Fear. (noun) Its definition is “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” (verb) “To be afraid of (someone or something) as likely to be dangerous, painful, or threatening.” As humans, we experience a myriad of emotions on a daily basis, some more intense than others at times. Fear is one of these emotions, and there are multiple types of such. The idea that we witness something or someone who is experiencing pain, distress, or discrimination, the fear we have in relation to understanding what the person we’re watching is going through, is sympathetic fear. A response to a large amount of stimulus, the fight, flight, or freeze response, is instinctive fear, and the
Rather, it’s a reaction that occurs in response to a perceived harmful event or threat to survival. The body activates two systems, the sympathetic nervous system and the adrenal-cortical system, which makes the body speed up, tense, and highly alert. It also releases stress hormones into the bloodstream, causing an increase in heart rate and blood pressure. These physical responses are intended to help you survive a dangerous situation by preparing you to fight or run for your life. In Everything I Never Told You, James experiences the fight or flight response when arguing with Marilyn, verbally attacking her and her choice to marry him, someone of another race, before withdrawing and driving away. The attack he felt on himself and his choices that led up to Lydia’s death culminated into the fight or flight response, which led to him lashing out. Likewise, James’s day to day fear of how his family would be seen, due to his family being the only Asian family in the town, caused him to build up stress, and that stress caused a fight or flight response. His fear also stems from understanding that his family would be discriminated against, because he too had experienced that feeling. In contrast to this type of fear, there is both recurring, as well as sympathetic fear. With instinctive fear, one experiences a sharp
These can be for a variety of reasons, including driving in a car, being unable to pay your bills, possibly failing a class, or phobias. These daily fears that people have can come from a variety of sources, but are usually related to emotion processing. For example, knowing that you may lose your house or apartment should you lose your job, or becoming unable to get into the college you wish to, if you fail a class. Daily fear can also come from experience. For instance, a group of people may become feared, due to actions from a few. On September 11th, 2001, actions done by a terrorist group had caused Muslim people to be feared, which had led to hatred towards that group of people. This had led to daily fear towards Muslims, the fear of another terrorist attack, and for Muslims, the fear of being attacked due to this newfound hatred towards them. This kind of fear, dubbed “islamophobia,” has affected many people’s daily lives. However, this constant state of fear is an antipode when compared to the idea that you’re watching another person experience something that you may fear, or if you were to have an event in your life that threatened your very survival, thus forcing your body to have a fight-or-flight response. A daily fear such as bill paying or failing a class is different than the fear that you may face when your life is in danger, which is opposed to watching a horror movie and being
Fear is a powerful emotion. Wikipedia.com describes fear as “an emotion induced by threat perceived by living entities, which causes a change in brain and organ function and ultimately change behavior, such as running away, hiding or freezing from traumatic events.”Most people tend to avoid fearful situations, not realizing that something positive may come out of the event or experience. Victor Villaseñor focuses on the topic of fear in his novel titled Burro Genius. Villaseñor demonstrates to readers how growing up he was extremely fearful of any situation. Victor also tells his readers how he turned his fear into motivation into motivation to keep going and reach his ultimate goal of becoming a published author.
Human's fears should not be taken lightly. Fear could do anything to one's minds, though without fear, man can be as savage as animals. In the book Lord of the Flies, William Golding presented fear of the unknown to be a powerful force in a man's mind. Fear of the unknown is a powerful force, which can turn to either insight or hysteria. The kids feared of not being rescued off of the island, so they made signal fires on top of the mountain. Then, there and gone, Roger's fear of the old rules he abided to. Also, there were the fears of the beast which confused and isolated the kids from the top of the mountain.
Have you ever had something ever get to you or make you you scared? That is called fear and tons an tons of people have different fears. Fear is an emotion that makes you feel afraid or something is frighten. Some fears many include spiders, clowns and even death. ‘’Fear Prompts Teens To Act Impulsively’’ by Laura Sanders, ‘’Stress for Success’’ by Alison Pearce, and ‘’And Uncomfortable Bed’’ By Guy Maupassant all explain the idea of fear.
