Children's and Adults' Understanding of the Feeling Experience of Courage

Abstract

Children's and adults' feeling experience of courage was investigated using an interview technique for younger children and an open-ended questionnaire method for adolescents and adults. There were 80 subjects in four age groups, 6, 9, 14 years, and adults, with 20 subjects and equal numbers of males and females per age group. Six-year-olds described courage in terms of an internal state corresponding to behaviour, whereas with increasing age courage was described as a multifaceted internal state experience, centring on fear and overcoming fear. Increasingly with age, subjects believed that control over the complex experience of courage could be gained by psychological strategies, such as concentrating on one's abilities and allowing all one's feelings and thoughts. Child age groups viewed courageous activity in terms of physical risk-taking but older subjects focused on psychological risk-taking. Results are interpreted in terms of an increasingly mentalistic understanding of courage.