Fear
Fears and her ugly sister anxiety. Fears of the unknown, a fear of death, a fear of flying, catastrophic fear, a fear of success, and a fear of failure are all commonly noted as a fear yet they are actually experienced as the emotion of anxiety.
These emotions can transform into behaviors that may lead you to avoid situations or into defense mechanisms that may obscure the recognition of reality.
Fear and anxiety emotions are triggered in response to threat.
Where anxiety is foreboding and puts you on alert to a future threat, fear immediately leads to an urge to defend yourself with escape from an impending disaster.
There are times when a past fear might re-emerge, even though the present situation does not truly warrant the need to be afraid. The example, the fear of someone who has been rear ended, a constant fear of it happening again. Or, the shell shocked.
When an emotion is triggered it has an impact on our judgments and choices in situations. In a study of risk taking, participants who were fearful, consistently, made judgments and choices that were relatively pessimistic and amplified their perception of risk in a given situation. In contrast, happy or angry participants were more likely to disregard risk by making relatively optimistic judgments and choices. Similarly, individuals who are trait fearful, those who tend to have personality characteristics that are dominated by the emotion of fear, will avoid taking risks that are generally perceived by others as relatively benign.
Thus, awareness of your emotions and considering how they might influence your decision-making in a given situation is important in your approach to life, your work, and your goals. Certainly, such is the case of fear in all of its complexity.
Psychology Today
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