The Journal of Psychology
ISSN: 0022-3980 (Print) 1940-1019 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjrl20
Fears of Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Adults Manny Sternlicht To cite this article: Manny Sternlicht (1979) Fears of Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Adults, The Journal of Psychology, 101:1, 67-71, DOI: 10.1080/00223980.1979.9915053 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1979.9915053
Published online: 02 Jul 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
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Citing articles: 5 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjrl20 Download by: [NUS National University of Singapore]
Date: 06 November 2015, At: 23:52
Published as a separate and in The Journal of Psychology, 1979, 101, 67-71.
FEARS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS* Prychological Counseling and Testing Services and Yeshiva University
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNYSTERNLICHT
SUMMARY The patterns of fears of institutionalized mentally retarded adults were studied in a sample of 22 moderately retarded men and women between the ages of 21-49. The direct questioning method was employed. Two interviews were held, two weeks apart; the first interview elicited the Ss’ fears, while the second concerned the fears of their friends. A total of 146 responses were obtained, and these were categorized according to the types of fears: supernatural-natural events, animals, physical injury, psychological stress, egocentric responses, and no fears. The Ss displayed a higher percentage of fears in the preoperational stage than in the concrete operational stage. In a comparison of male to female fears, only one category, that of fe.ars of animals, reached significance. The study suggested that the same developmental trend of fears that appears‘in normal children appears in the retarded as well, and these fears follow Piaget’s level of cognitive developmient, proceeding from egocentric perceptions of causality to realistic cause and effect thinking. A.
INTRODUCTION
Research reporting on fears in children has generally revealed developmental trends in the types of fears cited. Fears commonly reported by children up to the age of eight years are fears of animals and supernatural/ natural events (2, 6, 12). Beyond the age of eight years, children’s fears become more realistic in nature, reflecting valid fears for personal safety, such as physical injury, disability, or war (1, 2 , 3, 10). In addition, a third fear, of psychological stress, begins to emerge at these later ages and, together with fear of personal safety, remains with the individual throughout his life (7, 10).
-
*
Received in the Editorial Office on October 16, 1978, and published immediately at Provincetown, Massachusetts. Copyright by The Journal Press.
67
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
68
JOURNAL O F PSYCHOLOGY
Bauer (2) has hypothesized that this developmental trend can be explained on the basis of Piaget’s (8, 9 ) theory of cognitive development, since the child a t the age of seven or eight years moves from the stage of preoperational thought, characterized by an egocentric perception of causality, to the stage of concrete operations, during which he engages in realistic cause and effect thinking. Only one study has been concerned specifically with fears in mentally retarded individuals. Guarnacia and Weiss ( 5 ) factor analyzed parents’ ratings of their retarded children or adolescents on the Louisville Fear Survey for Children, and they were able to extrapolate four fear factors: separation, natural events, physical injury, and animals. However, these researchers found that the variables of ZQ and sex did not load significantly on any of the four factors. Since, as Sternlicht (11) recently reported, moderately and mildly mentally retarded individuals tested out a t Piaget’s level of preoperational thinking, it is surprising that ZQ did not significantly affect types of fears elicited by Guarnacia and Weiss. The purpose of the present study is to determine, by direct questioning, what the fears of institutionalized retarded adults are, and to ascertain whether or not they follow the same pattern as those of the normal child. Since, as Croake and Hinkle (4)have pointed out, there is a low correlation between those items parents report to be fearful for their child and those items actually reported by the child, the direct questioning method was chosen. However, since some retarded individuals have been sufficiently socialized to understand that to admit to fears is to admit to being a “child,” the S s were also questioned, a t later times, as to what their friends feared. B.
METHOD
1.
Subjerts
All Ss seen were classified as moderately retarded, and all were between the ages of 21-49 years C A = 38.4). Initially, 16 males and 14 females were seen for the first trial, but of these, five males and three females were eliminated because of lack of cooperation or insufficient verbal skills to effectively communicate. Only seven females and eight males gave answers on the second trial, again because of lack of cooperation or on account of poor health. 2. Procedure
(x
Each S was interviewed individually in a quiet room. Upon meeting, E spent some time putting S a t ease. After a while, E asked, “Tell me all the
69
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNY STERNLICHT
things that you are afraid of.” If S could not think of anything, E then suggested, “Why don’t you sit and think about it for a few minutes.’’ At the end of five minutes, the question was repeated. If S stated fears, E asked whether he could think of anything else, until S indicated that he had finished. E wrote down verbatim all items mentioned by S , in the order presented. Exactly two weeks later, S s were seen a second time, and the abovestated procedure was again followed, except that E now asked, “Tell me all the things that your friends are afraid of.”
