and those with lower scores. This demonstrates potential use of such clustering approach for exploration prior to hypothesis forming and testing in behavioral research.

Clinical, zootechnical and behavioral evaluation of litters of dogs born in the guide dog program of the ‘Instituto Federal Goiano’, Campus Urutaí, Brazil

The Brazilian population with low vision or blindness is approximately six and a half million people. This scenario is intricate because of the existence of only six Guide Dog Training Centers and, consequently, few Guide Dogs performing the role of assistive therapy as a guide for blind people in Brazil. The objective was to comparatively characterize the clinical, zootechnical, and behavioral profile of three litters of dogs born at the Guide Dog Training Center of the Federal Institute of Goiás, Campus of Urutaí, Brazil, from conception to the forty-ninth day of life. The number of live births, stillbirths, average daily weight gain, the incidence of congenital diseases, and acquired diseases were surveyed. The performance of puppies obtained in the Volhard and Behavior Checklist tests was also obtained. Litter B presented higher stillbirths. A higher average daily weight gain was also observed in litter B and, consequently, a higher weight of pups at all evaluation moments. Litter E differed from the others regarding the behavioral parameters, showing better results in terms of hyper-attachment, fear of strangers, and anxiety in unknown places. Therefore, a difference was observed between litters regarding the evaluated zootechnical and behavioral aspects. Furthermore, an evolution was observed over time, with the last litter, whose parents were animals from the kennel, presenting the best behavioral profile.

THE PSYCHO-EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF COVID-19 INFECTION ON MEDICAL STAFF IN THE FIRST-LINE MEDICAL INSTITUTION IN MOLDOVA

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has substantially affected the lives of people around the world, especially after the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic in the second week of March 2020. The research and the clinical observations in this field show that, during the pandemic, many people display stress, anxiety or depression, which are fuelled by fear and the pathological worry of infection, of coming into contact with possibly contaminated objects or surfaces. It exacerbates the fear of strangers who might have an infection, the fear of socioeconomic consequences and the symptoms of the traumatic stress associated to the pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the medical population proved to be susceptible to burnout syndrome - physical and emotional exhaustion, poor performance, indecision, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety, depression, all due to the increased work requirements, prolonged work, frustration in case of failure to save the patients' lives, pandemic-related uncertainty, fear of getting sick and infecting the family members. The frontline workers may face additional stressors during the COVID-19 outbreak: stigmatization of those working with COVID-19 patients; strict bio-security measures; physical pressure by the protective equipment; physical isolation which makes it difficult to ensure the comfort of a sick or suffering person; constant awareness and vigilance; strict procedures to be followed in order to prevent spontaneity and autonomy.

Shells, sweat, and the fear of strangers: Books in brief

Shells, sweat, and the fear of strangers: Books in brief

Making mega-space for others: Towards theology of mega-friendship from the table fellowship story according to Luke 5:27–32

The purpose of the article is to interpret the story of the table fellowship in the Gospel of Luke 5:27–32 and construct the theology of mega-friendship with the Other in the context of a pluralistic society. What is happening in the present is that human communities should be living together and facing the fact of differences in the races, ethnic groups, cultural entities or religious communities. In this context, there is a kind of global fear of strangers, rejection of others and conflict or violence against those who differ. By interpreting the text, I argue that Christianity is called to participate in the mega-friendship created by God by making mega-space and befriending the Other. Mega-friendship in the table fellowship is to sustain life in love, equality, compassion, peace and transformation. The theology’s construction begins by explaining the socio-historical context of the table fellowship story, exposing the meaning of the story and constructing the theology of mega-friendship in the context of a pluralistic society.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This research has interdisciplinary implications. It departs from New Testament studies to constructive theology by using a pluralism perspective. By interpreting the table fellowship story in Luke 5:27–32, there is a meaning of the text on theology of friendship and its relevance as a sign of Christian presence in the pluralistic society of the Indonesian context.

The effect of storytelling on fear in school-age children during hospitalization.

