Synonyms
Definition
The Fight-Flight-Freeze system is a neurobehavioral system postulated to mediate defensive responses to unconditioned and conditioned threat stimuli, and is subjectively associated with the emotion of fear. It is one of the three systems postulated in the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) of personality.
Introduction
The fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS) is one of the three affective-motivational systems postulated in revised Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (r-RST; Gray and McNaughton 2000), a biological account of personality. The FFFS is activated in response to perceived threat, mediates reactions to aversive stimuli, and is subjectively experienced as fear. As a negative feedback system that seeks equilibrium through the reduction of immediate threat, FFFS behavioral responses share the function of moving the organism away from threat (Corr 2008). Specifically, as the defensive distance between an...
References
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Donahue, J.J. (2017). Fight-Flight-Freeze System. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_751-1
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