C. RESULTS On the basis of the previous research literature cited, the fear responses were categorized into the following types: supernatural-natural events, animals, physical injury, and psychological stress. Two other categories were added on the basis of our experience: egocentric responses (responses that are meaningful only to S ) , and a “nothing” category (the responses of those who would admit to no fears). A total of 146 responses was elicited over both trials, and these were then appropriately categorized. As can be seen in Table 1 , 32 (or 22%) of the responses fell into the supernatural-natural category, 50 (or 34%) into animals, 3 1 (or 21%) in physical injury, 16 (or 11%) in psychological stress, 4 (or 3%) in egocentric responses, and 13 (or 9%) in the nothing response category. Since the fears characterizing the preoperational stage are supernaturalnatural and animals, and those characterizing the concrete operational stage are physical (personal) injury and psychological stress, responses from the two categories within each cognitive stage were combined and analyzed (see Table 2). A x2 test k2= 9.50) revealed statistical significance at the .01 level for 1 a!!. It would appear, then, that the Ss in this study had more TABLE 1 NUMBER OF FEARRESFVNSES Types of fear Supematuralhatural Animals Physical iqiury Psychological stress Egocentric Nothing Total
Trial 1 21 30 19
Combined responses Trial 2 Total 11
32
SO 31
7
20 12 9
1 6
3 7
4 13
84
62
146
16
%
Males
Females
22 34 21 11 3 9 100
14
18 33
17 20 7
I1
3
7
1 6
68
78
9
70
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
TABLE 2
CUMPARISON OF FEARRESPONSES BY P~ACETIAN STAGES
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
Stage
Number of responses
-~
Preoperational Supernaturalhatural Animals Total Concrete operations Physical injuv Psychological stress Total
32 50 82 31 16 47
fears that are characterized by lower level Piagetian thinking than realistic fears based upon cause and effect. When the responses of males versus females were compared, only one category, that of fears of animals, reached statistical significance = 5 . 1 2 , a t the .05 level for 1 df). Although there was a large difference between males and females reporting fears of physical injury, this did not reach statistical significance. In addition, there were no differences between the two trials for each category. Of the six Ss who stated that they had no fears, four stated that their friends had no fears as well. Of these six Ss, four were males.
a*
D.
DISCUSSION
These findings suggest that the same developmental trend of fears that appear in normal children appear in the retarded as well, and these trends follow Piaget’s level of cognitive development. This development proceeds from egocentric perceptions of causality to realistic cause and effect thinking. This explains why the child a t the concrete operational stage, age seven or eight years, would replace fears of ghosts, thunder, and animals with realistic fears for personal safety, and psychic stress. Since Sternlicht (1 1) had previously determined that moderately retarded individuals think on a preoperational level, it is not surprising that most of their fears reflected thinking at this level. However, a good many fears representative of the higher level of thought were present as well. This could be due to either of two explanations. First, fears of personal safety and psychological stress could be present throughout the life span but are not noticed so readily in the preoperational stage, because fears of supernatural-natural events and of animals are more intensely pronounced, thus masking these other fears. As a child’s thought processes develop, fears of monsters, animals, etc. disappear, making realistic fears more noticeable. Second, the adult Ss in this study reporting safety and psycho-
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNY STERNLICHT
71
logical fears may have been between stages (i. e., in the process of changing between the two styles of thinking). Bauer also has noted that the changes in fears paralleled changes in the child’s perception of death, and that the child does not discover the universality of d.eath until after the age of nine years, placing him in the concrete-operational stage. Similarly, Sternlicht has found that preoperational retarded persons do not have concepts of the permanence of death or when they will die, since the egocentric thought processes of the preoperational individual do not allow him to utilize the experience of others to any significant degree. And when one considers that basically all fears boil down to our own fear of death, it is not surprising that an individual who cannot understand death will have unrealistic fears. It also is interesting to note that of the six Ss who reported having no fears, four were male. Of these four males, only two reported fears in their friends. Apparently these individuals have received society’s message that males must be fearless. A similar phenomenon may have occurred for the significantly lower reporting of fears of animals in the male Ss as well.
