User:Katevgrady/Ontogenetic parade

Ontogenetic Parade
The ontogenetic parade is a term in developmental psychology coined by Isaac Marks, to describe the predictable pattern of emergence, plateau, and decline of fears in children.

Emergence, Plateau, and Decline
The development of fear in humans follows this predictable pattern in children. Not only is the progression standardized, but there are several specific fears which appear to emerge in children regardless of culture or upbringing. At age 6-9 months, human children begin to show fear; before this, they typically only demonstrate discomfort, such as that associated with hunger or pain. At 6-9 months, fears of separation from caregivers, of strangers, and of heights begin to emerge. This is age range is associated with the beginnings of a child's ability to recognize individuals, such a their caregivers, and distinguish them from others. It is also the age when many children begin crawling and are newly able to explore their environments intentionally. Thus, it is hypothesized that these new abilities and opportunities allow children to access and develop fears associated with relevant potential dangers. Fear of heights, in particular, appears to increase as the child's ability to crawl increases. After emerging at 6-9 months, the fear of separation from caregivers and strangers appear to generally plateau (though they do go through several dips and surges) from 8-22 months, and at around 2 years they tend to decline. They are replaced, however, by a fear of the dark and a fear of animals; these fears also plateau and fall off as the child ages. The ontogenetic parade of fears continues into older childhood as well. Around age 7, children enter the concrete operational stage of cognitive development, and are able to understand cause-and-effect relationships and predict negative outcomes, so fears of injury, natural disaster, and caregiver death emerge. Though the specific fears may be different in some instances, similar patterns of emergence, plateau, and decline of fears have been observed in several animal models as well, including rhesus monkeys, dogs, and rats.

Nature vs. Nurture
The emergence of fears appears to have both genetic and environmental factors. The early neuronal connections associated with the experience and expression of fear result from genetic factors at work in the embryonic environment, and although differences in this environment can lead to different expressions of fear, many of these cognitive processes are plastic enough to eventually result in the same process of fear development, indicating that though styles of child-rearing and early experiences vary greatly across cultures, the same patterns of fear development and decline remain constant.

While some fears are not inherent but are based on prior experience, others appear to activate latent, genetically programmed stimuli. Fears such as that of the doctor's office or of an unappetizing food are not expressed upon first experience, but are learned through repeated stimulation, whereas fear of the dark or of animals are expressed upon first encounter. It is theorized that while children are not born with a neuronal pathway associated with fearing, for example, an exact representation of a snake, they do have genetically programmed pathways for fearing long, thin, quickly moving objects, which, along with observing a fear reaction in other humans to this object, develops into a specific fear of snakes. While children are "primed" for some fears through genetics and develop others only after experiences, fears from both origins can be reduced through repeated exposures. It appears, however, that there are windows for this exposure to occur, and missing them can cause significant prolonging of the plateau period and delay of the decline. Children who are not socialized with other toddlers, for instance, retain the fear of strangers for much longer than children who have had many experiences with other toddlers. It should also be noted that there appear to be class and ethnic factors at work within the ontogenetic parade, as studies have shown that middle-class mothers, who spend more time with their children, tend to have children in which the fears of separation and of strangers emerge earlier when compared to working-class mothers, who spend less time with their children.

Social Referencing
Along with their inborn pathways for fear reaction, children use social referencing (looking to caregivers for cues on how to react to experiences) to develop specific fears of those stimuli, as well as of other non-genetically programmed stimuli. Social referencing develops simultaneous to fear; children under 6 months do not demonstrate social referencing, whereas children older than that do (this is also linked to their emerging ability to crawl). One study showed that children aged 12-18 months, when presented with a new toy, would look to their mothers for cues; if the mother demonstrated a fearful facial expression, the child would move towards her and away from the toy, whereas if she demonstrated a pleased facial expression, the child would move towards the toy.