Through a lifespan, people will endure many stressful events and experiences. The severity of these events easily overwhelm them and as a result they will let their emotions overshadow sensible decisions. When in such an emotional state, it is common that people make impulsive decisions based off their feelings, but, this could lead to permanent consequences. Of the numerous emotions, fear predominantly is seen in times of crisis. Fear can be defined as, “An emotion of uneasiness that arises as a normal response to perceived threat that may be real or imagined” (Adamec). Fear may arise from a confrontation or from avoiding a threat, or it may come in the form of a discovery. Fear is often a direct result of one being scared due to a crisis
One of the most complex emotions in existence, fear is the primary emotion that triggers any kind of change, as it is capable of linking with any existing emotion to create entirely different lives upon lives. For any change that happens, fear is always present to turn the tide whichever way it pleases.
Fear motivates many people to act upon matters, right or wrong. This emotion has been important in many events in both works of literature, and in the real world. It has forced military geniuses into retreat, and influenced them to plan another method of attack. Fear can be both a positive and a negative acting force in one’s life, a quality that can motivate one to success as well as to downfall.
The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically. The fight-or-flight response was first described in the 1920s by American physiologist Walter Cannon. Cannon realized that a chain of rapidly occurring reactions inside the body help mobilize the body's resources to deal with threatening circumstances.
Fear influences people to make irrational decisions and take extreme measures. Often times, these actions are done to protect one’s reputation. Fear causes people to lie and manipulate to those they care about in order to escape what they are scared of most. Fear of failure has caused higher levels of anxiety, and has made society put blame on each other, rather than owning up to their mistakes. Fear can also cause one to forget one’s true identity and lose one’s values. There are two options that one can take when being faced with a fear: run away from the fear, or go through it and learn a valuable lesson in the end that will make you a stronger person. Fear is a harmful emotion that everyone has to go through in order to succeed.
“There is nothing to fear but fear itself” (Roosevelt). “Fear is a chain reaction in the brain that starts with a stressful stimulus and ends with the release of chemicals that cause a racing heart, fast breathing and energized muscles, among other things, also known as the fight-or-flight response” (Layton). Fear affects the brain and can help people or make them in a worse situation than they were in the first place. Fear most motivates/influences people during times of crisis by clouding judgement and becoming a weapon of power.
In the words of Bertrand Russell, “Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom” (Russell). Fear causes many problems in our lives. Fear influences many of a person’s actions and decisions. However, people usually regret the decisions or actions they made out of fear. Also, these actions and decisions can cause problems for those people in their future. Fear is a harmful emotion, for it clouds people’s judgement, disables them from taking action, and causes them to make decisions that they will regret later.
Fear is an everyday emotion that the human race must face, and it can bring out the best and worst of us, but its how we choose to deal with it that truly defines us.
Islamophobia is a newly coined term that is used to describe the growing fear of Muslims or specific groups that are considered to be associated with Islam. As a new term, the validity of Islamophobia is still a subject of huge debate even as its causes and characteristics are also controversial. This term was coined to refer to the events in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in light of people’s attitudes towards Muslims and those associated with Islam. Actually, after the dust settled following the attacks, a new gesture of nationalism was witnessed across the United States and racism soon followed, which are usually faces to the same coin (Rose, 2013). In light of these developments on the question on whether Islamophobia is a form of racism has generated arguments and counter-arguments in support and opposition to the claim. People who consider Islamophobia as a form of racism have supported their argument through various reasons including the division and exclusion associated with the fear of Muslims. On the contrary, opponents have argued that Islamophobia is not a form of racism because of lack of a clear link between the term and racism as well as the fact that Islam is not a race but religion. An analysis of these arguments and counter-arguments reveals that Islamophobia is a form of racism, particularly cultural racism.
Islamophobia has become a new topic of interest among social sciences, political leaders and media commentators. People amongst society have developed this phobia towards Islamic religion and people. It has become a novel “form of racism in Europe and American based on discrimination ...
What is fear? According to Psychology Today, “Fear is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn't feel it, we couldn't protect ourselves from legitimate threats” (“Fear”). In 2011, the Syrian government did not want a revolution so they put fear into their citizens. They did this by torture, imprisonment and threats. The Syrian community began to rebel when there was an arrest of 15 children due to painting school walls with anti-government graffiti. The authorities’ violent and embarrassing actions led to one of the main reasons of the Syrian uprising during 2011(“Syria Civil War Fast Facts”).
The fight or flight response is a physiological reaction to a perceived threat of danger, in which the body prepares itself to either fight or flee an attacker. During this response certain hormones are released, which speed the heart rate, slow digestion, and reroutes blood flow, in order to elicit the desired response of fight or flight.