REFERENCES 1.
ANCELINO,H., DOLLINS,J., & MECH, E. V. Trends in the “fears and worries” of school children as related to socio-economic status and age. J. Genet. Psychol., 1956,
2.
BAUER,D. H. An exploratory study of developmental changes in children’s fears. J Child Psychol. 6 Psychiat. & Allied Disciplines, 1976, 17, 69-74. CATLIN,N. Children’s fears by race, sex, sibling position, grade level, and socioeconomic level. Diss. Abst. Internal., 1972, 33 (6-B), 2788. J. W., & HINKLE,D. E. Methodological problems in the study of fears. 1.of CROAKE, P s y c h d . , 1976, 93, 197-202. GUARNACIA, V. J., & WEISS,R. L. Factor structure of fears in the mentally retarded. J . Clin. Psychol., 1974, 30, 540-544. MAUREII,A. What children fear. 1. Genet. Psychol., 1965, 106, 265-277. MILLER,L. C., BARRETT,C. L., HAMPE,E., & NOBLF, H. Factor structure of childhood fears. J. Consult. 6. Clin. Psychol., 1972, 39, 264-268. RAGET, J. The Language and Thought of the Child. New York: Meridian Books, 1955. -. play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. New York Norton, 1962. RUSSELL,G. W. Human fears: A factor analytic study of three age levels. Genet Psychcl. Monog., 1967, 76, 141-162. STERNLICHT, M. The concept of death in preoperational retarded children and adolescents. Unpublished manuscript available from author, 1977. WINKET.,J. B. Age trends and sex differences in the wishes, identifications, activities, and fears of children. Child Devel., 1949, 20, 191-200.
89, 263-276.
3.
4.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
12.
Yeshiva University 500 West I85 Street
New York, New York 10033
ISSN: 0022-3980 (Print) 1940-1019 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjrl20
Fears of Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Adults Manny Sternlicht To cite this article: Manny Sternlicht (1979) Fears of Institutionalized Mentally Retarded Adults, The Journal of Psychology, 101:1, 67-71, DOI: 10.1080/00223980.1979.9915053 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00223980.1979.9915053
Published online: 02 Jul 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 4
View related articles
Citing articles: 5 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjrl20 Download by: [NUS National University of Singapore]
Date: 06 November 2015, At: 23:52
Published as a separate and in The Journal of Psychology, 1979, 101, 67-71.
FEARS OF INSTITUTIONALIZED MENTALLY RETARDED ADULTS* Prychological Counseling and Testing Services and Yeshiva University
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNYSTERNLICHT
SUMMARY The patterns of fears of institutionalized mentally retarded adults were studied in a sample of 22 moderately retarded men and women between the ages of 21-49. The direct questioning method was employed. Two interviews were held, two weeks apart; the first interview elicited the Ss’ fears, while the second concerned the fears of their friends. A total of 146 responses were obtained, and these were categorized according to the types of fears: supernatural-natural events, animals, physical injury, psychological stress, egocentric responses, and no fears. The Ss displayed a higher percentage of fears in the preoperational stage than in the concrete operational stage. In a comparison of male to female fears, only one category, that of fe.ars of animals, reached significance. The study suggested that the same developmental trend of fears that appears‘in normal children appears in the retarded as well, and these fears follow Piaget’s level of cognitive developmient, proceeding from egocentric perceptions of causality to realistic cause and effect thinking. A.
INTRODUCTION
Research reporting on fears in children has generally revealed developmental trends in the types of fears cited. Fears commonly reported by children up to the age of eight years are fears of animals and supernatural/ natural events (2, 6, 12). Beyond the age of eight years, children’s fears become more realistic in nature, reflecting valid fears for personal safety, such as physical injury, disability, or war (1, 2 , 3, 10). In addition, a third fear, of psychological stress, begins to emerge at these later ages and, together with fear of personal safety, remains with the individual throughout his life (7, 10).
-
*
Received in the Editorial Office on October 16, 1978, and published immediately at Provincetown, Massachusetts. Copyright by The Journal Press.
