Fear - 6

Some psychological theories propose that fear is a biologically basic emotion of all humans and many other animals, a view in line with most lay opinions as well. But several proposals beg to differ, arguing that emotions like fear should be replaced by a distinction between a fear and a panic system, or “survival circuits” related more broadly to adaptive behavior, or dimensional accounts such as reward and punishment. A variety of evidence supports a view also in line with common usage: there are types fear. The most common distinction is between fear and anxiety. Whereas fear is usually conceptualized as an adaptive but phasic (transient) state elicited through confrontation with a threa...View all