The safe place

[dsjgenius]

I was just wondering why children from age 2-9 view thier blankets as a source of protection from anyhting "bad". We alll must have had experienes where we were scared as children and then hid under are blankets beliving that nothing then could harm us

 

has anybody got a theory as to why, how and when this mental concept is developed .

[YT2095]

this is a MEGA Primative instinct of HIDE,that way you stand less chance of being eaten, ok maybe being "eaten" is an exageration, replace it with attacked or mauled.

 

the Ostritch has a similar "defense" as coined in the saying "Burying your head in the sand" working on the principal that if you can`t see IT... IT can`t see you either

 

the modern day Adult equiv is putting all your bills in the kitchen draw, if you hide them, the debt will just "go away".

[dsjgenius]

well iwas thinking maybe the whole concept of the HIDE could be manifested in the idea that children view their blankets as an association with their parents and thus tend to think they are protective.

 

for most children parents tuck the child into bed with the blanket and then the child feels he/she safe. so what i was thinking is tha for human babies and then children take the blankets and their rooms as THE SAFE PLACE as they closely associate these places and objects to thier parents-the ultimate figure of protection.

 

Originally quoted by YT

the Ostritch has a similar "defense" as coined in the saying "Burying your head in the sand" working on the principal that if you can`t see IT... IT can`t see you either

 

Well YT you are probably right about the basic animal instinct but what i'm more interested in is how this basic animal instinct came to exist??

[ed84c]

I would imagine it comes from simply tricking your subconcious into THINKING your safe, when your actually not and you then become less scared.

 

 

Another good example is when watching people walking on "High wires", like school groups and the like. They are securly attatched to the top wire, however are 60ft up. Still even though it makes no benefit to them, people hold the rope that is coming from their harness at the back. Subconciously you now know your holding onto something and are safe, although conciously you knew you were attatched in the first place, and therefore could never fall.

[Mokele]

the Ostritch has a similar "defense" as coined in the saying "Burying your head in the sand" working on the principal that if you can`t see IT... IT can`t see you either

 

Actually, that's a myth; they "hide" by laying down on the ground behind dunes and such with their neck flat on the ground. Should that fail, they run or fight (and their kicks are easily lethal).

 

Well YT you are probably right about the basic animal instinct but what i'm more interested in is how this basic animal instinct came to exist??

 

What, hiding? Simple genetic programming governing nervous system development. Individuals with genotypes that resulted in hiding from predators survived better, and thus the trait became fixed.

 

Mokele