67
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
68
JOURNAL O F PSYCHOLOGY
Bauer (2) has hypothesized that this developmental trend can be explained on the basis of Piaget’s (8, 9 ) theory of cognitive development, since the child a t the age of seven or eight years moves from the stage of preoperational thought, characterized by an egocentric perception of causality, to the stage of concrete operations, during which he engages in realistic cause and effect thinking. Only one study has been concerned specifically with fears in mentally retarded individuals. Guarnacia and Weiss ( 5 ) factor analyzed parents’ ratings of their retarded children or adolescents on the Louisville Fear Survey for Children, and they were able to extrapolate four fear factors: separation, natural events, physical injury, and animals. However, these researchers found that the variables of ZQ and sex did not load significantly on any of the four factors. Since, as Sternlicht (11) recently reported, moderately and mildly mentally retarded individuals tested out a t Piaget’s level of preoperational thinking, it is surprising that ZQ did not significantly affect types of fears elicited by Guarnacia and Weiss. The purpose of the present study is to determine, by direct questioning, what the fears of institutionalized retarded adults are, and to ascertain whether or not they follow the same pattern as those of the normal child. Since, as Croake and Hinkle (4)have pointed out, there is a low correlation between those items parents report to be fearful for their child and those items actually reported by the child, the direct questioning method was chosen. However, since some retarded individuals have been sufficiently socialized to understand that to admit to fears is to admit to being a “child,” the S s were also questioned, a t later times, as to what their friends feared. B.
METHOD
1.
Subjerts
All Ss seen were classified as moderately retarded, and all were between the ages of 21-49 years C A = 38.4). Initially, 16 males and 14 females were seen for the first trial, but of these, five males and three females were eliminated because of lack of cooperation or insufficient verbal skills to effectively communicate. Only seven females and eight males gave answers on the second trial, again because of lack of cooperation or on account of poor health. 2. Procedure
(x
Each S was interviewed individually in a quiet room. Upon meeting, E spent some time putting S a t ease. After a while, E asked, “Tell me all the
69
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNY STERNLICHT
things that you are afraid of.” If S could not think of anything, E then suggested, “Why don’t you sit and think about it for a few minutes.’’ At the end of five minutes, the question was repeated. If S stated fears, E asked whether he could think of anything else, until S indicated that he had finished. E wrote down verbatim all items mentioned by S , in the order presented. Exactly two weeks later, S s were seen a second time, and the abovestated procedure was again followed, except that E now asked, “Tell me all the things that your friends are afraid of.”
C. RESULTS On the basis of the previous research literature cited, the fear responses were categorized into the following types: supernatural-natural events, animals, physical injury, and psychological stress. Two other categories were added on the basis of our experience: egocentric responses (responses that are meaningful only to S ) , and a “nothing” category (the responses of those who would admit to no fears). A total of 146 responses was elicited over both trials, and these were then appropriately categorized. As can be seen in Table 1 , 32 (or 22%) of the responses fell into the supernatural-natural category, 50 (or 34%) into animals, 3 1 (or 21%) in physical injury, 16 (or 11%) in psychological stress, 4 (or 3%) in egocentric responses, and 13 (or 9%) in the nothing response category. Since the fears characterizing the preoperational stage are supernaturalnatural and animals, and those characterizing the concrete operational stage are physical (personal) injury and psychological stress, responses from the two categories within each cognitive stage were combined and analyzed (see Table 2). A x2 test k2= 9.50) revealed statistical significance at the .01 level for 1 a!!. It would appear, then, that the Ss in this study had more TABLE 1 NUMBER OF FEARRESFVNSES Types of fear Supematuralhatural Animals Physical iqiury Psychological stress Egocentric Nothing Total
Trial 1 21 30 19
Combined responses Trial 2 Total 11
32
SO 31
7
20 12 9
1 6
3 7
4 13
84
62
146
16
%
Males
Females
22 34 21 11 3 9 100
14
18 33
17 20 7
I1
3
7
1 6
68
78
9
70
JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY
TABLE 2
CUMPARISON OF FEARRESPONSES BY P~ACETIAN STAGES
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
Stage
Number of responses
-~
Preoperational Supernaturalhatural Animals Total Concrete operations Physical injuv Psychological stress Total
32 50 82 31 16 47
fears that are characterized by lower level Piagetian thinking than realistic fears based upon cause and effect. When the responses of males versus females were compared, only one category, that of fears of animals, reached statistical significance = 5 . 1 2 , a t the .05 level for 1 df). Although there was a large difference between males and females reporting fears of physical injury, this did not reach statistical significance. In addition, there were no differences between the two trials for each category. Of the six Ss who stated that they had no fears, four stated that their friends had no fears as well. Of these six Ss, four were males.
a*
D.
