ABSTRACT
A living creature observing a phenomenon for the first time is naturally apprehensive. The child’s emotion regarding a situation depends upon the meaning he attaches to it, and when a phenomenon is entirely new, the instinct of fear dominates that scene. The slightest indication of approval or distaste by a parent or domestic may arouse a notion in a young child which to the uninitiated observer appears self-originated. The explanation of many predilections and dislikes is simply that the taste of the adult is due to pleasurable or painful impressions made upon the child by an individual experience which is long since forgotten. Neuroses, bashfulness, and social dread, also have other origins. Social dread is often inculcated in childhood as part of respect for propriety, but more often it arises in a social reaction among the inexperienced, who are assuming relationships of which they are uncertain, and betray timidity because not sure of themselves.