Hospitalization places children in conditions that may nurture fears of new surroundings, strangers, and unknown actions. Storytelling can be administered as a distraction from the fears that a child experiences during treatment. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of storytelling against fear due to hospitalization in school-age children admitted to the hospital. This study used a quantitative approach with a pre-experimental design and the method used was nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest design. Subjects in this study consisted of two groups namely the intervention and the control groups. The total number of respondents was n=32 and located at the Maternity and Children Hospital in Indonesia. Bivariate analysis showed that storytelling intervention had a significant relationship with the fear of hospitalization among the hospitalized school-age children (p-value=0.001< 0.05). Also, there was a significant difference between the fear score in the intervention and the control groups (p-value=0.001<). Therefore, applying storytelling in the nursing intervention of pediatric patients in hospitals can be recommended to minimize the fear in children.

Comparing behavioural characteristics of Czechoslovakian Wolfdogs, German shepherds and Labrador retrievers in Italy and the Czech Republic

Through domestication and subsequent selection dogs’ morphological and behavioural traits have been selected for functional purposes beyond companionship. Since dogs are kept as pets worldwide and live in close contact with humans, gathering information on the behavioural characteristics of breeds either potentially problematic or obtained through hybridization appears particularly relevant. In the current study, the C-BARQ questionnaire was used to examine the behaviour of the Czechoslovakian wolfdog, a recent breed obtained through hybridization of the Carpathian wolf and the German shepherd dog and rapidly growing in popularity. One thousand four hundred twenty owners, 1119 from Italy and 301 from the Czech Republic completed the online questionnaire providing data on Czechoslovakian wolfdogs (CWDs), their sister breed, i.e. German shepherd dogs (GSs), and Labrador retrievers (LRs).Overall some behavioural differences among the breeds emerged together with discrepancies between Italian and Czech owners in the evaluation of some behavioural traits.Italian owners outlined only a few breeds and/or sex differences. Regardless of breed and training male dogs were rated as more aggressive towards other dogs, more excitable and active, more prone to show attention-seeking behaviour, less trainable, and less prone than females to engage in chasing than females. CWDs showed less stranger-directed fear than GSs and LRs and less non-social fear than GSs. According to Czech owners, males were generally more aggressive than females and CWDs and GSs were significantly more aggressive towards strangers and other dogs than LRs. CWDs showed more stranger-directed fear and separation-related behaviour and were less trainable than both GSs and LRs. The training was generally reported to reduce aggressive and separation-related behaviour, fear of strangers and non-social stimuli, and chasing tendencies. Taken together these findings suggest that CWDs could be more similar to ancient breeds (more wolf-like) for some behavioural traits and like modern breeds for others. Different breeding practices and/or social/environmental conditions such as socialization, handling, training methods but also owners’ perceptions and expectations about a given breed could explain the differences in rating that emerged between the two countries.

Qualitative Analysis of Effective Psychological Factors on Stress and Fear of Covid-19 Virus During Corona Outbreak Using Grounded Theory Method (GTM)

The purpose of this study was to qualitative analysis of effective psychological factors on stress and fear of covid-19 virus during corona outbreak using grounded theory method (GTM). The emergence of a new form of coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in China created a confusing situation that was rapidly evolving and spread dramatically to other provinces and regions of China and then to the rest of the world. The aim of this study was to qualitatively analyze the psychological factors affecting stress and fear of Covid-19 virus during corona outbreak using grounded theory (GTM) method among students of Islamic Azad University, Electronic Branch. This research has been a qualitative research in terms of basic purpose, in terms of descriptive-survey method and in terms of data type. The study population was the students of Islamic Azad University, electronic unit and the selected sample was 30 students studying in the second semester of 2019-20 of this university unit who were selected by available sampling method. The tool used in the research was a semi-structured interview that was conducted online. Findings showed that 6 psychological factors affecting stress and fear of Covid-19 virus were identified as worry about virus infection, socio-economic consequences, fear of strangers, traumatic stress symptoms, emergency response and fear.According to the identified factors, it is predicted that when we go through this epidemic, significant mental health needs will appear in people who need measurements to provide a useful solution to improve the mental health of people.