DISCUSSION
These findings suggest that the same developmental trend of fears that appear in normal children appear in the retarded as well, and these trends follow Piaget’s level of cognitive development. This development proceeds from egocentric perceptions of causality to realistic cause and effect thinking. This explains why the child a t the concrete operational stage, age seven or eight years, would replace fears of ghosts, thunder, and animals with realistic fears for personal safety, and psychic stress. Since Sternlicht (1 1) had previously determined that moderately retarded individuals think on a preoperational level, it is not surprising that most of their fears reflected thinking at this level. However, a good many fears representative of the higher level of thought were present as well. This could be due to either of two explanations. First, fears of personal safety and psychological stress could be present throughout the life span but are not noticed so readily in the preoperational stage, because fears of supernatural-natural events and of animals are more intensely pronounced, thus masking these other fears. As a child’s thought processes develop, fears of monsters, animals, etc. disappear, making realistic fears more noticeable. Second, the adult Ss in this study reporting safety and psycho-
Downloaded by [NUS National University of Singapore] at 23:52 06 November 2015
MANNY STERNLICHT
71
logical fears may have been between stages (i. e., in the process of changing between the two styles of thinking). Bauer also has noted that the changes in fears paralleled changes in the child’s perception of death, and that the child does not discover the universality of d.eath until after the age of nine years, placing him in the concrete-operational stage. Similarly, Sternlicht has found that preoperational retarded persons do not have concepts of the permanence of death or when they will die, since the egocentric thought processes of the preoperational individual do not allow him to utilize the experience of others to any significant degree. And when one considers that basically all fears boil down to our own fear of death, it is not surprising that an individual who cannot understand death will have unrealistic fears. It also is interesting to note that of the six Ss who reported having no fears, four were male. Of these four males, only two reported fears in their friends. Apparently these individuals have received society’s message that males must be fearless. A similar phenomenon may have occurred for the significantly lower reporting of fears of animals in the male Ss as well.
REFERENCES 1.
ANCELINO,H., DOLLINS,J., & MECH, E. V. Trends in the “fears and worries” of school children as related to socio-economic status and age. J. Genet. Psychol., 1956,
2.
BAUER,D. H. An exploratory study of developmental changes in children’s fears. J Child Psychol. 6 Psychiat. & Allied Disciplines, 1976, 17, 69-74. CATLIN,N. Children’s fears by race, sex, sibling position, grade level, and socioeconomic level. Diss. Abst. Internal., 1972, 33 (6-B), 2788. J. W., & HINKLE,D. E. Methodological problems in the study of fears. 1.of CROAKE, P s y c h d . , 1976, 93, 197-202. GUARNACIA, V. J., & WEISS,R. L. Factor structure of fears in the mentally retarded. J . Clin. Psychol., 1974, 30, 540-544. MAUREII,A. What children fear. 1. Genet. Psychol., 1965, 106, 265-277. MILLER,L. C., BARRETT,C. L., HAMPE,E., & NOBLF, H. Factor structure of childhood fears. J. Consult. 6. Clin. Psychol., 1972, 39, 264-268. RAGET, J. The Language and Thought of the Child. New York: Meridian Books, 1955. -. play, Dreams and Imitation in Childhood. New York Norton, 1962. RUSSELL,G. W. Human fears: A factor analytic study of three age levels. Genet Psychcl. Monog., 1967, 76, 141-162. STERNLICHT, M. The concept of death in preoperational retarded children and adolescents. Unpublished manuscript available from author, 1977. WINKET.,J. B. Age trends and sex differences in the wishes, identifications, activities, and fears of children. Child Devel., 1949, 20, 191-200.
89, 263-276.
3.
4.
5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
12.
Yeshiva University 500 West I85 Street
New York, New York 10033