Międzygeneracyjny przekaz traumy w doświadczeniach młodych osób dorosłych pochodzenia żydowskiego

My research falls within a qualitative orientation. The purpose of this study is to show the ways and consequences of intergenerational transmission of trauma as reflected in the life experiences of young adults. Data were analyzed using a linguistic-narrative method. In this paper, I look at the intergenerational transmission of trauma in Jewish families as reflected in the life experiences of young adults. They see the consequences of trauma in their loved ones and in themselves. In the case of the former, they can be grouped into three categories: fear of disclosing one’s nationality, a special form of which is the prohibition on speaking about one's Jewish origin to one’s descendants and the change of name by one’s ancestors; overprotectiveness towards one’s descendants; and showing emotional distance from them. In turn, the consequences of trauma perceived in the self are: fear of strangers and overprotectiveness towards one's own children.

Wywoływanie chorób przez czarownice – poglądy uczestnika procesów czarownic (przypadek Czarownicy powołanej)

Published in 1639, the anonymous “Czarownica powołana” is a work addressed to judges dealing with proceedings in witchcraft cases. Its author, probably a clergyman, participated in such trials. Unlike many works of this kind, it did not encourage the tracking and killing of witches. “Czarownica powołana” belongs to a different trend and in many places is similar to the treatise of the German Jesuit Friedrich Spee, who was afraid of the rash condemnation of superstitious people who had nothing to do with practicing black magic. In “Czarownica powołana” the existence of witches and sorcery is not questioned, because it is considered to be a devilish science, which leads to making a pact with the devil with the ability to act in the world. Illness or death in connection with the accusation of witchcraft had serious consequences, including establishing who and how the witch had harmed. In the era of the plague epidemic, fear of strangers led to numerous massacres, especially in German cities, where the spread of the plague was explained more often than elsewhere by poisoning the wells by Jews, who were also burdened with engaging in magic and negotiating with the devil. The author was aware that some associate every disease with witchcraft. The devil can also cheat, making a person think that what he dreamed really happened, and people deluded by fantasies are willing to share these stories also in court during a trial. The author of “Czarownica powołana” was aware of this mechanism because he was concerned with the accusation itself (“powołanie”). In this context, “Czarownica powołana” – despite the author’s conviction about the existence of witches and their ability to cause disease and elementary disasters - is a progressive work, but this is evidenced by the lawyer’s dilemmas, not the priest’s fears.

Characteristics associated with behavior problems in Brazilian dogs

The current study investigated associations between behavioral problems in Brazilian dogs and the demographic characteristics of both the dogs and their owners, as well as the quality of owner-dog relationship. Although Brazil has a large population of dogs, little is known about their behavioral profiles and to what extent they are comparable to those of other cultures. For this investigation, we developed a Portuguese language version of the C-BARQ (Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire) and evaluated its psychometrics properties, since it provides a broad and quantitative description of dog behavior, and has been widely validated across multiple countries. A convenience sample of 1741 owners completed the final questionnaire, and Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses were used to extract and confirm a 12-factor solution with excellent reliability characteristics. We then applied logistic regression models to investigate which owners’ and dogs’ characteristics, as well as characteristics of their relationships, were associated with the higher scores of behavior problems based on Brazilian C-BARQ data. Important associations were observed. Owner’s gender (female) was found to be associated with separation-related problems in dogs, as well as fear of other dogs, attention-seeking behavior, excitability, and energy. Mixed-breed status (unknown breed) was associated with more aggression towards other dogs, fear of strangers and other dogs, nonsocial fear, and separation-related problems. Aggression towards strangers and attention-seeking behaviors were exhibited more often by those dogs that were not walked by their owners. Our results revealed relevant aspects influencing dog behavioral problems and emphasizes the importance of evaluating dog behavior problems in light of cultural influences.